The downturn in Afghan methamphetamine production is being replaced (and potentially eclipsed) by a growth in the industry south of the border in Balochistan

With the ephedra season over and poppy planting season in full swing, it is an ideal time to assess the impact of the Taliban drug ban.

An Industry and a Population Under Stress: Methamphetamine Production Under Taliban Rule

I’ve had a lot of emails following UNODC’s recent report on methamphetamine in Afghanistan. Most are sceptical of the findings...

With the Taliban having exceeded expectations and reduced poppy cultivation to levels not seen since 2001, there is now a real need to understand the potential effects of the drugs ban on Afghanistan, the region, and further downstream. For many of us old enough to have seen a particular style of music, or clothes, come round a second or third time, the term “unprecedented” is often overused. Those who are from Afghanistan, or worked there for a sustained period, are likely t

Will the Taliban's efforts to control drugs succeed?

The economic crisis is wreaking havoc on the Afghan population. Since the Taliban takeover, the Afghani has depreciated by a third, the price of basic food items has more than doubled and large numbers of public sector employees have found themselves without pay. However, there is a part of the economy that is prospering, bolstered by the Taliban’s intervention. In the 1st week of December 2021, the Taliban banned the harvesting of ephedra in the provinces of Ghor, Farah, N

The cost of the economic crisis in Afghanistan will be borne far beyond the country’s borders. The Afghan population is suffering from economic crisis and drought, with rural people especially vulnerable. They lack functioning markets for legal cash crops, public sector employment has collapsed and the private sector, once buoyed by international spending, is imploding. Many are trying to escape, leaving the country in large numbers via Zaranj in the South West of the countr

So Wrong for So Long: Estimating Insurgency Funding in Afghanistan and the Political Economy of Reporting