The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a new report that there are increasing signs of large methamphetamine manufacture in Afghanistan and expanded trafficking through South Asia for global markets.

The World Drug Report 2023 also stated in the report that the bulk of global illicit opium production continues to take place in Afghanistan, wherein in 2022, production reached 6,200 tonnes, equivalent to 80% of the estimated global production.

It also stated that there was less opium being produced in Afghanistan (10 per cent less) as compared to last year due to droughts in early 2022.

The report emphasised that the 2023 opium harvest in Afghanistan may see a drastic drop following the 2022 national drug ban, with possible global consequences. Early reports even suggest reductions in poppy cultivation in Afghanistan.

The report highlighted that the recent drug ban by the Taliban may be changing the drug supply in that country. “Continued reports and seizure events involving methamphetamine originating in Afghanistan suggest that the drug economy in that country is no longer exclusively dominated by illicit cultivation and trafficking of opiates,” the report stressed.

It also stated that the increase in the use and manufacture of methamphetamine in Afghanistan is of growing concern in South-West Asia and the Gulf, where trafficking in the substance is expanding beyond this region.

Alternative cultivation for farmers in Afghanistan and other countries is a vital factor in reducing poppy cultivation, according to the report and UNODC has called the lack of alternative cultivation options as detrimental for many farmers.

The UN has called on donor countries to immediately support rural Afghans so they can earn a living without cultivation of drugs.

The Taliban banned the cultivation and sale of narcotics in Afghanistan recently.