So Kabul has fallen...And so has Afghanistan.

[Hekate]

39. IIRC back before we invaded, the Taliban rigorously suppressed growing poppies for opium...

IIRC back before we invaded, the Taliban rigorously suppressed growing poppies for opium…

Yes, they did. It was on religious grounds. And being the Taliban, yes it was a rigorous suppression. I forget where opium production shifted to, but it shifted away from Afghanistan. Heroin addiction went down, as opium was less abundant.

Funny thing about that though, poor farmers are thrifty folk, and the farmers of that dry soil planned ahead: they buried sacks of seed beneath their floors.

When the US invaded, poor farmers were still poor. Their annual incomes were so low that an intelligent invader who didn’t want opium production to resume on economic grounds could have easily subsidized each and every farmer to produce something else, or even just stay home. But no, who even thinks like that?

So out came the seeds. It is a cash crop where there are few other cash crops and it grows readily where other crops struggle. (As far as I know, heroin was and is produced elsewhere.)

At the time of the rather comprehensive article I read (WaPo or NY Times, probably 2003) opium had started to trickle out of the country. Addiction was starting to rise in the neighboring countries, and some addicts were making their way to border cities for easier access. Heroin production resumed and shipments to Europe and the US were on their way.