Satellite Imagery Shows the Taliban Appears To Sharply Reduce Opium Cultivation In Afghanistan. Annual opium cultivation has dropped by as much as 80 percent compared to the year before.

With the Taliban having exceeded expectations and reduced poppy cultivation to levels not seen since 2001, there is now a real need to understand the potential effects of the drugs ban on Afghanistan, the region, and further downstream. For many of us old enough to have seen a particular style of music, or clothes, come round a second or third time, the term “unprecedented” is often overused. Those who are from Afghanistan, or worked there for a sustained period, are likely to feel much the same