It's true enought that they didn't have as much of a problem with cultivating opium under the Taliban. We wouldn't have much of a drug problem in America either if our law enforcement consisted of beheading offenders, and displaying the flayed heads on stakes.

Almost half of Afghanistan's GDP comes from this trade. A farmer can make around $20,000 from a crop, a trade that means survival for many Afghanis. Even the field workers get paid twice as much as day laborers in construction or other work. That is an astounding amount of money over there. However, the criminal linkages mentioned in the article in that link are real dangers.

When the War on Some Drugs is scaled back, the profits will be as well. The free market always works.

Back in Wardak the impending war on poppy is viewed by the Muslim farmers as hypocritical and cruel. Just before we take leave of Nazir and his cousins, he asks me: "Why does America allow people to sell alcohol but not heroin? What is the difference? At least in Islam both are haram."

From your link:

Colombia is the source of over 90 percent of the cocaine and 50 percent of the heroin entering the U.S. the report said.

This left the question hanging: so where is Afghanistan's output going? Another article says that Afghanistan supplied 90 percent of the world's crop. Where is it all going, if most of America's opium comes from Columbia? I haven't found any numbers yet. Anybody else?