Donate Now Today we drove out to Balkh, a rural region about 30 minutes outside of Mazar city. It was here that 
during the Taliban period poppy plants grew as far as the eye could see, supplying the raw material for drugs like opium and heroin around the world. After the fall of the Taliban, the West pressured the local government to destroy these fields, which they did quickly and efficiently. The destruction of the fields stemmed the flow of poppy in the global market, but it also eliminated a major source of income for the area. According to the Provincial Council president for Balkh Province, Farhad Azimi, the West has not done enough to help the province transition into new industries. Only a few people owned land where poppy was grown, but they employed many farmers and shopped in the local stores. Now that revenue stream is gone and as a consequence the people of Balkh Province are living on much lower income.
While in some fields poppy has been replaced by legitimate agriculture, in other areas, the land is being used for hashish production. While not as lucrative as poppy, hashish brings in more money than produce or wheat. Hash, illegal in the U.S., is discouraged in Afghanistan with a nod and a wink. While the government is sending out letters telling land owners to stop their hashish production, there is little enforcement. Azimi acknowledged that without funding from the West, there was little will to stop the production, which is still bringing some money into the area.
In Balkh hash can be bought at the local bazaar easily. An amount that would be sold in the U.S. for about $1,000 (a supply large enough to sustain even the heaviest hash smoker for at least a year) can be purchased for 300 afghani, or about $6. Our local source tells us that jihadis come up from Pakistan and the provinces of Helmand and Kandahar to buy the hash in bulk, to sell for distribution and fund their operations.
One of the shops in the bazaar where hash is sold in the open.
A strip of hash bought in the Balkh bazaar for 100 afghani or $2.
A snapshot of our reporting team in Balkh.