Opium production in Afghanistan

Afghanistan's opium poppy production goes into more than 90% of heroin worldwide. Afghanistan has been the world's greatest illicit opium producer, ahead of Burma (Myanmar), the "Golden Triangle", and Latin America since 1992, excluding the year 2001. Afghanistan is the main producer of opium in the "Golden Crescent". Opium production in Afghanistan has been on the rise since U.S. occupation started in 2001. Based on UNODC data, opium poppy cultivation was more in each of the growing seasons in the periods between 2004 and 2007 than in any one year during Taliban rule. More land is now used for opium in Afghanistan than is used for coca cultivation in Latin America. In 2007, 93% of the non-pharmaceutical-grade opiates on the world market originated in Afghanistan. This amounts to an export value of about $4 billion, with a quarter being earned by opium farmers and the rest going to district officials, insurgents, warlords, and drug traffickers. In the seven years (1994–2000) prior to a Taliban opium ban, the Afghan farmers' share of gross income from opium was divided among 200,000 families. In addition to opiates, Afghanistan is also the largest producer of cannabis (mostly as hashish) in the world. In 2004, a fatwa was issued by Muslim clerics claiming that opium production is contrary to the sharia law and that opium producers would face punishments in accordance with the sharia.

Opium farming was controlled by the Afghan Royal family. The Musahiban Dynasty designed a system where very little land was used for Opiates.

As the Afghan government began to lose control of provinces during the Soviet invasion of 1979–80, warlords flourished. With that lack of control, opium production also expanded, as regional commanders searched for ways to generate money to purchase weapons, according to the United Nations Organization. (At this time the United States was pursuing an "arms-length" supporting strategy of the Afghan freedom-fighters or Mujahideen, the main purpose of which was to cripple the USSR slowly into withdrawal through attrition rather than effect a quick and decisive overthrow.)

...
Wikipedia