While many argue that a shift into synthetic opioids downstream in Europe is a function of a shortage of opium in Afghanistan caused by the Taliban drugs ban, opium prices in Afghanistan have been falling since their peak in December 2023: a function of substantial inventories in southwest Afghanistan, continued widespread cultivation in Badakhshan, improved processing techniques, and the dramatic rise in poppy cultivation in Pakistan and Iran in 2025.

Will They, Won’t They? What do we actually know about the coming opium poppy season and what both farmers and the Taliban will do?

Explaining the facts behind the devastating floods in Parwan provice, Afghanistan in August 2020.