A U.S. Marine patrols through a poppy field in a village in the Golestan district of Farah province, Afghanistan (Reuters)Taliban Drug Cartels, Not Poverty, Forcing Afghan Farmers To Grow Opium -- The Australian
TALIBAN insurgents in Afghanistan have formed Colombian-style drug cartels that sell opium to fund the bloody nine-year insurgency, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable.
Released by website whistleblower WikiLeaks, the 2009 cable rejects the popular notion that poverty forces Afghan farmers into opium production.
A September 2009 briefing by the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) at NATO headquarters was told that the main factor driving Afghan opium production was coercion of local farmers by Taliban insurgents.
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My Comment: I remembered reading many newspaper reports (30 years ago) that it was poverty that was fueling Colombia's growing drug problem. That farmers earned far more from selling cocoa leaves than coffee. While some of this was probably true, the bottom line was that it was a well funded and protected drug racket/cartel that managed and reaped the rewards from such a trade.
I suspect the same can now be said on what is happening in today's Afghanistan, but unlike Colombia, everyone from the family of the President of Afghanistan down to the local farmer is on in this racket.