Heroin is the most widely consumed opioid in Europe, with 9.5 tonnes seized in 2021. This powerful opiate, synthesized from morphine extracted from poppies, has seen its production increase over the years, devastating entire populations, as was the case in Afghanistan. By 2022, Afghanistan was producing 80-90% of the world’s heroin, a figure which plummeted by 95% in April 2022 with the return to power of the Taliban and the banning of poppy cultivation throughout the country.
A brief history of heroin
The first report of heroin being used as a medicine dates back to 1874. Considered by some doctors to be a “miracle” substitute for morphine, which, on the contrary, was too addictive for patients, its soothing effects on the sick prompted the Bayer pharmacological group to market the drug as a medicine as early as 1898.
According to documents from Bayer’s archives in Leverkusen, by 1899 Bayer was selling heroin in over 20 countries.
From 1900 onwards, numerous articles were published on the addictive effect of the product and the ever-increasing demand from patients for their fix.
By 1910, heroin was circulating in criminal circles, easier to obtain than opium and cheaper than cocaine.
In 1924, the United States banned the product on its soil, and it wasn’t until the 20th century that its production, sale and possession were banned.
Consequences of banning poppy cultivation in Afghanistan
On August 15, 2021, the Taliban took back power by force in Afghanistan. A smooth, lightning military campaign. In just 10 days, ex-president Ashrat Ghali capitulated and resigned from office.
On April 3, 2022, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, officially banned poppy cultivation in the country, demanding that all plantations discovered be destroyed and their growers punished.
This same ban had been decreed in 2000, before the overthrow of the regime by the international coalition and the deployment of its forces in the country in response to the September 11th 2001 attacks in the United States.
