How did Afghanistan become the world's largest opium producer?
Author: Mohammad Qadeer Mesbah, an expert on regional issues, especially for Sangar.
I am writing this under the pretense of World Drug Day, which is celebrated annually by the United Nations.
Historically, drugs are not a new phenomenon in Afghanistan. And it is no coincidence that the country has become the largest producer of opium in the world.
Drugs, as will be described in this article, have a long history of interaction between human cognition and plants. But things accelerated when the Cold War broke out between the two great powers after World War II. The political term "Cold War" first entered the political literature of the world in 1945 in George Orwell's article "You and the Atomic Bomb". The Cold War itself was another global challenge.
The expansion of the political geography of the two superpowers, the development of nuclear weapons with their first test by the United States, competition for control of air and space by sending a spacecraft from Russia, the expansion of proxy wars on the Korean Peninsula, calling each other's puppet forces terrorists and saboteurs, competition in information and propaganda field with accusations of cultivating and distributing narcotic substances in each other's territories became global challenges of that period and these tools were sometimes referred to as preventive measures.
When Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty in 1972, the two undisputed powers, the Soviet Union and the United States of America gave priority to diplomacy to a policy of tension and combating the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. But the competition in everything else continued, it even accelerated.
Above, I mentioned that narcotic substances have a long history, and throughout history, people have used narcotic substances as medicines to cure excruciating pains, and sometimes they were used to create pleasure for princes and kings, sometimes to relieve pain, the effect of discomfort, as well as at holidays and religious ceremonies, and sometimes by magicians.
By studying written works and clay tablets left by the Sumerians, we can conclude that the Sumerians were the first to discover opium. In addition, it was used as a pain reliever, which gradually became used as a drug and was called the "plant of joy." In addition to the Sumerians, the inhabitants of Assyria, Egypt, and Rome also knew and used opium well. Great physicians such as Socrates prescribed combinations of opium for various physical and mental ailments.
The history of the use of narcotic drugs, as already mentioned, had mainly a therapeutic and recreational aspect and was used only as prescribed by doctors, and at that time addiction did not have large dimensions and did not manifest itself in the form of social and political issues, as it happens today, it did not acquire political and international dimension. But with the onset of the industrial revolution (late 17th-early 18th century) and the beginning of trade relations and, most importantly, the need for capital for the emerging industries of the industrial revolution, a new trend began in various global issues. Meanwhile, opium has also found a new role. This article, along with other colonial tricks, was exchanged as a means of attracting capital from third-world countries, destroying the human resources, culture, and national economy of countries.
We all know in one way or another about the activities of the East India Company in the country with the aim of industrial investment and the purchase of raw materials for industry and spices in Afghanistan and the countries of East Asia. This company found a dire need for capital, but due to financial scarcity and weakness, especially the shortage of gold and silver in this country, she sometimes turned her attention to other countries, especially colonial countries, and resorted to many tricks to achieve her goals. One scheme involved exploiting the East Asian opium trade.
Taking over the opium business in East Asia, especially in China, this company profited from it for many years and led many residents of these countries into the trap of addiction. The Chinese government, alarmed by the outflow of capital and the spread of opium, opposed the company and demanded that the company be banned from the opium trade. But it ignored the request of the Chinese government and insisted on her commercial and profitable practice, and because of this, the Chinese government was forced to confiscate the opium of the company. The British armed forces entered the armed struggle in support of the East India Company and in the course of two wars, known as the Opium Wars, inflicted a heavy defeat on the Chinese armed forces. Finally, in addition to inflicting damage on the Chinese, the British managed to use several Chinese ports to transport and distribute opium.
And now the question is: what is the place of Afghanistan in the opium game?
Undoubtedly, narcotic substances have a booming market in countries where economic and nominal poverty and lack of legality develop, and no one is indebted to anyone or anything, and they are easily smuggled to other countries of the world.
I mentioned earlier that the drug cultivation process in Afghanistan during the British Indian presence was exclusively under the control of the East India Company, but it intensified with the 1979 communist takeover and the invasion of the country by the Soviet Union army. The cultivation of this economic substance, the breadwinner that shaped the war economy, was intensified by the Mujahideen and on the advice of the West until 1992. As these years passed, not only did the production and cultivation of opium increase in Afghanistan, but the country became the world record holder in its production and distribution.
Afghanistan has been known as the world's largest opium producer since 1992. The largest centers of opium production in the world, as they were called before, were left behind.
1 - The production pole of the Golden Triangle, which includes three countries - Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand;
2 - Production pole "Golden Crescent", which includes three countries - Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan;
3 - Mexico's manufacturing pole, including Central America and Colombia in South America.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan at the pole of the Golden Crescent with the largest amount of opium in the world is above Myanmar (the largest opium producer in the Golden Triangle), Mexico, and Colombia from the Americas. Opium production increased more than 20-fold to 4,500 tons before the rise of Taliban power in 1999, according to statistics from the UN Narcotics Control Office.
In 1992, Afghanistan produced the most drugs in the world, according to a report by the United Nations Drug Control Administration. Production declined during the Taliban rule in Afghanistan and reached 185 tons per year in 2001.
