Opium production in Afghanistan has plummeted since the Taliban banned cultivation of the poppy plant, according to a UN report published on Sunday.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers pledged to wipe out the country’s drug industry, banning poppy cultivation in April 2022.
Poppy plants are the source of opium and heroin. Afghanistan was the world’s biggest opium producer and a major source for heroin in Europe and Asia before the Taliban takeover.
They managed to do what the Americans haven’t managed in two decades. As much as I hate the taliban for being religious extremists, they did a good thing with this one.
It’s not about religion.
When we entered Afghanistan we actually forced farmers to make poppy to sell to drug companies. We’re cheering this but what it means is a likely short supply of morphine in the coming years.
I imagine they use a type of Islamic justice to punish anyone that breaks this law. It’s hard to run a farm when your workers have no hands. Believe it or not the US really was attempting to provide stability in the region (amongst other things), and yes we did many terrible things while we were there, we eventually we realized the futility of the situation.
For those who lack understanding of why it’s has such strategical significance, here’s a bit from Wikipedia:
Afghanistan is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordered by Pakistan to the east and south, Iran to the west, Turkmenistan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, Tajikistan to the northeast, and China to the northeast and east.
So of course tensions run high. But they haven’t had a single century of stability since… checks notes…
• Hotak dynasty 1709–1738
• Durrani Empire 1747–1823
• Emirate 1823–1839
• Restoration of the Durrani Kingdom 1839–1842
• Restoration of the Emirate 1842–1926
• Dost Mohammad unites Afghanistan 27 May 1863
• Anglo-Afghan Agreement 26 May 1879
• Independence 19 August 1919
• Kingdom 9 June 1926
• Republic 17 July 1973
• Democratic Republic 27–28 April 1978
• Islamic State 28 April 1992
• Islamic Emirate 27 September 1996
• Islamic Republic 26 January 2004
• Restoration of Islamic Emirate 15 August 2021
At least a few centuries.
Yes we committed atrocities in the name of the “war on terror” but it seems people forget the country is now run by The Taliban and it seems like there’s a lot of support for them. This group of militant nationalists who believe women should only be there to bear children, raise children, and if those children are female? rinse and repeat. Dress how you want or attempt to learn something not directly related to wifely/motherly duties? That’s a lashing. Do it multiple times? That’s an honor killing.
It blows my mind how quickly auth-leftists in the west who froth at the mouth over christo-fascists don’t realize that this is the Muslim version of that but with actual government power.
It’s everything they hate, yet there’s praise for their actions despite it being blatant religious authoritarianism.
Making something part of your identity that you don’t truly comprehend, just because all your friends are doing it. A tale as old as time.
Well, maybe. I think some pre-tech civilizations had it more figured out than others. Many Inuit and Native American tribes seem to have known a thing or two about raising intelligent, confrontation-adverse, self-reliant humans as quickly as possible, out of necessity. There was a study I read some time in the last decade that made some solid points about pre-agricultural societies likely being more egalitarian. Also out of necessity I would imagine. However we also have documented evidence that this is not always the case, see this amazing video of first contact -
.
Edit: for some reason the YouTube video link isn’t showing up. https://youtu.be/xd0I1xAICOc
They ran the country before we got there, too.
Turns out Afghans just have a terrible culture.
And Hitler built the Autobahn, he’s my hero too!
A mostly unrelated but interesting historical fact about America is that the US interstate highway system is only as awesome as it is because of the need to transport supplies, troops, etc. between military bases and across the country. In fact, the original name was “Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.”
It also kinda derailed (metaphorically) our future train system, and I’m sure that’s partly why it’s in such a sad state of disrepair at the moment. we might be less reliant on cars in the US if we had better nationwide train systems and local shares transport (busses etc).
I assume the Autobahn was similar - a way to get through that stretch quickly?
Yeah of course, with the full backing of Sharia to make it happen. Authoritarians are usually highly effective, the problem is that they’ll most likely control the supply by growing their own and then collaborate with cartels to turn it into a profit source.
The royal family of Saudi Arabia is a bunch of coke addicted alcoholics but you get killed for using drugs there (unless you run the place.) It isn’t about morality for them and it won’t be for the Taliban.
America wasn’t trying to stop opium production, we were using druglords to beat warlords. The brother of the leader we installed was the kingpin.
They opened the door for even more fentanyl to take the place of actual heroin, something that will cost countless lives. I’m having trouble seeing how that is a good thing.
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What about before the US invasion? Was opium allowed by Taliban then?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanistan
Poorly enforced restrictions in the 1990s were a prelude to a full and very effective ban on religious grounds in 2000. The Afghan war in 2001 meant that the ban was only briefly effective.
The Taliban made most of their money on opium sales from 2001-2021.
True, to fight the war.
It seems however, during peacetime, they have a history of banning the drug trade for religious reasons
The United States blocked grain shipments to Afghanistan because Republicans didn’t want any more competition to US farmers. So they grew poppies.
It was cotton
It’s always cotton.
Bold move.
If you can dodge a cotton gin, you can dodge a heroin addiction
I doubt Pfizer will be happy about this news.
Honestly I’m more focused on how the drug cartels will react to this one
continue selling fentanyl
Islam will be the only opium of the people!
God I’d rather just die
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Gotta love Reagan era foreign policy, the worst religious extremist is better than the best atheist.
The UNODC said the Taliban crackdown on the poppy industry could have a negative impact on many Afghans’ livelihoods and warned of "humanitarian consequences for many vulnerable rural communities.
So to stop growing drugs is a bad thing now?
“jobs tho”
I’m sure they will be able to farm other things… like food.
We never stopped it for a reason during all the time the US was there. You need to establish an alternative income for the farmers. They grow poppy because it feeds their families. Ironically the big profits were only seen by the Taliban and not the actual farmers.
