KABUL, Afghanistan (Washington Insider Magazine) – Even as farmers in certain regions of the nation began collecting the opium from the crop needed to make heroin, Afghanistan’s controlling Taliban issued a prohibition on harvesting poppies on Sunday.
Farmers have been told by the Taliban that if they reap their crops, their harvests would be destroyed and they will be imprisoned. Seasons for planting and harvesting differ from region to region in Afghanistan. Harvesting has begun in the Taliban region of southern Kandahar, while other farmers in the nation’s east are only starting to grow their crops.
The restriction is guaranteed to severely burden Afghanistan’s poorest inhabitants at a point when the nation is in free fall economically.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid revealed the decree at a news briefing in Kabul, the Afghan capital. According to ABC NEWS, the directive also made it illegal to manufacture drugs and transport, sell, import, and export alcohol, heroin, and hashish.
The restriction is reminiscent of the Taliban’s previous administration in the late 1990s, when the organisation, which endorses a strict interpretation of Islam, forbade the cultivation of poppies. The prohibition was enacted nationally within 2 years at the time, and according to the United Nations, it aided in the eradication of poppy production.
Farmers in various sections of the nation reverted to poppy farming after the Taliban were defeated in 2001. Poppies are the primary sources of livelihood of local farmers and day workers, who may make up to $300 per month growing and extracting opium from them.
Despite billions spent by the international organizations to eradicate the narcotic over its 20-year presence in Afghanistan, Afghanistan is now the world’s leading producer of opium. Afghanistan generated more than 6,000 tonnes of opium in 2021, before the Taliban took control, with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimating that 320 tonnes of pure heroin could be manufactured.
Afghanistan provides more opium than all other opium-producing nations combined, with record opium harvests for the sixth year in a row.
During the Taliban’s years-long war, the group is said to have collected millions of dollars by charging farmers and middlemen who moved narcotics outside of Afghanistan. Senior leaders in the US-backed regime are also said to have profited handsomely from the booming drug trade.
During the almost 20-year war in Afghanistan, which concluded in August with the Taliban taking control of the nation, the US spent over $8 billion trying to bring down poppy production.
Nearly 80% of heroin made from Afghan opium makes its way to Europe via Pakistan and Central Asia.
According to a United Nations estimate from 2021, Afghanistan’s opium revenue was between $1.8 billion and $2.7 billion, accounting for more than 7% of the nation’s GDP. “Illicit drug supply chains outside Afghanistan” profit far more, according to the same research.
The Taliban’s embargo comes as Afghanistan suffers a humanitarian catastrophe that prompted the United Nations to request $4.4 billion in aid last month, citing the fact that 95 percent of Afghans are hungry.
While the prohibition would wreak havoc on pharma companies, it will wreak havoc on local producers who depend on opium trade for survival. It’s impossible to predict how the Taliban will be able to grow alternative crops and provide finance to farmers now that Western development aid has ceased.
The hope of next year’s poppy harvest is frequently used by Afghanistan’s poorest to purchase essentials such as sugar, bread, heating oil, and cooking oil.
The Taliban used mosque clerics and village elders to enforce the prohibition when they were in power. The Taliban detained clerics, elders, and offending farmers in communities that disobeyed the ban.
