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Afghanistan

Taliban's Massively Successful Opium Eradication Raises Questions About What US Was Doing All Along

2023-08-13

[ZERO] The Taliban government in Afghanistan — the nation that until recently produced 90% of the world’s heroin — has drastically reduced opium cultivation across the country. Western sources estimate an up to 99% reduction in some provinces. This raises serious questions about the seriousness of U.S. drug eradication efforts in the country over the past 20 years. And, as global heroin supplies dry up, experts tell MintPress News that they fear this could spark the growing use of fentanyl — a drug dozens of times stronger than heroin that already kills more than 100,000 Americans yearly.

THE TALIBAN DOES WHAT THE US DID NOT
It has already been called "the most successful counter-narcotics effort in human history." Armed with little more than sticks, teams of counter-narcotics brigades travel the country, cutting down Afghanistan’s poppy fields.

In April of last year, the ruling Taliban government announced the prohibition of poppy farming, citing both their strong religious beliefs and the extremely harmful social costs that heroin and other opioids — derived from the sap of the poppy plant — have wrought across Afghanistan.

It has not been all bluster. New research from geospatial data company Alcis suggests that poppy production has already plummeted by around 80% since last year. Indeed, satellite imagery shows that in Helmand Province, the area that produces more than half of the crop, poppy production has dropped by a staggering 99%. Just 12 months ago, poppy fields were dominant. But Alcis estimates that there are now less than 1,000 hectares of poppy growing in Helmand.

Instead, farmers are planting wheat, helping stave off the worst of a famine that U.S. sanctions helped create. Afghanistan is still in a perilous state, however, with the United Nations warning that six million people are close to starvation.

Posted by:Besoeker

#9 I seem to recall that some years ago the warehouses were bursting with product, part of the reason why the Af-Pak opium gangs had switched to refining opium to make heroin — the other part being less bulk and therefore greater portability. But if the warehouses are still overfull, that’s a good reason to pause production until stores are reduced a bit, and to get credit in the outside world for doing good works at a time when the Taliban desperately want to be recognized as a proper government...

Posted by: trailing wife 2023-08-13 20:35

#8 A photo of 3 turbans waving sticks and the opium crop is eradicated. Miraculous.

Posted by: Ululating Platypus 2023-08-13 18:38

#7 They just don't need the Opium production any more, now that they have control.

Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2023-08-13 18:06

#6 "This raises serious questions about the seriousness of U.S. drug eradication efforts in the country over the past 20 years."

Heck, I have serious questions about the seriousness of almost every U. S. government action over the past 20 years.

Posted by: Tom 2023-08-13 14:11

#5 Stalin is wearing a black turban. Implementing a government directed economy run by Koran memorizing negates where all the infrastructure has collapsed will work just great.

Posted by: Super Hose 2023-08-13 13:57

#4 It's a double bonus, new source of wheat for China to replace lost Ukranian production and limiting availability of heroin pushes more to users fentanyl

Posted by: jefe101 2023-08-13 13:29

#3 You could say that U S. Sanctions caused famine. So the Taliban had to brutally force opium growers to switch to wheat so the populace won't starve.

That's what the article says.

Posted by: Penguin_of_the_Desert 2023-08-13 12:15

#2 It’s been reported here that they protect the opium gangs, it being a longstanding income stream for them. So when they tell the farmers to plant opium, it happens; when they tell the opium farmers not to plant opium, that happens, too.

Posted by: trailing wife 2023-08-13 10:01

#1 Are the people at Zero Clue that stupid, or do they think that we are?

The Taliban method is simple, they just kill anyone who doesn't do as told. They probably kill a whole family just to reinforce their point.

Posted by: EMS Artifact 2023-08-13 09:07

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