Quote:
Originally Posted by dewilson58
Now:
Taliban mulls flooding the West with heroin to shore up Afghan economy
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The following paragraph is from the Wikipedia article “Opium Production in Afghanistan”:
“Afghanistan has been the world's leading illicit drug producer since 2001.[1] Afghanistan's opium poppy harvest produces more than 90% of illicit heroin globally, and more than 95% of the European supply.[2][3] More land is used for opium in Afghanistan than is used for coca cultivation in Latin America. 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] As of 2017, opium production provides about 400,000 jobs in Afghanistan, more than the Afghan National Security Forces.[8] The opium trade spiked in 2006 after the Taliban lost control of local warlords. In addition to opium, Afghanistan is also the world's leading producer of hashish.”
Production in 2020 was up 37% over 2019, but the biggest year was 2017.
https://www.unodc.org/documents/crop...2020_SMALL.pdf
If people aren’t living in war zones, then we can expect opium production to increase, but we can also expect the price the farmers receive per kilo to decrease. According to the web site OECworld (observatory of Economic Complexity), “ The top exports of Afghanistan are Gold ($968M), Grapes ($214M), Insect Resins ($129M), Other Nuts ($113M), and Tropical Fruits ($97.4M), exporting mostly to United Arab Emirates ($1B), Pakistan ($544M), India ($485M), United States ($35.6M), and China ($29.1M).” Opium brings in far more money every year than all of their other exports combined, so of course they will grow as much as possible because they will have a desperate need for money. Bear in mind that a huge percentage of that opium is used to make Morphine, Codeine, and other non-synthetic opioids for medical purposes.