Afghan farmers lose income of more than $1 billion after the Taliban banned poppy cultivation
1 year, 1 month ago

Afghan farmers lose income of more than $1 billion after the Taliban banned poppy cultivation

Associated Press  

ISLAMABAD — Afghan farmers have lost income of more than $1 billion from opium sales after the Taliban outlawed poppy cultivation, according to a report from the U.N. drugs agency published Sunday. Afghans need urgent humanitarian assistance to meet their most immediate needs, absorb the shock of lost income and save lives, said UNODC executive director, Ghada Waly. A September report from the UNODC said that Afghanistan is the world’s fastest-growing maker of methamphetamine, with seizures of the synthetic drug increasing as poppy cultivation shrinks. Lower incomes along the opiate supply chain could stimulate other illegal activities like the trafficking of arms, people or synthetic drugs, the most recent UNODC report said.

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History of this topic

UN drug experts say opium production has leveled off in Myanmar, but instability may trigger a rise
1 week, 5 days ago

UN drug experts say opium production has leveled off in Myanmar, but instability may trigger a rise

Associated Press  

BANGKOK — There has been a slight drop in the production of opium in Myanmar, the world’s biggest source of the illicit drug from which heroin is derived, experts from the United Nations said Thursday, while warning of strong prospects for future expansion of the deadly trade. The Myanmar Opium Survey 2024 issued by the United Nations Office on Drugs …

Myanmar overtakes Afghanistan as world's biggest opium producer: UN
1 year ago

Myanmar overtakes Afghanistan as world's biggest opium producer: UN

Hindustan Times  

Myanmar became the world's biggest producer of opium in 2023, overtaking Afghanistan after the Taliban government's crackdown on the trade, according to a United Nations report released on Tuesday. The figures come after opium production in Afghanistan slumped an estimated 95 percent to around 330 tonnes following the Taliban's ban on poppy cultivation in April last year, according to UNODC. …

War-wracked Myanmar is now the world’s top opium producer, surpassing Afghanistan, says UN agency
1 year ago

War-wracked Myanmar is now the world’s top opium producer, surpassing Afghanistan, says UN agency

Associated Press  

BANGKOK — Myanmar, already wracked by a brutal civil war, has regained the unenviable title of the world’s biggest opium producer, according to a U.N. agency report released Tuesday. The Southeast Asian country’s opium output has topped that of Afghanistan, where the ruling Taliban imposed a ban on its production, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said in …

Myanmar overtakes Afghanistan as world’s top opium producer: UN
1 year ago

Myanmar overtakes Afghanistan as world’s top opium producer: UN

Al Jazeera  

Violent political turmoil in Myanmar in years since 2021 coup has contributed to production increase, new report says. The 95 percent decline in opium cultivation in Afghanistan after a drug ban by the Taliban in 2022 has seen global supply shift to Myanmar, where political, social and economic instability brought about by a 2021 coup drove many to poppy farming, …

Afghan farmers lose income of more than $1 billion after Taliban banned poppy cultivation
1 year, 1 month ago

Afghan farmers lose income of more than $1 billion after Taliban banned poppy cultivation

The Hindu  

Afghan farmers have lost income of more than $1 billion from opium sales after the Taliban outlawed poppy cultivation, according to a report from the UN drugs agency published on Sunday. Afghans need urgent humanitarian assistance to meet their most immediate needs, absorb the shock of lost income and save lives, said UNODC executive director, Ghada Waly. A September report …

Afghan opium poppy cultivation plunges by 95 percent under Taliban: UN
1 year, 1 month ago

Afghan opium poppy cultivation plunges by 95 percent under Taliban: UN

Al Jazeera  

The restriction on poppy cultivation has decimated a key trade for hundreds of thousands of farmers and laborers. Poppy cultivation and opium production have plunged more than 90 percent in Afghanistan since Taliban authorities banned the crop last April, according to a UN report published on Sunday. Poppy cultivation has dropped by around 95 percent – from 233,000 hectares at …

'Afghanistan has become the new meth capital of the world,' UN warns
1 year, 3 months ago

