This was declared by Iskander Mumeni, Secretary General of the Drug Control Headquarters of the Islamic Republic of Iran on June 15.
According to Iskander Mumeni, during NATO's 20-year presence in Afghanistan, drug production has expanded 50 times, but according to UNODC, it has continued to grow under the Taliban.
As a result, Iran is in the leading edge of the global drug battle, resulting in 90% of opium seizures, 50% of morphine seizures, and 27% of heroin seizures.
The increase, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, was from $425mn in 2021 to $1.4bn in 2022. At the same time, the production rate reduces from 38.5 kg/ to 26.7. As a result, not only is price growth important, but so is the growing area, which has expanded by 32% per year to 233 thousand hectares.
Harvest in 2022 was 10% lower than previous year in 2021 - 6.2 thousand tons of opium, enough to generate 350-380 tons of heroin of acceptable quality (50-70%). Afghanistan controls 80% of the global opiate market.
However, in April 2022, the Taliban prohibited the production of opium poppy, which will have far-reaching negative implications for Afghans, according to New York Times.
The prohibition extends to opiate trade and processing, not only poppy farming. The economic impact of the opium prohibition is enormous: According to reports, Afghanistan's farm-level rural economy has lost more than $1bn per year in economic activity, not including negative effects on downstream processing, trade, transportation, and exports, including hundreds of millions of dollars that had accrued to lower-wage labourers and farmers. These people and their families, who are already living on the edge of subsistence and have few alternative options in Afghanistan's crippling economy, will face an even greater risk of starvation, malnutrition, and related health problems.
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