Taliban Bans Weed Cultivation

Taliban-controlled Afghanistan’s Shariah law now bans the cultivation of weeds, along with a long list of other basic freedoms.

express tribune report Taliban supreme leader Mauravi Hibatullah Akunzada issued a nationwide ban on cannabis cultivation in Kabul, Afghanistan. If someone is found growing cannabis, the business will be destroyed and violators will be punished according to Sharia law.

“There is a total ban on growing it all over the country, and if anyone does, it will destroy the plantation. The court was also ordered to punish violators in accordance with Sharia law.” said Akunzada.

What is Akunzada? CBS news report On February 17, 2023, Akunzada said he had essentially brought Afghanistan back to the “Stone Age” and adopted one of the strictest Sharia laws. Within two years, he was taking women out of the country’s schools again.

What exactly are the penalties under Sharia law? The “crimes” of apostasy, treason, adultery, slander, and alcohol have penalties including amputation, flogging, and/or death. This includes punishment for exposing a woman’s body or hair.

The cannabis (and opium) trade is believed to have “fueled militants” in Afghanistan before the Taliban took power in 2021.

On April 14, 2021, President Joe Biden announced that he would withdraw the remaining troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, 20 years after September 11. Since then, four presidents have failed to dismantle the Taliban. However, after announcing their withdrawal, Taliban forces quickly took action, capturing the capital Kabul and overthrowing the government on 15 August 2021. The Taliban announced their suppression about a month later.

Cannabis in Afghanistan

Cannabis cultivation is by no means a limited underground phenomenon in Afghanistan.

For background, cannabis remains one of the most produced crops by farmers across the country. Afghanistan is “the second most frequently reported country of origin for seized cannabis resin globally, accounting for 18% of all reports of major ‘country of origin’ over the period 2015-2019.” ,” said the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC). ) report Only Morocco reports more seizures of cannabis resin.

Between 10,000 and 24,000 hectares of cannabis are grown in Afghanistan each year, with major operations in 17 of the 34 states reported by UNODC in 2010.

If you look at what the Taliban have done in the past, it’s kind of a double standard. Before the Taliban regained power in his 2021 year, militants reportedly “siphoned millions of dollars” from cannabis farmers and smugglers who ship them.

Creating more hypocrisy, the Taliban claimed to partner with medical cannabis companies in 2021.

Taliban Press Director Kali Said Hosti A deal was signed between the government and a cannabis company called Cpharm to set up a $450 million cannabis processing center in Afghanistan, and the facility will be described as “Up and running within daysThe news spread all over the world, Times of London.

This was also consistent with reports from Afghanistan’s Pajhwok Afghan News Service that representatives of the company had met with drug enforcement officers from the Ministry of Interior to discuss the manufacture of medicines and creams.

Cpharm Australia, which was the first company named in reports as being involved in the deal, has since denounced the allegations. Reuters.

Cannabis cultivation has been banned in the country for the time being.