'Afghanistan has become the new meth capital of the world,' UN warns

Firstpost  

Producing meth in Afghanistan offers several advantages over making other drugs like cocaine or heroin as it doesn’t require waiting for crops to grow or a significant amount of land. Meth labs can be mobile and discreet A recent report from the United Nations drug agency reveals that Afghanistan is now the world’s leading producer of methamphetamine. Angela Me, Chief …

Afghanistan is the fastest-growing maker of methamphetamine, UN drug agency says
1 year, 3 months ago

Afghanistan is the fastest-growing maker of methamphetamine, UN drug agency says

Associated Press  

ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan is the world’s fastest-growing maker of methamphetamine, a report from the United Nations drug agency said Sunday. The United Nations’ Office on Drugs and Crimes, which published the report, said meth in Afghanistan is mostly made from legally available substances or extracted from the ephedra plant, which grows in the wild. “But we have a four-year strategic …

Opium cultivation plummets in Afghanistan's Helmand, shows satellite imagery
1 year, 6 months ago

Opium cultivation plummets in Afghanistan's Helmand, shows satellite imagery

India Today  

Satellite imagery has shown a staggering 99% reduction in opium cultivation in Afghanistan's Helmand. In a press release, Alcis Holding Ltd. suggested that in 2023, the Taliban had successfully reduced poppy cultivation by more than 99% in Helmand Province, which previously produced more than 50% of the country's opium. After the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in August 2021, the …

Profits and Poppy: How Afghanistan’s Drug Trade Supports Terrorism
1 year, 10 months ago

Profits and Poppy: How Afghanistan’s Drug Trade Supports Terrorism

News 18  

When the king of Afghanistan visited India in 1919, he met a young businessman in Mumbai, named Ebrahim Sultanali Patanwala, a businessman from Rajasthan, who manufactured perfumes and beauty products. The fact sheet and key findings of the Afghanistan Opium Survey 2021 state that the “production of opiates is arguably Afghanistan’s largest illegal economic activity. Currently, terrorist groups functioning in …

Myanmar opium farming booming after coup: UN
1 year, 10 months ago

Myanmar opium farming booming after coup: UN

The Hindu  

Opium poppy production in Myanmar ramped up dramatically following the 2021 military coup, the UN's drugs office said Thursday, as political and economic turmoil drove farmers to cultivate the crop. The area of land used for opium poppy cultivation expanded by a third to just over 40,000 hectares in 2021-22 — the first full growing season since the coup — …

Legalising Opium Cultivation Will Boost Farmers' Income, Dilute Menace of Synthetic Drugs in Punjab
1 year, 11 months ago

Legalising Opium Cultivation Will Boost Farmers' Income, Dilute Menace of Synthetic Drugs in Punjab

News 18  

As Punjab tries to wriggle out of the grip of the rampant drug menace, the farmers as well as policy-makers have been pushing for legalising opium poppy cultivation, arguing it will increase farmers’ income and help fight against fatal synthetic drugs. Different studies reveal that around 67% of people Punjab are addicted to synthetic drugs like heroin so the state …

Russia offers the Taliban administration in Afghanistan a 'discount' to average global commodity prices
2 years, 2 months ago

Russia offers the Taliban administration in Afghanistan a 'discount' to average global commodity prices

ABC  

The Taliban has signed a provisional deal for Russia to supply petrol, diesel, gas and wheat to Afghanistan, the group's Acting Commerce and Industry Minister Haji Nooruddin Azizi says. Key points: Russia doesn't officially recognise the Taliban's government, but Moscow hosted some of its leaders before of the fall of Kabul Since the Taliban regained power, Afghanistan has been plunged …

AP PHOTOS: Despair and poverty fuel drug use in Afghanistan
2 years, 5 months ago

AP PHOTOS: Despair and poverty fuel drug use in Afghanistan

Associated Press  

KABUL, Afghanistan — Hundreds of men, strung out on heroin, opium and meth, were strewn over the hillside overlooking Kabul, some in tents, some lying in the dirt. “There’s a dead man next to you,” someone told me as I picked my way among them, taking pictures. It appears to only be getting worse since the country’s economy collapsed after …

