Two years after the US withdrawal, Afghanistan’s drug economy is thriving.

Opium sales alone tripled in 2022, only two years after the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

According to a new report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the Taliban’s efforts to suppress the drug trade in the country have had little effect on opium production and the burgeoning meth industry.

Opium cultivation increased by 32% in the country’s first year under Taliban rule, with sales increasing from $425 million in 2021 to $1.4 billion in 2022.

In the meantime, a spokesperson for the Taliban’s Ministry of Interior insisted that the industry would be incapacitated within four years.

“It is still possible for people to engage in these activities in secret, so we cannot say with absolute certainty that the problem has been eliminated.” It is impossible to eliminate it in such a brief period of time, according to spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani. However, we have a four-year strategic plan to eliminate drugs in general and meth in particular.

The persistence of opium cultivation parallels the increase in meth production that occurred during the United States’ withdrawal. According to the report, annual meth seizures within Afghanistan increased from 220 pounds in 2019 to 6,000 pounds in 2021.

According to experts, there are several reasons why Afghans would resort to making meth rather than heroin or cocaine, which are also prevalent in the country.

“You don’t need to wait for something to grow,” said Angela Me, chief of the UNODC’s Research and Trend Analysis Branch. “Land is unnecessary. Only chefs and knowledge are necessary. Mobile and concealed, meth labs are mobile. Afghanistan is also home to the ephedra plant, which is absent in the world’s two largest meth-producing nations: Myanmar and Mexico. It’s lawful in Afghanistan, and it grows everywhere, but you need a lot of it.”

It has been discovered that methamphetamine produced in Afghanistan is being sold in Africa and Europe, and drug abuse continues to be a significant issue in Afghanistan. According to a health official in Afghanistan, approximately 20,000 individuals are hospitalized for substance abuse.

The U.N. report is released approximately a week after the two-year anniversary of President Biden’s military withdrawal from the country, which occurred in August 2021.