Plantations of opium poppies or cannabis will be destroyed, according to the Taliban leadership, and offenders will be punished under Islamic law. Afghanistan produces a lot of opium and cannabis. According to figures from 2021, the country accounts for 90 percent of all illegal heroin. The United Nations warned in November that poppy cultivation has continued to grow since the Taliban took power in August.
a lot of land
In Afghanistan, it is estimated that more land is used for the production of poppies than the land area used in all of Latin America for the production of coca (plants). A few years ago, more people in Afghanistan were employed in poppy cultivation than in the security forces.
The Taliban’s founder, the mullah Mohammed Omar, successfully combated poppy cultivation during his reign of terror (1976-2001), when almost all opiate cultivation disappeared in the Taliban-dominated areas. With the fall of his regime after the US invasion in 2001, the fight against heroin was over. The Taliban started financing their terror with drugs and drug lords became prominent members of the Taliban movement. Over the years, the Taliban have lost control of some of the local warlords and the country has started to produce more and more heroin. In addition, it has also become one of the largest producers of cannabis in the meantime.