The Taliban have launched an impressive new war on drugs

Before the Taliban seized power in August
2021, the illicit trade in opium, a gum
produced from poppies, helped pay for their
insurgency. The mullahs encouraged
farmers to plant poppies and taxed the trade.
But drugs are deemed haram (prohibited)
under Islamic law. Shortly after taking power
the Taliban's supreme leader, Hibatullah
Akhundzada, banned narcotics. And
stunning recent evidence from across the
Country's opium belt in the south and east
suggests he meant it.
According to satellite imagery from Alcis, a
British firm, poppy cultivation in the
southern province of Helmand, where most
of the crop is groWn, fell from over 120,000
hectares in April 2022 to less than 1,oo0
hectares a year later. Anti-poppy units are
patrolling the province, meting out the
treatment Mr Mohammad received. The
results in Nangarhar province, another big
producer, are similar. Only 865 hectares are
under poppies now, compared with over
7,000 hectares in 2022.

It will be harder to eliminate poppies in
remoter regions, such as Badakhshan in the
north-east. Still, the results thus far point to
a dramatic success. David Mansfield, a
researcher who has studied Afghanistan's
illicit economy for over 25 years, reckons
Afghanistan's poppy production will drop by
80% between 2022 and 2023.
It is hard to exaggerate how bold this is.
When the Taliban took over, Afghanistan
produced 85% of the world's opium.
According to UN estimates, the crop and
related drug trade provideda total income of
$1.8bn-2.7bn in 2021, equivalent to 9-14 % of
GDP. That was more than official exports of
goods and services. Around 450,000
Afghans were employed in the opium trade.

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