NEW DELHI: The insurgents turned rulers of Afghanistan outlawed the cultivation of opium flowers on Sunday. The decree also banned the use, sale, transfer, purchase, import and export of wine as well as heroin and other drugs.
The move will have far-reaching consequences for the many farmers who turned to the illicit crop amid the nation’s brutal drought and economic crisis.
Many farmers had planted the crop — which can be stored for some time after harvesting — as an investment. They anticipated dwindling supply and rising prices, though they knew the Taliban could move to restrict cultivation. The Taliban’s announcement on Sunday came during the poppy harvest.
Context: Afghanistan accounts for about 80 percent of the world’s supply of opium.
Background: In the 1990s, the Taliban made several halfhearted attempts to restrict opium before enacting a ban on the cultivation of opium poppies shortly before the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001, after which the Taliban turned to the crop to fuel their war machine for two decades.
###