However, drug production and trafficking have increased dramatically since 2001. According to a UN report, 8300 tons of drugs were produced in Afghanistan in 2013, which is more than 90% of the drugs in the world. And in recent years, this trend has intensified. In 2018, Afghanistan set the latest record for growing narcotic drugs in an area of more than 328,000 hectares.
Meanwhile, opium production has increased from 185 tons at the end of the Taliban in 2001 to 3,400 tons and has risen to 12,700 tons in the last 15 years. Over these 15 years, in 2020 with 8,500 tons and in 2022 with 233 hectares of land, pure opium production should have been more than 12,700 tons of opium and have the highest growth rates.
In any case, years of war and conflict, lack of security, lack of rule of law, isolation of power, destruction of economic infrastructure, and lack of reconstruction and economic development have made Republic-era Afghanistan come out on top among the largest opium-producing countries in the world. Let's not forget that the opium growing areas were usually in rural areas under the rule of the Taliban, but over the past two years, power has passed into the hands of a movement that is known as one of the important factors in the development and distribution of drugs in the country. It is unlikely that influential people of the Taliban who in difficult times were financiers of this group and were engaged in drug smuggling, such as Haji Bashir Nurzai, Haji Malikhan, Haji Mozammil, Haji Aziz, Haji Juma Baloch, Haji Mawlawi Abdulhak, Haji Mawlawi Najibullah Rafi, Haji Mawlawi Aminullah Vafa and Kerbalai Abuhazrat Musa can easily abandon the shadow economy of drugs or, on the orders of Mullah Haybatullah Akhundzade, the unknown and covert leader of the Taliban, stay away from him.
What factors are causing the spread of drugs under the rule of the Taliban?
The answer to this question is clear to many, both in terms of personalities in the Taliban leadership and in terms of intellectual content, but in my opinion, three main factors help each other to keep drugs at the peak of this iceberg.
The first factor in the financial attractiveness of drugs, which are the basis of the food of the Taliban movement, is mainly economic and logistical. Drug trafficking is one of the most lucrative, affordable, and easy financial sources to buy weapons for the Taliban. So it was in the past and so it is now.
The experience of continuous fighting in the country and the fact that poppy plantations were far from the control of the law in the Republican era taught this group how to get the most financial benefit, engage in recruitment, and international smuggling, cultivating the fertile lands of Afghanistan. Giving this group away from drugs is giving up billions of dollars of annual income, something the Taliban leaders are unlikely to do.
The second reason is personal grievances, as well as extremist and power-hungry factors in the world who have problems with the ruling political systems in their countries, consider Afghanistan a safe territory and a buffer zone between the blocks of West and East. They have gathered here from Africa, Asia, parts of America, Europe, and Australia and have turned this territory into a base of dissatisfaction with such powers as Russia, America, China, and some other countries in the region. In addition to exploiting Afghan soil, these factors are also aimed at creating a threat to the region and beyond, as well as using extremism as a tool for political destabilization, overthrow of governments, religious oppression, and humiliation of the Islamic world. Living examples - 9/11, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Libya, Algeria, etc.
The third factor is the presence of thousands of foreign fighters who are able to handle all types of modern weapons. After the hasty and controversial withdrawal of foreign troops, primarily the United States, from Afghanistan, and the Taliban came to power, they were given complete freedom of action. Yesterday's terrorists have modern American weapons and equipment. Using them, they are trying to threaten the countries of the region and will continue to threaten them constantly.
In any case, if you pay attention to the internal subtleties of these three factors, it becomes clear that drugs play a large role in the spread of extremism and terrorism. Extremists do not consider drugs against religious teachings. They encourage the fight against alcoholic beverages but encourage the export of drugs to the so-called blasphemous countries, and agents dealing in drugs are called Mujahideen and Muslim fighters.
Now countries have succeeded in fighting drugs by choosing slogans over actions, or by deceiving the public with control of Afghan drugs, sometimes holding explanatory conferences and publishing annual reports. Expressing their concern about the multi-percent increase in the cultivation, production, and smuggling of drugs, they threaten the Afghan government with sanctions. The United Nations also provides annual statistics and data on how the cultivation, trafficking, and smuggling of drugs in Afghanistan, as well as their use within the country, region, and the world, is growing. The UN always warns of political, social, and psychological consequences. Each year presents a wonderful report and celebrates June 26 as Anti-Drug Day with beautiful slogans.
Despite all this, it seems that the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan did not live up to the expectations of the countries of the world and international institutions in the fight against cultivation, drug trafficking, and drug addiction, spending billions of dollars. At that time, the Ministry of Narcotics Control, the Deputy Ministry of Internal Affairs for Narcotics, and the anti-drug department 66-A of the General Directorate of National Security, which were funded by American, British, Russian and Iranian institutions, worked in the country. All of them could not comply with the serious recommendations of UNODC. And how can such an extremist group as the Taliban, collaborating with the domestic and international mafia, smuggling and growing drugs, live up to the expectations of the UN?
