This is how the Taliban's drug prohibition is killing us
In 2021, the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan. And since the taliban introduced drug prohibition there, opium production has completely collapsed in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan accounted for 90 percent of world production of opium poppies, which are the raw material for heroin. As a result, heroin production fell by as much as 70 percent last year. So reports the UNODC, the organization within the United Nations that fights against drugs and crime.
This is not good news as it causes drug users to resort to one of the most dangerous and addictive drugs. The illegal, synthetic alternatives they start using have stronger effects than heroin and dramatically increase the risk of a lethal dose. For example, fentanyl and nitazenes have long been known to plague nightlife and society in Europe, the U.S. and Canada.
Fentanyl is said to be up to 200 times more potent than morphine and some nitazenes are said to be up to 10,000 (!) times more potent than morphine. You immediately go into a coma if you swallow a crystal or get it in your eye. A sure ticket to death if you start with these drugs.
(SR for Tagtik/Source: EMCDDA/Illustration picture: Unsplash)