Afghan Taliban launch campaign to eradicate poppy crop
2 years, 6 months ago

Afghan Taliban launch campaign to eradicate poppy crop

Associated Press  

WASHIR, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have begun a campaign to eradicate poppy cultivation, aiming to wipe out the country’s massive production of opium and heroin, even as farmers fear their livelihoods will be ruined at a time of growing poverty. The Taliban, who took power in Afghanistan more than nine months ago, issued an edict in early April banning …

Poppy cultivation continues in Afghanistan despite Taliban's crackdown on drug trade
2 years, 7 months ago

Poppy cultivation continues in Afghanistan despite Taliban's crackdown on drug trade

India Today  

Afghanistan has a long history of opium poppy cultivation. Ashraf Wani tells more in this ground report from #Afghanistan.#ReporterDiary pic.twitter.com/y03LdGhnN2 — IndiaToday May 10, 2022 Farmers in Northern Afghanistan prefer poppy cultivation as they get four times more returns from production as compared to other crops. Talking to India Today, a farmer said that, due to many folded returns, farmers …

A High for Afghan Drug Syndicate Crackdown: 34 Kg Heroin Recovered from Muzaffarnagar
2 years, 7 months ago

A High for Afghan Drug Syndicate Crackdown: 34 Kg Heroin Recovered from Muzaffarnagar

News 18  

A day after CNN-News18 exposed the blueprint of drug smuggling sleeper cells in India and the Pakistan-Afghanistan link, two peddlers, both residents of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, were caught in Delhi with heroin worth 1 kg brought in with the help of mules from Afghanistan, according to sources. #Breaking | 34 Kg of Heroin gets seized in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar …

Taliban clamp down on drugs, announce ban on poppy harvest
2 years, 8 months ago

Taliban clamp down on drugs, announce ban on poppy harvest

Associated Press  

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban on Sunday announced a ban on harvesting poppies, even as farmers in some parts of the country began extracting the opium from the plant that is needed for making heroin. In 2021, before the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan produced more than 6,000 tons of opium, which the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said could …

Taliban announces ban on opium production in Afghanistan
2 years, 8 months ago

Taliban announces ban on opium production in Afghanistan

India Today  

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban announced a ban on Sunday on poppy production, even as farmers across the country began harvesting the bright red flower that produces the opium used to make heroin. The ban is reminiscent of the Taliban's previous rule in the late 1990s when the religion-driven movement outlawed poppy production. Washington spent more than USD 8 billion trying to …

Taliban chief orders ban on poppy cultivation in Afghanistan; violators' crops to be destroyed
2 years, 8 months ago

Taliban chief orders ban on poppy cultivation in Afghanistan; violators' crops to be destroyed

Firstpost  

Afghanistan has a near monopoly on opium and heroin, accounting for 80 to 90 per cent of global output, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Afghanistan: The Taliban’s supreme leader on Sunday ordered a ban on poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, warning that the hardline Islamist government would crack down on farmers planting the crop. The United …

Taliban chief orders ‘strict’ ban on opium poppy cultivation
2 years, 8 months ago

Taliban chief orders ‘strict’ ban on opium poppy cultivation

Al Jazeera  

The ban comes as the Taliban tries to assuage international concerns regarding drug control in the impoverished South Asian country. The Taliban has issued a decree banning the cultivation of opium poppy, as the group tries to assuage international concerns regarding drug control in the impoverished South Asian country. Poppy cultivation is a key revenue source for many impoverished farmers …

Why we must be prepared for a more chaotic and violent world as narco industry booms in Afghanistan
2 years, 11 months ago

Why we must be prepared for a more chaotic and violent world as narco industry booms in Afghanistan

Firstpost  

The Taliban are unabashedly trying to expand their drug income since their ‘takeover’ in mid-August. Interestingly, this year’s opium harvest in Afghanistan, completed in July, marked the fifth year in a row with production at the historic high of more than 6,000 tonnes, potentially yielding up to 320 tonnes of pure heroin to be trafficked to markets around the world. …

