War and Drugs in Afghanistan

The cultivation of opium poppy in Afghanistan is nothing new. Although the drug economy diversified and became more vertically integrated after the fall of the Taliban, it had already emerged and deeply penetrated the politics and economics of Afghanistan several decades before. In the 1950s, major structural changes in the international opium and heroin market created the opportunity for the initial expansion of drug production and trade in Afghanistan. One of the market conditions allowing for the shift of opium production to Afghanistan was the change in Iran’s policies toward drugs. Although opium had been cultivated in Iran since the 11th century, its usage became a major problem in the 1950s, when the country had an estimated 1 million addicts. This rapid increase in the addiction rate led the Shah’s government to ban poppy cultivation in 1955. As Iranian supplies of opium disappeared, entrepreneurial Afghans stepped in, exploiting traditional smuggling routes.