When it comes to Afghanistan, many people have three impressions, the first is the imperial cemetery, because Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States have all suffered a lot of losses there; the second is the Taliban, because the Taliban just forced the United States out of Afghanistan last year; and the third is the drug problem in Afghanistan, which is the world's most famous heroin production base. However, on 3 April 2022, the Interim Government of Afghanistan held a press conference at which its spokesperson read out a decree issued by Afghan Supreme Leader Akhnzada to ban poppy cultivation and the manufacture, use and trafficking of all types of drugs throughout Afghanistan from now on. So the question is, who raised the Afghan poison in the first place?
(1) The origin of the poison in Afghanistan
Speaking of Afghanistan, its original image is not related to drugs, but to the imperial cemetery, because the British Empire invaded this place in its heyday, and the result was very bad, and at one point only a military doctor escaped, and this military doctor is also the prototype of Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes Detective Collection" Chinese doctor, Conan Doyle used Holmes's mouth to talk about the horrors of this place in Afghanistan, "He (Dr. Watson) just returned from the tropics, because his face was dark, And that was not the original color of his skin, for the skin at his wrists was fair; he had endured hardship and sickness, for his haggard face had become clearly apparent; his left shoulder had been wounded, and his movement was somewhat stiff and unnatural. So where can a British military doctor endure hardships and suffer a shoulder wound in the tropics? Apparently in Afghanistan. ”
As early as the 19th century, Opium cultivation in Afghanistan has begun to grow opium, but Afghanistan's productivity in opium is also relatively limited, so it is basically self-produced and sold, and no one regards it as a drug producing country at all. That's mainly because before there was a huge opium production base in China, opium production can be enough, to say a cold knowledge, in the technology of opium, China once "technical poverty alleviation", for example, now the famous drug lord country Mexico, its earliest drug dealers are a group of Chinese. Of course, it is not that the Chinese have traveled thousands of miles to Mexico to sell drugs, but because these Chinese have been ostracized by the US government, they had no choice but to come to Mexico to beg for a living, and then the Chinese immigrants came to Mexico and opened a big tobacco house and brought opium cultivation technology to the Mexicans. Then China banned opium, and many of the defeated troops fled to what is now the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia, where many opium was also planted. So during that time, Afghanistan's opium industry had no place in the Asian market.
However, after December 24, 1979, everything changed, as the former Soviet Union took over from Britain and invaded Afghanistan, the graveyard of the Empire. Afghanistan before the Soviet invasion was already very chaotic, the Amin government at that time was only a Zhou Tianzi level of power, the government decree can only be popular in kandahar and Kabul and other big cities, but it is better to have a legitimate government than nothing, the Soviets came, the order in Afghanistan completely collapsed, the whole country was soon in a state of war and anarchy, so the Afghans began to launch guerrilla warfare against the Soviet invasion, which brought a heavy burden to the Soviet army's rule in Afghanistan.
At this time, the Americans adhered to the simple principle of taking advantage of his illness and taking his life, and began to vigorously support the Afghans and anti-Soviet forces to fight with the Soviet Union, and the United States not only provided these people with weapons, food, but also provided scientific training, such as the Saudi bin Laden who planned the 911 incident in the United States, which was trained by the Americans, otherwise you think that those per capita prenatal peasants in Afghanistan can control the plane to crash into the Us World Trade Center? Not yet the Americans have taught well! Of course, the intention of the Americans was to hope that bin Laden would fight against the Soviet army.
But halfway through the training, the Americans found a relatively big problem, that is, the anti-Soviet army in Afghanistan could not make blood, after all, the Afghan Nagada had nothing, too barren. Americans' money is also limited, and it cannot be done too publicly, so that the Americans are very distressed, but the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), which is short of virtue, has given a riotous idea, that is, to let the Afghan anti-Soviet guerrillas fight with drugs, that is, to grow opium, and then make opium and sell it to the world, and then exchange it for enough food and weapons to defeat the drug dealers in the Golden Triangle, make the drug business bigger and stronger, and create glory again.
Considering the water products of the Per capita prenatal education of Afghan farmers, the CIA agents worked very hard to study how to grasp the drug industry in Afghanistan, so they simply printed a lot of pamphlets on poppy cultivation tips, specializing in teaching Afghans to grow opium poppies with zero experience, learning to grow opium in 21 days, the contents of the booklets are very detailed, and at the same time, the Americans also gave poppy seeds to Afghans, and by the way helped Afghans find sales channels, so the Americans are not unable to help the poor, but they use tricks on evil doors and crooked ways.
Of course, here we also have to mention that Afghanistan is a very barren place, planting nothing can have a good harvest, but it is suitable for growing opium, because compared to other crops, opium this "cash crop" has many advantages, first of all, it is very drought-tolerant, can be planted in any warm place, even if there is no reliable irrigation system, so the afghan land climate is very suitable for growing opium. Secondly, opium liquid can be stored for a long time, without worrying about affecting its purity, so there is no need to worry about futures fluctuations, and opium can also be purified into heroin, heroin also has the characteristics of convenient storage. But what impressed the Afghans the most was that opium, a "cash crop," was very expensive, far more cost-effective than growing grapes or wheat, so there was no reason for Afghan farmers to plant grapes or wheat without planting opium.
Of course, the somewhat knowledgeable Afghans and the Afghan government under the control of the Soviet Union certainly did not want farmers to grow opium, so in the 1980s, due to the blows of the Afghan authorities, poppy cultivation technology and heroin processing technology were transferred to tribal areas, and the technology of opium cultivation was popularized by the whole people. It can be said that in the era of Soviet invasion, Afghan farmers completed the enlightenment of the drug industry, and the drug economy did give the anti-Soviet forces the economic support to consume the Soviet army, it can be said that the purpose of the Americans was achieved, but what the Americans did not know at that time was that later these anti-Soviet forces turned into anti-American forces, the simplest of which was os-bin Laden's al-Qaida.