Heroin worth Rs 175 crore hidden in oil cans imported from Afghanistan seized in Mumbai
3 years, 2 months ago

Heroin worth Rs 175 crore hidden in oil cans imported from Afghanistan seized in Mumbai

India Today  

The Mumbai Unit of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has seized 25 kilograms of heroin imported from Afghanistan, officials said. Based on an intelligence input, a container was intercepted by the officials at EFC Logistics India Private Limited CFS of Maharashtra’s Nhava Sheva port and a detailed examination was carried out by a team of DRI Mumbai officers on October …

‘Large waves’ of Afghanistan’s heroin supply to hit Britain’s streets
3 years, 3 months ago

‘Large waves’ of Afghanistan’s heroin supply to hit Britain’s streets

The Telegraph  

Heroin supply on to the streets of Britain from Afghanistan is set to increase after the fall of the country to the Taliban, a senior policing leader has warned. Donna Jones, the lead for serious and organised crime for the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, said police chiefs were concerned the loss of UK and US forces’ checks on …

The Taliban says it wants to ban drugs in Afghanistan. Here’s why it can’t
3 years, 3 months ago

The Taliban says it wants to ban drugs in Afghanistan. Here’s why it can’t

LA Times  

An Afghan farmer harvests opium gum from a poppy field on the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif in Nangarhar province in 2018. The militant group recently pledged to ban the production and sale of drugs, but weaning the country off the opium trade will be next to impossible given the nation’s dire economic situation and the lifeline poppy cultivation provides for Afghanistan’s …

Is Afghanistan-made methamphetamine about to flood Europe?
3 years, 4 months ago

Is Afghanistan-made methamphetamine about to flood Europe?

Al Jazeera  

The Taliban has promised to crack down on the drug trade, but if the Afghan economy fails, a crisis could unfold, experts say. “The German federal police is intensively monitoring the situation,” a spokesperson from the authority told Al Jazeera, “because methamphetamine has been produced in large quantities in Afghanistan for several years now, and because of the danger that …

Will Afghanistan's poppy empire blossom under the Taliban rule?
3 years, 4 months ago

Will Afghanistan's poppy empire blossom under the Taliban rule?

Firstpost  

In 2020, the area under opium cultivation expanded to 2,24,000 hectares from 1,63,000 hectares - overwhelmingly in areas under the group’s control The United States, it is reported, spent more than $8 billion over 15 years to deprive the Taliban of their profits from Afghanistan’s opium and heroin trade. Soaring numbers of opium production Illicit narcotics are “the country’s largest …

10 maps to understand Afghanistan
3 years, 4 months ago

10 maps to understand Afghanistan

Al Jazeera  

Al Jazeera visualises Afghanistan – a mostly mountainous country of 38 million people – which has suffered decades of war. At least 244,000 people have been internally displaced since the beginning of May, when the Taliban group began multiple offensives against the Western-backed Afghan government. Internally displaced people According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, at least …

What’s fueling Afghanistan’s meth boom?
4 years ago

What’s fueling Afghanistan’s meth boom?

Al Jazeera  

On Wednesday, December 9 at 19:30GMT: Afghanistan, the heroin capital of the world, is rapidly becoming a major producer of another illicit drug, methamphetamine, commonly known as crystal meth. According to a new report from The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, those involved in Afghanistan’s drug trade recently discovered the mountain shrub ephedra could be used in …

Jobless Afghans Turn to Opium for Cash amid Double Whammy of Coronavirus and War
4 years, 3 months ago

Jobless Afghans Turn to Opium for Cash amid Double Whammy of Coronavirus and War

News 18  

Afghans pushed out of work by the coronavirus pandemic after businesses and schools were shuttered have turned to opium cultivation for cash during this year’s poppy harvest. “I have no other way but to work in poppy fields to make some money.” Farmers usually rely on a seasonal labour force for the spring and summer harvesting months but the coronavirus …

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