ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – While the UN and the Taliban report a substantial decrease in drug cultivation in Afghanistan, Tajikistan’s drug control authorities say they have not observed any decline in the volume of drug trafficking originating from Afghanistan.
An official from Tajikistan’s Presidential Drug Control Agency (DCA) told Russian News Agency, TASS, that despite reports from both the UN and the Taliban indicating a decrease in the production of illicit drugs in Afghanistan, opioids like heroin and opium, as well as Afghan-made methamphetamine, continue to flow into Tajikistan.
“According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, opium poppy cultivation and opium production in Afghanistan has decreased by 95%, yet opioids, such as heroin and opium, as well as Afghan-made methamphetamine, are still flowing into Tajikistan, with the reason behind this being that Afghan drug manufacturers generate greater profits from methamphetamine production,” the official said.
Afghanistan, previously the world’s top opium producer, accounted for over 80 percent of the global supply and was a significant source of heroin in Europe and Asia. However, in 2023, Myanmar took over this role, producing around 1,190 tons of opium.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says that revenue from Afghan opiates within Afghanistan totaled $1.8 to $2.7 billion in 2021, accounting for 6% to 11% of GDP. However, significantly larger profits are generated within the illicit drug supply chains outside the country.
In April 2023, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, issued a decree prohibiting the production, usage, transportation, and trade of all types of drugs, including opium poppy, throughout Afghanistan. “According to the decree of the supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, all Afghans are informed that from now on, cultivation of poppy has been strictly prohibited across the country,” the decree said.
“If anyone violates the decree, the crop will be destroyed immediately and the violator will be treated according to the Sharia law.”
The Taliban previously played a substantial role in this industry, purportedly generating approximately $400 million from the trade between 2018 and 2019, according to the UN. These funds contributed to financing its insurgency against the government and the international coalition forces supporting it.
Last year in November, UNODC reported that the Taliban’s ban on drugs in Afghanistan has resulted in a 95% drop in cultivation of opium poppies, used to make morphine and heroin.
“Opium cultivation fell across all parts of the country, from 233,000 hectares to just 10,800 hectares in 2023. The decrease has led to a corresponding 95 per cent drop in the supply of opium, from 6,200 tons in 2022 to just 333 tons in 2023,” according to the UNODC survey.
The UNODC estimates that Afghan farmers have lost more than $1 billion in income from opium sales due to the sharp decline, which could lead to dire economic and humanitarian consequences for the impoverished country.
“Farmers’ income from selling the 2023 opium harvest to traders fell by more than 92 per cent from an estimated US$1,360 million for the 2022 harvest to US$110 million in 2023.”
Poppy cultivation has been a crucial revenue source for many impoverished Afghan farmers, particularly in the southeastern provinces of the country. The unrecognized regime in Kabul has proven incapable of offering alternative livelihoods to the tens of thousands of farmers reliant on the drug trade for their survival.
Last year in November, Iran, the western neighbor of Afghanistan, also rejected the UN report, claiming that Afghanistan not only decreased opium production but also expanded the production of psychotropic substances despite the ban imposed by the Taliban. Amir Abbas Lotfi, the Director General of the International Relations Office of Drug Control in Iran, called the UN report unbelievable, emphasizing that “Traditional drug trafficking, such as opium and psychotropic substances, from Afghanistan to Iran, is still occurring.”
Tajikistan’s DCA says that clandestine synthetic drug labs have started to emerge in Afghanistan to produce these drugs, which are then smuggled into Tajikistan and later transported to other countries.
The Tajik agency also said that more than 2.5 tons of illicit substances were seized from circulation in regions of Tajikistan bordering on Afghanistan in 2023, accounting for over half of all drugs seized in the Central Asian country in the previous year.
“Tajikistan has received no information on any counter-narcotics efforts being implemented by Afghan authorities,” the official added.
