Opium den

last updated 8 January 2015

Nangahar, Afghanistan

Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has soared back to pre-Taliban levels, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said last week. The Taliban is believed to have dealt in opium poppies, the plant used to make heroin, until 2000, when it banned all poppy cultivation as part of a crackdown on drug use and immorality. The crop has been making a steady comeback under the new, still-weak democratic government. This year Afghanistan is expected to produce nearly 4,000 tons of opium, worth more than $2 billion—equal to half of the country’s gross domestic product. “There is a palpable risk that Afghanistan will again turn into a failed state,” said U.N. anti-drug czar Antonio Maria Costa, “this time in the hands of drug cartels and narcoterrorists.”