
Data from Alcis shows that a majority of Afghan farmers switched from growing poppy to wheat in a single year
Mint Press: Taliban’s Massively Successful Opium Eradication Raises Questions About What US Was Doing All Along
The Taliban government in Afghanistan – the nation that until recently produced 90% of the world’s heroin – has drastically reduced opium cultivation across the country. Western sources estimate an up to 99% reduction in some provinces. This raises serious questions about the seriousness of U.S. drug eradication efforts in the country over the past 20 years. And, as global heroin supplies dry up, experts tell MintPress News that they fear this could spark the growing use of fentanyl – a drug dozens of times stronger than heroin that already kills more than 100,000 Americans yearly.
The Taliban Does What the US Did Not
It has already been called “the most successful counter-narcotics effort in human history.” Armed with little more than sticks, teams of counter-narcotics brigades travel the country, cutting down Afghanistan’s poppy fields.
In April of last year, the ruling Taliban government announced the prohibition of poppy farming, citing both their strong religious beliefs and the extremely harmful social costs that heroin and other opioids – derived from the sap of the poppy plant – have wrought across Afghanistan.
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WNU Editor: How is it that the U.S., after spending years and billions to eradicate Afghanistan’s opium production, completely failed …. but the Taliban, with no money and armed with little more than sticks, succeeded within a year.
I think the answer is obvious. Past Western-backed Afghan governments and the U.S. were not serious in eradicating Afghanistan’s poppy fields