KABUL/PESHAWAR (Reuters) – The Taliban announced on Sunday a ban on the cultivation of narcotics in Afghanistan, the world’s biggest opium producer.
“As per 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,” according to an order from the Taliban’s supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada.
“If anyone violates the decree, the crop will be destroyed immediately and the violator will be treated according to the Sharia law,” the order, announced at a news conference by the Ministry of Interior in Kabul, said.
The order said the production, use or transportation of other narcotics was also banned.
Drug control has been one major demand of the international community of the Islamist group, which took over the country in August and is seeking formal international recognition in order to wind back sanctions that are severely hampering banking, business and development.
The Taliban banned poppy growing towards the end of their last rule in 2000 as they sought international legitimacy, but faced a popular backlash and later mostly changed their stance, according to experts.
Afghanistan’s opium production – which the United Nations estimated was worth $1.4 billion at its height in 2017 – has increased in recent months, farmers and Taliban members told Reuters.
The country’s dire economic situation has prompted residents of south-eastern provinces to grow the illicit crop that could bring them faster and higher returns than legal crops such as wheat.
Taliban sources told Reuters they were anticipating tough resistance from some elements within the group against the ban on poppy and that there had been a surge in the number of farmers cultivating poppy in recent months.
A farmer in Helmand who spoke on condition of anonymity said that in recent weeks prices of poppy had already more than doubled on rumours the Taliban would ban its cultivation. But he added that he needed to grow poppy to support his family.
“Other crops are just not profitable,” he said.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/taliban-bans-drug-cultivation-including-094947888.html
I wonder what kind of affect this will have on pain medication?
10 MEDICATIONS THAT ARE OPIUM DERIVATIVES::
https://opium.com/derivatives/10-medications-opium-derivatives/
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Years ago when drug companies went “ generic”, I believe the real pain relievers were taken out of the prescription drugs that we the common people bought. The generic is a chemical concoction that helps with pain to a degree but has very bad side effects. I believe the elites still have access to the real pain meds. The politics involved in getting pain meds for a real medical problem is insane. It is infuriating to be given muscle relaxers when you have an MRI showing 3 severely herniated spinal disk with L 5 nerve impinged. So, take care of your health, b/c you certainly cant depend on the bastards in the hospital, especially in Fl.
If , someone has another view about generic drugs I welcome it, thanks
The Fed govt (DEA) has aligned themselves with big pharma and pharmacies to track, log, and quantify pain meds. Most notably anything with a narcotic value to it.
There is a data base, Drug Monitoring Program, PDMP (if you’re in PA), that links this all. All pharmacies/pharmacists have access to it. That’s how they can know if a patient is filling narcotic or controlled substances by another doc, if applicable. It also allows the prescribing doc to know whose on what, if there’s other docs giving meds, etc.
In a positive way, we know who is lying to us – “ nope, I’m a new pt, I need a new primary doc” versus the pt hoping to score meds. It’s multi faceted. A myriad of conflicts of interest arise…
Without the drug monitoring program, we’d have never known that thus 68 yr old woman was still filling narc/pain med prescription in her husband’s name, across 7 states! This lady wAs raking in like 20K a month in prescription meds! No exaggeration. This was about 4 yrs ago.
They’re just cornering the market.
“Rules for thee, not for me” comes to mind.
Agree! That phrase is so applicable, For so many discussions and topics. And the variety of articles submitted by the trenchers, is so clear, and conclusions are met:
“Rules for thee, not for me“.