Afghanistan’s opium trade has endured despite attempted bans from both the Taliban and U.S.-backed governments. While the Taliban’s recent rise back into power was partially funded by opium, the reality was actually much more complicated than that. The opium trade and the poppy plant itself actually play a huge role in Afghanistan’s rural economy. Making the drug illegal would jeopardize the livelihood of Afghan farmers, the Taliban’s main political base of support. So what exactly does it mean for the Taliban to announce a new attempt to ban opium? We spoke to independent researcher David Mansfield, author of the book “A State Built on Sand: How Opium Undermined Afghanistan” to find out more about Afghanistan’s complicated relationship with the drug.
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