re: #421 kirkspencer

Yep. They collect taxes (to simplify the description) on the business. It’s an interesting concept: “we don’t like it, we’re going to try and stop it, but while it exists we’re also going to collect our pound of flesh.”

They weren’t in power at the time of the report, hence the “the Taliban and other anti-government forces ” sentence

ALSO

He also pointed to the danger of opium stocks held by the Taliban. “For a number of years, Afghan opium production has exceeded world demand. The bottom should have fallen out of the opium market, but it hasn’t. So where is the missing opium?” said Mr. Costa. “Lack of price response in the opium market can only be the result of stock build-ups, and all evidence points to the Taliban”.

So they were stockpiling it for later sale, meaning they didn’t need as much active production at that time