KABUL: The United Nations has said that Afghanistan produced 80% of the world’s illicit opium production last year, despite the Taliban’s ban on opium cultivation in the country.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the supply and trafficking of drugs, including methamphetamine and cocaine, have increased dramatically globally, including in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan Account for 80% of Global Opium Production in 2022: UN
The UN report said, “The 2023 opium harvest in Afghanistan may see a drastic decline after the Taliban’s ban, as early reports show reductions in poppy farming. It maintained that the benefits of a possible decrease in illicit opium farming in Afghanistan in 2023 would be at the global level. However, it will be at the expense of a large number of farmers in Afghanistan who do not have substitute means of income generation.”
The UN report also emphasizes how economic and social injustices both cause and are caused by drug problems. Time is needed to ascertain whether or not trends hold and the effect that may have on world heroin markets, particularly those obtained by opium from Afghanistan, it added.
The UN report noted that Afghanistan is also a main producer of methamphetamines in the region, and the decrease in opiate farming could drive a shift towards synthetic drug production, where different actors will benefit.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime expressed doubts regarding “the links between the illegal manufacture of heroin and methamphetamine in Afghanistan and whether the two markets will set up parallel or one will replace the other.”
