Opium production in Afghanistan has plummeted since the Taliban banned cultivation of the poppy plant, according to a UN report published on Sunday.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers pledged to wipe out the country’s drug industry, banning poppy cultivation in April 2022.
Poppy plants are the source of opium and heroin. Afghanistan was the world’s biggest opium producer and a major source for heroin in Europe and Asia before the Taliban takeover.
What about before the US invasion? Was opium allowed by Taliban then?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanistan
Poorly enforced restrictions in the 1990s were a prelude to a full and very effective ban on religious grounds in 2000. The Afghan war in 2001 meant that the ban was only briefly effective.
The Taliban made most of their money on opium sales from 2001-2021.
True, to fight the war.
It seems however, during peacetime, they have a history of banning the drug trade for religious reasons
The United States blocked grain shipments to Afghanistan because Republicans didn’t want any more competition to US farmers. So they grew poppies.