factbat.com

It is rather amazing that the United States Drug Enforcement Agency is now claiming that the Taliban  is financed by Opium profits.

To be clear, the Taliban in 2000 declared a Fatwah on all Opium production in Afghanistan and demanded that the farmers begin growing wheat, rice and other food crops. The production of Opium in Afghanistan fell to almost zero in 2000 and 2001, and as a result decimated this nation's heroin supply.

What is interesting is that suddenly afterward the Taliban was placed at the center of the United States' enemy list and Afghanistan was highlighted on the global stage as the central hideout of the alleged September 11, 2001 mastermind Osama Bin Laden.

Even more interesting is the fact that ever since the events of 9/11, and the U.S. military's invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, the production and export of Opium from that country has exceeded all previous records and is now the worlds center of Opium exports.

Moreover, most of the profits garnered from the Opium trade out of Afghanistan were funneled to governments, officials and traffickers, while the producers and farmers recieved only about 20% of the revenues. As well, the lionshare of profits are to be made on the streets and in the back rooms of this nation's ubiquitous drug dealers, cartels and unscrupulous government officials. Not to mention the thousands of federal agents who are literally allowed to supply this country with this poison.

There is plenty of available data which proves that the Taliban in Afghanistan is fundamentally opposed to Opium production and the illicit drug trade being employed in the world. One need merely Google it or Wikipedia the information on the "golden triangle", "golden crescent" and various other information concerning drug cultivation, production and export.

Some officials claim that the fatwah declared on Opium production was merely a ploy to increase demand, thus raising the level of profits. However, the fact that the fatwah clearly curtailed the production of Opium in Afghanistan and completely decimated the export of it from that region, causes any logical person to consider such a theory to be extremely thin.