From the New York Times: Afghanistan will produce another enormous opium poppy crop this year, close to last year’s record harvest, and Europe and other regions should brace themselves for the expected influx of heroin, the United Nations warned in its annual winter survey of poppy planting patterns. Cultivation is still increasing in the insurgency-hit south and west of the country, the report said, and taxes on the crop have become a major source of revenue for the Taliban insurgency.[…] Most poppy farmers in the south and west of the country said they paid a tax to mullahs, the Taliban, or local officials, the report said. Past blog posts on state-side illicit drug taxes here and here.
