News Forum - Afghanistan opium trade booms since Taliban takeover

[Thaiger]

The cultivation of opium poppy as a medicinal plant has a long tradition in Afghanistan. The milky sap extracted from the seed pods is dried to produce raw opium, an effective remedy for severe pain. Today, opium is used primarily as an intoxicant and as a raw material for the production of stronger drugs like heroin. In the last harvest season, which ended in July, an estimated 6,800 tons of opium were produced in Afghanistan. This was an 8% increase over 2020, according to a recent report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). According to the report, […]

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[HolyCowCm]

Of course they won’t stop it. Everything evil is what these a-holes are about and the money is huge for them. 

[Faraday]

Afghanistan has been producing 90% of the world's Opium since 2007.

Ahmed Wali Karzai, President Hamid Karzai’s brother,was a big Opium producer

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/world/asia/05afghan.html

https://www.urd.org/en/project/opium-poppy-production-in-afghanistan/

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-16/afghan-opium-production-rises-for-a-fifth-year-un-report-says

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/afghanistan-papers/afghanistan-war-opium-poppy-production/

C'mon Thaiger News, try posting accurate information.

Kap....

[HiuMak]

8 hours ago, Thaiger said:

The cultivation of opium poppy as a medicinal plant has a long tradition in Afghanistan. The milky sap extracted from the seed pods is dried to produce raw opium, an effective remedy for severe pain. Today, opium is used primarily as an intoxicant and as a raw material for the production of stronger drugs like heroin. In the last harvest season, which ended in July, an estimated 6,800 tons of opium were produced in Afghanistan. This was an 8% increase over 2020, according to a recent report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). According to the report, […]

The story Afghanistan opium trade booms since Taliban takeover as seen on Thaiger News.

Read the full story

where else can they get easy money?

[Stardust]

9 hours ago, HolyCowCm said:

Of course they won’t stop it. Everything evil is what these a-holes are about and the money is huge for them. 

Like in all dictatorship countries this is their business model

[AlexPTY]

some countries have oil, some gas, some produce fentanyl, some opium. you have to do the best with what you can produce. have to agree with @Faradaystop biasing the facts

[LoongFred]

Well they are probably selling advance military hardware that Biden left behind for them. 

Buy a load of opium and get a tank to boot. 

 

[PBS]

47 minutes ago, LoongFred said:

Well they are probably selling advance military hardware that Biden left behind for them. 

Buy a load of opium and get a tank to boot. 

All US administrations failed to address the heroin trade in Afghanistan; including trump. Taliban will have a major issue trying to maintain US military hardware and supplies. Remember Biden extended the original timeline trump agreed to withdraw US forces. US multi billion intelligence structure also failed the Biden admin.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/02/21/watchdog-trumps-afghanistan-strategy-fails-prioritize-drug-trade/4611475002/

Edited December 11, 2021 by PBS

[Poolie]

4 minutes ago, PBS said:

All US administrations failed to address the heroin trade in Afghanistan; including trump. 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/02/21/watchdog-trumps-afghanistan-strategy-fails-prioritize-drug-trade/4611475002/

Give them a chance. They only had twenty years.

[23RD]

There's a shock the Military wanted to destroy the Poppy fields and smash the largest producer of heroin to Europe for 20 years and the do gooder civil servants and Politicians wouldn't allow it (their the real criminals).

 

[HolyCowCm]

7 hours ago, Stardust said:

Like in all dictatorship countries this is their business model

I think illegal ways to fund things have been in every countries tool shed at one time or the other.

[Convert54]

First I have heard of the Taliban being in control before the end of the poppy harvest in July !

[Convert54]

This item gives a rather different perspective !        https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-25/taliban-afghanistan-heroin-opium-poppy-production/100402010

 

 

[Rain]

Business is business - folks have to make a living....

 

Guess it's more rational than running around the world extending empire - in a variety of forms.

[Poolie]

Far few people die as well.

[PBS]

4 hours ago, 23RD said:

There's a shock the Military wanted to destroy the Poppy fields and smash the largest producer of heroin to Europe for 20 years and the do gooder civil servants and Politicians wouldn't allow it (their the real criminals).

Destroying poppy fields without providing alternate secure farming source of income would have been counter productive. However,...

 

Washington spent an estimated $8.6 billion between 2002 and 2017 to throttle Afghanistan's drug trade in order to deny the Taliban funds, according to a 2018 SIGAR report. Apart from poppy eradication, the United States and allies backed interdiction raids and alternative crop programs, airstrikes on suspected heroin labs and other measures.

Those efforts "didn't really have much success," retired U.S. Army General Joseph Votel, who commanded U.S. Central Command from 2016-2019, told Reuters.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/profits-poppy-afghanistans-illegal-drug-trade-boon-taliban-2021-08-16/

 

[Poolie]

So they bombed the labs and didn't slow production down at all? You'd think they would have realized...over 15 years and 8.6bn. Are they slow on the uptake or what?

[Stonker]

7 hours ago, LoongFred said:

Well they are probably selling advance military hardware that Biden left behind for them. 

Buy a load of opium and get a tank to boot. 

The vast majority of the "advance military hardware" was Russian, including the helicopters - readily available on the open market.

[Stonker]

14 hours ago, HiuMak said:

where else can they get easy money?

I think you mean 'where else can they get any money.'

[mcambl61]

let's go brandon...

[longwood50]

I think Russia is sending a list of military weapons to Hunter Biden to notify Joe Biden what to bring to leave behind.