Afghanistan has long had a history of opium poppy cultivation and harvest. Prior to the 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Afghanistan's harvest produced more than 90% of illicit heroin globally, and more than 95% of the European supply. More land was used for opium in Afghanistan than for coca cultivation in Latin America. The country was the world's leading illicit drug producer from 2001 until 2024. In 2007, 93% of the non-pharmaceutical-grade opiates on the world market originated in Afghanistan. In 2019 Afghanistan still produced about 84% of the world market. 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. 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. The Taliban have taken a mixed stance on opium over the years. Poorly enforced restrictions in the 1990s were a prelude to a full ban on religious grounds in 2000. However, the Afghan war in 2001 led to the ban being only briefly effective. The opium trade spiked in 2006 after the Taliban lost control of local warlords. Despite having previously banned opium, the Taliban used opium money to fuel their two-decade campaign to retake Afghanistan, with Taliban allegedly earning up to 60% of their annual revenue from the trade. The then Afghan government also outlawed production, but despite help from coalition military forces to tamp down on drug trafficking, the ban did little to stop production. After the Fall of Kabul in 2021, the opium trade boomed, and most farmers planted at least some opium for harvest in spring 2022. The Taliban outlawed production again in April 2022, during the poppy harvest. In November 2023, a U.N report showed that in the entirety of Afghanistan, poppy cultivation dropped by over 95%, removing it from its place as being the world's largest opium producer. In 2023, U.N declared that the Chin State and Sagaing Region of Myanmar produce harvested poppy surpassing Afghanistan. The rise of poppy cultivation has extended up to Manipur, an Indian state. There are reports that financing Kuki-Chin militants comes from poppy export.
History
The dry climate and difficulty of transporting fresh produce makes export agriculture hard in Afghanistan. The opium poppy however is drought tolerant, doesn't spoil on long voyages, is easy to transport and store, and sells for a premium. With a farm gate price of approximately $125 per kilogram for dry opium (2007 prices), an Afghan farmer can make 17 times more profit growing opium poppy ($4,622 per hectare), than by growing wheat ($266 per hectare). Afghanistan first began producing opium in significant quantities in the mid-1950s, to supply its neighbor Iran after poppy cultivation was banned there. Afghanistan and Pakistan increased production and became major suppliers of opiates to Western Europe and North America in the mid-1970s, when political instability combined with a prolonged drought disrupted supplies from the Golden Triangle.
Soviet period (1979–1989) After a Soviet-backed left-wing government in Afghanistan failed to gain popular support, the Soviets decided to invade. The U.S., Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other countries began to covertly support the mujahideen guerrillas fighting the Soviets. During the conflict, the Afghan-Pakistan border became a key area in the global heroin trade, with a network of drug labs opening in 1979 and 1980. A number of resistance leaders concentrated on increasing opium production in their regions to finance their operations, regardless of its haram Islamic status, in particular Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Mullah Nasim Akhundzada, and Ismat Muslim. The production was doubled to 575 metric tons between 1982 and 1983. During the 1970s, opium production in Afghanistan stood at 100 tonnes annually. It grew to 2,000 tonnes by 1991. Afghanistan supplied 60% of the US market and 80% of the European in 1984. According to historian Alfred McCoy "caravans carrying CIA arms into that region for the resistance often returned to Pakistan loaded down with opium." The Washington Post reported in May 1990 that the US government had over several years been receiving reports of heroin trafficking by some of its allies, including "firsthand accounts of heroin smuggling by commanders under Gulbuddin Hekmatyar", but chose not to investigate. The CIA sent around $600 million in aid to Hekmatyar's group Hizb-i-Islami militia during the war against the Soviets. Nasim Akhundzada, who controlled the traditional poppy growing region of northern Helmand, desired regional growth of his poppy and narcotics dealing. His inventory of traditional poppy was purchased during the harvest at low prices. This, and the cultivation of poppy growth were enforced with the threat of torture and execution. To maximise control of trafficking, Nasim maintained an office in Zahidan, Iran. It was alleged by the Soviets that US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents were helping smuggle opium out of Afghanistan, either into the West, in order to raise money for the Afghan resistance, or into the Soviet Union, in order to weaken it through drug addiction. According to Alfred McCoy, the CIA supported various Afghan drug lords, for instance Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and others such as Haji Ayub Afridi. Another factor was the eradication effort inside Pakistan (whose Inter-Services Intelligence were coincidentally supporters of the Mujahideen). The Pakistani government, US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other groups were involved in attempting to eliminate poppy cultivation from certain areas of the North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) bordering Afghanistan. The opium industry shifted from Pakistan into Afghanistan during the 1980s.
Warlord period (1992–1996) When the Soviet Army was forced to withdraw in 1989, civil war between the Republic of Afghanistan and the Mujahedeen continued until the government's collapse in 1992. The fall of the government created a power vacuum: various Mujahideen factions started fighting against each other for power. With the discontinuation of Western support, they resorted ever more to poppy cultivation to finance their military existence.
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