As the world watches events in Afghanistan unfold, many have started to wonder what the Taliban rule means for the future of the country’s opium production.

Afghanistan is the world’s largest producer of the opium poppy, which is the raw material for heroin, one of the world’s deadliest drugs. The country accounted for nearly 83 percent of global opium production between 2015 and 2020, according to estimates of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). And it’s a key supplier for heroin markets across Europe and Asia.

The U.S. military presence failed to curtail opium production throughout the Afghan countryside. For two decades, opiate economy, which includes cultivation of the poppy, processing into heroin, and trafficking, has been a major source of cash for Afghanistan.

Despite its anti-heroin rhetoric, the Taliban has benefited greatly from this opium poppy economy and become a major player in the world’s drug trade.

In its first official press conference in Kabul, the Taliban pledged to end opium cultivation in Afghanistan, in an effort to gain acceptance from the international community.

“Today, when we entered Kabul, we saw a large number of our youth who was sitting under the bridges or next to the walls and they were using narcotics. This was so unfortunate,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters on Aug. 17.

“From now on, Afghanistan will be a narcotics-free country, but it needs international assistance,” he said, adding that foreign aid is needed to help Afghan farmers switch to alternative crops.

Afghanistan is noted for its high-quality fruits including pomegranates, grapes, and melons. Various international organizations in the past have helped Afghan families grow pomegranates, for example, as an important alternative to opium.

Despite its agriculture sector and rich mineral resources, the country has been critically dependent on foreign aid, which has dried up with the Taliban takeover.

International donors had been providing 75 percent of the Afghan government’s operating budget, Vanda Felbab-Brown, director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors at the Brookings Institution, wrote in a Chatham House report.

The Biden administration froze nearly $9 billion in Afghan government reserves that were held in the United States. The International Monetary Fund also blocked Afghanistan from receiving nearly $440 million in funds that were scheduled to be sent earlier. And the German government announced a suspension of $300 million in development aid budgeted for this year.

Financial sanctions will also make it difficult for international organizations to provide humanitarian aid to Afghan families.

Hence, the country is expected to drift into a humanitarian and financial crisis soon, according to experts, which may lead the new regime to increase illicit activities, including drug trafficking.

“The immediate effects of the financial squeeze in place is that cash liquidity in Afghanistan may drop, which will drive up inflation—including food prices—while disadvantaging Afghanistan’s poorest and the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people,” Felbab-Brown wrote.

As in the past, she noted, those who attempt to ban poppy cultivation in rural areas can “find themselves facing significant losses of political capital and violent opposition.”

Gretchen Peters, executive director at the Center on Illicit Networks and Transnational Organized Crime, believes the Taliban shouldn’t be trusted when it comes to its promises to eradicate the poppy trade.

“They pulled a maneuver like that back in the ’90s. They did actually succeed in banning farmers from growing poppy for a year,” she told NPR.

“But the secret was the Taliban were actually sitting on these huge, vast stores of opium. The price of opium went through the roof, and they sold it and made a lot more money than they had the year previous.”

According to Peters, the Taliban will now have full access to the capacities and institutions of state, including its banking system, airlines, and border crossings, which would make its drug trafficking a lot easier.

Recently, poppy cultivation has expanded in most regions of the country, soaring 37 percent in the past year alone, according to UNODC.

Amid Sanctions, Taliban Expected to Double Down on Drug Trafficking (theepochtimes.com)

Los Angeles Police Department officers patrol on bicycles past a homeless man on a downtown sidewalk in Los Angeles, California on June 7, 2017. 

As drug overdose deaths rise in California, state leaders are considering paying addicts to stay sober, but a former drug addict questions the efficiency of the incentive known as SB 110.

Yolanda Terrazas, a former addict and current secretary for The Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center in Anaheim told The Epoch Times the proposed legislation provides only a temporary solution as addicts will use the money to purchase drugs.

“Giving money to an individual that has an addiction problem, doesn’t give them coping skills, doesn’t give them ways to manage their feelings and emotions,” Terrazas said.

“All they’re doing is giving them money to temporarily stop and they’ll just turn around and spend that money and find another way to receive funds. Somebody else will pay for their addiction, while they temporarily stop using, they won’t gain anything. If they don’t have skills, knowledge, or tools to use.”

Terrazas stated addicts need more proactive solutions, such as organizations that provide programs that allow addicts to find sobriety to last a lifetime. Rather than giving funds to addicts, the money should be used to assist in finding employment for individuals who complete addiction programs, she said.

Before finding employment at The Salvation Army eight months ago, Terrazas joined the organization’s six-month rehab program to get sober. The program taught her communication and employment skills while providing a structured schedule she accredits to helping her get sober.

Every day, the beneficiaries of the program are tested. Terrazas is approaching her two-year sober anniversary next month.

While discussion contingency management payments to encourage addicts to remain sober continues, similar legislation is supported by both Republicans and Democrats.

According to co-author of the substance use contingency bill Assemblymember Laurie Davies, studies have shown contingency management programs have been effective for veterans that are meth addicts.

“California’s opioid epidemic shows no signs of slowing down, even during the Covid-19 pandemic,” Assemblymember Laurie Davies told The Epoch Times in an email. “For years, our state has struggled to get a handle on this crisis and for years we have seen preventable suffering and loss.”

Davies said SB 110 is a “common-sense measure to try an all-of-the-above approach to really incentive people to get away from substance abuse.”

The legislation proposes that through MediCal, low-income residents can receive substance use disorder services and care.

Through the proposed contingency management services outlined in SB 110, beneficiaries will be limited to the number of incentives received.

Former Drug Addict Questions California’s Bid to Pay Addicts to Sober Up (theepochtimes.com)