Afghanistan: Afghanistan’s Heroin Boom Years Ended with US Military Exit, UN Report Shows

Jan 17, 2026
bne IntelliNews
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Opium production in Afghanistan boomed during the two decades in which largely US forces propped up a Washington-approved government – but it has collapsed since the Taliban retook power in the country in August 2021.

The stark decline in both poppy cultivation and opium output is explored in the Aghanistan Opium Survey 2025, released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

It shows that sustained enforcement of a ban on growing opium poppy crops, combined with drought conditions that caused crop failures, have driven down output, especially in Badakhshan, a northeastern province of Afghanistan bordering Tajikistan, China and Pakistan that is the country’s main opium poppy producing province.