Opium production in Afghanistan

Afghanistan has long had a history of opium poppy cultivation and harvest. As of 2021, Afghanistan's harvest produces more than 90% of illicit heroin globally, and more than 95% of the European supply.^[1][2] More land is used for opium in Afghanistan than is used for coca cultivation in Latin America. The country has been the world's leading illicit drug producer since 2001.^[3] In 2007, 93% of the non-pharmaceutical-grade opiates on the world market originated in Afghanistan.^[4] By 2019 Afghanistan still produced about 84% of the world market.^[5] This amounts to an export value of about US$4 billion, with a quarter being earned by opium farmers and the rest going to district officials, insurgents, warlords, and drug traffickers.^[6] In the seven years (1994–2000) prior to a Taliban opium ban, the Afghan farmers' share of gross income from opium was divided among 200,000 families.^[7]

The Taliban have taken mixed stances on opium over the years. 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.^[8] The opium trade spiked in 2006 after the Taliban lost control of local warlords. Despite having previously banned opium, the Taliban used opium money to fuel their two-decade campaign to retake Afghanistan,^[8] with Taliban allegedly earning up to 60% of their annual revenue from the trade.^[9] The then Afghan government also outlawed production, but despite help from coalition military forces to tamp down on drug trafficking, the ban did little to stop production. After the Fall of Kabul in 2021, the opium trade boomed, and most farmers planted at least some opium for harvest in spring 2022. The Taliban outlawed production again in April 2022, during the poppy harvest.^[8] In November 2023, a U.N report showed that in the entirety of Afghanistan, poppy cultivation dropped by over 95%, removing it from its place as being the world's largest opium producer. In 2023, U.N declared that the Chin State and Sagaing Region of Myanmar produce harvested poppy surpassing Afghanistan. The rise of poppy cultivation has extended up to Manipur, an Indian state. There are reports that financing kuki-chin militants come form poppy export.^[10][11]