Now the farmers can’t just switch to almonds or other high value crops instantly so they will go broke. And many of the US attempts to fund the transition away from poppies were corrupted by Afghan government, making farmers move back to poppies.
That’s a valid point, though the article sounds like cultivation was going on during the the time the Taliban wasn’t in control and is now being banned by them.
I have no doubt that the actual farmers got nothing of value in either regimes though.
I’d like to share this poignant scene from the movie War Machine.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
scene from the movie War Machine
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
20 years of US occupation and almost 50k civilian deaths and its worse than before, sounds about right.
The main takeaway is this backwards country cannot be fixed by anyone and shouldn’t be supported
Thats kinda rough. America sucks but I am sure it can be fixed if americans want to fix it
I am doubtful. The powers that be are simply resting their legs on the American people. I imagine if we actually pushed back they might start unfolding the real weapons of oppression. Once upon a time we fought the robber barron’s and won. Not sure it will be so simple the next time.
Women in Kabul in the 1970s:
Looks to me like it was fixed just fine before it was broken.
everyone always posting pictures of Persian women in the 70s wearing western clothing and claiming it was better… you are looking at a very small sliver of the population who are wealthy
They’re not Persian women, they’re Afghani. And it was better for them because they could wear whatever they wanted, go to school and listen to music.
And it lasted all of, what, a decade? For an extremely small, wealthy elite minority of the population. The vast, vast majority were still rural, and I assure you they didn’t build a national rural system of education and culture in that decade.
1965 - The Afghan Communist Party secretly forms. The group’s principal leaders are Babrak Karmal and Nur Mohammad Taraki.
1973 - Khan overthrows the last king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, in a military coup. Khan’s regime, the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan, comes to power. Khan abolishes the monarchy and names himself president. The Republic of Afghanistan is established with firm ties to the USSR.
1975-1977 - Khan proposes a new constitution that grants women rights and works to modernize the largely communist state. He also cracks down on opponents, forcing many suspected of not supporting Khan out of the government.
1978 - Khan is killed in a communist coup. Nur Mohammad Taraki, one of the founding members of the Afghan Communist Party, takes control of the country as president, and Babrak Karmal is named deputy prime minister. They proclaim independence from Soviet influence, and declare their policies to be based on Islamic principles, Afghan nationalism and socioeconomic justice. Taraki signs a friendship treaty with the Soviet Union. But a rivalry between Taraki and Hafizullah Amin, another influential communist leader, leads to fighting between the two sides.
At the same time, conservative Islamic and ethnic leaders who objected to social changes introduced by Khan begin an armed revolt in the countryside. In June, the guerrilla movement Mujahadeen is created to battle the Soviet-backed government.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/asia-jan-june11-timeline-afghanistan
I’m well aware.
Still same shit, (slightly) different country.
Still very few privileged people.
Imagine if these opium farmers showed pictures of yachts and said this is America?
This wasn’t what life looked like on the farm.
It’s complicated. Afghanistan had made hydro projects with the West back in the day. Those pushed salt up the water table. Guess what plant is fine with that saltier soil?
Drugs are medicine. The fact that drugs can be abused does not make them something bad in general. For many pain patients around the world opioids are simply a necessity.
The loss of income many afghan farmers will suffer from losing their most important cash crop will be significant. Add the fact that economically, Afghanistan is already a poor country. Obviously no more poppy farming will make people´s lives even worse.
Lack of opium poppies being grown just means more synthetic fentanyl being produced. It doesn’t do a thing to hinder drug use by those who need it/seek it out.
It doesn’t do a thing to hinder drug use by those who need it/seek it out.
I never implied it would …
I was either adding on to your comment or meant to reply to someone else, don’t remember, but wasn’t debating.
Apologies, I was not entirely sure about your comment from the beginning.
It’s also going to raise prices for opiate based pharmaceuticals like morphine and it’s also going to raise prices for opioid pharmaceuticals because it’s people in great pain that’ll have to endure the cost.
Only when enemies of America do it. After all, won’t somebody think of big pharmas profits?
It’s alright, just hike the price of some drug no other company produces by 9001%. What’s the gubmint gonna do, regulate prices?
Considering Street Fentanyl and Carfentanyl yeah. Believe it or not ( I can’t believe I am saying this) plant based opiates are weaker and therefore safer than the synthetic stuff. The removal of the weaker stuff leads to an increase in risk for addiction to synthetic opiates across the world
Times a changin’ old man better keep up before you get left behind.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Opium production in Afghanistan has plummeted since the Taliban banned cultivation of the poppy plant, according to a UN report published on Sunday.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers pledged to wipe out the country’s drug industry, banning poppy cultivation in April 2022.
Afghanistan was the world’s biggest opium producer and a major source for heroin in Europe and Asia before the Taliban takeover.
The UNODC said the Taliban crackdown on the poppy industry could have a negative impact on many Afghans’ livelihoods and warned of “humanitarian consequences for many vulnerable rural communities.”
“Today, Afghanistan’s people need urgent humanitarian assistance… to absorb the shock of lost income and save lives,” UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly said.
Afghanistan has already been grappling with a severe humanitarian crisis sparked by decades of war, as well as natural disasters such as earthquakes and droughts.
The original article contains 453 words, the summary contains 138 words. Saved 70%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Who would have thought.
At first glance, I thought this was a picture of a soldier frolicking through the poppies.
good for you
I don’t see why they would do that.
Don’t they like money?
Drugs, goods and bads, are haram
Commenting to save
*I get why you’re downvoting but I had to make this comment to save the post because for some reason the save function isn’t working for me and I wanted to load it on another device.
