Afghanistan continued to account for the "majority (80 per cent) of global illicit opium production in 2022," the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a report.
Whereas, in a separate report, UNODC said that Afghanistan is home to an estimated 3.5 million drug users, which account for nearly 10 per cent of the total population, reports NDTV.
Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, however, refuted the claims and said that no further research on the country's poppy production had been conducted.
"It has been two years since the cultivation of poppy has been banned. I am sure that even one per cent has not been cultivated, if it was cultivated, it has been eliminated. It means that in 2023 we have absolutely cleaned Afghanistan of cultivation of poppy... the 80 per cent claim is not correct," he claimed.
The report said, "Since the political change in August 2021, most drug treatment and rehabilitation centres in the country are struggling to remain operational due to resource limitation."
Political analyst Wais Naseri said, "The ban on the cultivation of poppy and production of drugs and its trafficking can happen when there is international monitoring, and this process is being assisted by the international organizations and being practically put into effect."
Bd-pratidin English/Golam Rosul