(2) The War in Afghanistan and the drug industry chain that cannot be lost
Although the Afghans have exhausted the Soviet Union by their own persistence and Western assistance, the defeat of the Soviet Union does not mean that the future of Afghanistan is bright, just like the removal of US troops, nor does it mean that Afghanistan is peaceful today. After the decline of imperial power, Afghanistan fell into civil war, so the drug economy became a sunrise industry in Afghanistan, and more and more opium farmers. After the Taliban formally came to power, the cultivation of drug crops, like cancer cells, spread on a large scale throughout Afghanistan, and the area under opium cultivation also expanded significantly, in 1998, the land area under opium cultivation was 636.74 square kilometers, and in 1999 it increased to 905.83 square kilometers, and the output soared from 458 tons in 1985 to 4565 tons in 1999, which is 79% of the world's total opium production. Afghanistan became the world's largest opium producer, and with the introduction of drug-processing plants, Afghan drugs became best-sellers in the world and the Taliban's power swelled rapidly.
But after the "9/11" incident, the Americans targeted the Taliban, so in 2001, the United States launched the infamous War in Afghanistan, said to be for counter-terrorism, but at first the Americans did a little limited personnel in Afghanistan, that is, to destroy the foundation of the Taliban regime, so the United States and the Kabul puppet court supported by the United States decided to destroy the Afghan drug industry chain cultivated by the Americans and destroy the poppy cultivation of Afghan farmers. The initial effect of this policy was very significant, and immediately caused a sharp decline in opium production, from 3278 tons in 2000 to 185 tons in 2001.
But there is only one problem, that is, the US military and its servant army is not a good thing, when in Afghanistan, all kinds of things that lack great virtue, this gang of bugs did not do less, such as wantonly killing people, everyone look at the picture of the unicorn to know what virtue the US military is. In response, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission issued a stern indictment statement against the United States and its servants: "The United States, the United Kingdom and other countries with troops in Afghanistan should investigate whether their troops have participated in and led acts of violence against non-combatants in Afghanistan." ”
Since the U.S. military is such a thing, the Taliban and other local armed forces have also begun to use the same set of Soviets against the U.S. army. Of course, the problem of military expenditure is also a big problem, so the Afghans in this case, or will be destroyed by the US military opium industry strong recovery, after all, the US military came, mainly to fight and kill, not to help the poor, and opium is already Afghanistan's "millions of workers and food and clothing", as long as the Afghan peasants still have to eat, then it is necessary to grow opium, so in the areas where the US power can not be affected, such as in the southern Province of Afghanistan, Nangarhar Province in the east and Badakhshan Province in the north, The Taliban soon organized the resumption of work and production of Afghan farmers for opium cultivation and drug processing, and the Afghan drug economy began to recover rapidly.
According to the data, Afghanistan's drug productivity recovered to 3,422 tons per year in 2002, up from 3,278 tons in 2000. By 2003, opium production reached 3600 tons, this value reached its peak in 2007, that is, 8200 tons, and although it fell back later, it was still around 7000 tons, that is to say, after the US military invaded Afghanistan, the Afghan drug industry not only did not fall, but was far higher than the pre-war level, and it belonged to "bigger and stronger, and create glory again".
The development of the drug economy has given the Taliban significant economic support, after all, it is not money to shoot at the Yankees with guns. So the Taliban collected detailed information on the income from opium production of farmers in the controlled areas, so how much money could the Taliban make from the drug business? Let's look at a data from the United Nations Office against Drug Crime. In 2008, Afghanistan produced about 7,700 tons of opium, up to 98 percent of which came from Taliban-controlled areas, of which the average price per kilogram of opium was $70, a sales figure alone that could net the Taliban net $50 million.
Of course, the Taliban are not just growing opium, they have also carried out industrial upgrading, and there are more than 50 drug refineries and Afghan drug laboratories in the Taliban-controlled areas, and it is no problem to produce more than 500 tons of heroin and morphine a year, which can make another $125 million. But these are small money, big money or protection fees, many people in afghanistan to do drug business have to pay protection fees to the Taliban, so the Taliban can earn about $250 million a year in drug transportation protection fees. With this money, the Taliban used it to buy motorcycles, cars and other means of transportation, to buy satellite mobile phones, or to replenish weapons, ammunition, fuel, food, tents and medicines, so that the Taliban could have the strength to fight against the Americans.
(3) Why do the Taliban want to ban drugs?
However, as mentioned above, the Taliban earn a lot of money by drugs, so why are the Yankees out of the egg now, and the Taliban want to ban drugs. The answer is very simple, because this kind of opium is really a disaster for the country and the people, even if it is the United States, the world's largest drug consumer country, the drugs smoked by Americans are often imported, and even the United States will crack down on drug dealers, so even the Taliban issued a smoking ban when they first came to power, in 1999, the Taliban regime announced the reduction of opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, and in July 2000 issued a ban on (big) tobacco, it can be said that the Taliban do not want to grow opium, but in order to deal with the invading imperialism, The Taliban is now only reviving its policies in 2000.
However, the anti-drug in Afghanistan is not as easy as the Afghan Provisional Government thought, after 30 years of entanglement and destruction between the two major imperialisms of the Soviet Union and the United States, the economy of Afghanistan has been completely damaged, the people here have become accustomed to growing opium, opium is an important tool for them to make a living, not a sentence or two can persuade Afghan farmers to give up opium cultivation, so in Afghanistan anti-drug is bound to be a difficult road. However, difficulties are not a reason not to do so, drugs are always a disaster for the country and the people, and only by eradicating drugs can the afghan people live a normal life.