wonder if our government/military/TPTB isn't cashing in on the heroin trade in Afghanistan. I know it's a fairly large country but someone is letting somebody grow poppies. You would think poppy fields would be pretty visible from the air and with satellites.
But in retrospect, I know our government wouldn't be involved in something so sleazy as heroin/drugs.....and smuggling arms and chemical weapons...now the Russians otoh....

Vietnam fueled the massive supply of drugs available for recreational use during the 60's and early 70's. A whole lot of soldiers were sending happy packages home encased inside speakers and stereo systems.

We had black Afghan hash, opium and opiated black Afghan hash. Thai Sticks were a real treat. Soldiers stationed in Germany carried a soft brown hash home for the holidays. Then there were the unknown quantities of drugs shipped by the CIA:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_involvement_in_Contra_cocaine_traffi...

Gary Webb's career was ruined in spite of, or because of his investigative reporting:

While finding this part of the series unsupported, Schou said that some of the series' claims on CIA involvement are supported, writing that "The CIA conducted an internal investigation that acknowledged in March 1998 that the agency had covered up Contra drug trafficking for more than a decade." According to Schou, the investigation "confirmed key chunks of Webb's allegations." In a later article in the LA Weekly, Schou wrote that Webb was "vindicated by a 1998 CIA Inspector General report, which revealed that for more than a decade the agency had covered up a business relationship it had with Nicaraguan drug dealers like Blandón."[78]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb

I guess you could say war is good for something. Of course total legalization of all drugs would be a complete disaster for narcotic traffickers or "narco terrorists" if you prefer.

There is no law enforcement solution to the problem of drug addiction. Incarceration is not a solution for drug abuse. The only solutions to a drug "epidemic" are mental health and social services solutions.

For generations opium has been a staple crop:

"The major source of income for people in Helmand is opium," he says.

Abdullah says his family grows about 150 pounds and make about $9,000 a year, which is four times what they can make from any other crop.

"We understand that opium is bad," he says. "All drugs are bad. But, it's difficult for us seeing a neighbor with a new car when we are riding bicycles. So, we have to do this to have a better life."

http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2013/11/14/245040114/afghan-farmer...

Opium is nothing new under the sun:

The oldest scriptures mentioning the cultivation of poppy have been found on Sumerian clay tablets that date back to 3400 BC. Through the Assyrians, for whom poppy was considered the “plant of life” and the “medicine of the gods,” the cultivation of opium poppy spread to Egypt, with Thebes as its centre, and to Cyprus in the 13th century BC. A statue of the Minoan ‘Moon Goddess of Gasi’ found on Crete and shown in the Museum of Heraklion, wears an opium poppy crown with the pods scratched (a photo here)

https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/on-the-cultural-history-of-opium-an...

War is the opium of the oligarchy.

From what I vaguely understand, the original Taliban suppressed opium production for both moral and power reasons. The war lords who the Taliban opposed got bunches of money growing the stuff. After control of the Taliban was broken, the war lords starting growing again. I think at this point the new Taliban jumped in and started demanding protection money from the war lords. In effect, our war lord allies were in league with the Taliban.

Looks like the Taliban is now growing the poppy seeds themselves. Probably same protection schemes with war lords in other areas.