One word: Drought. As of the last time I was there, two years ago, 80% of the opium and heroin produced in Afghanistan was going to Europe, through Iran and Turkey. Various forms of enroute "shrinkage" from some it sticking to various fingers on it's way accounts for most of the other 20%. Iran has a huge opium and heroin addiction rate, despite the fact that the official policy in Iran calls for the death penalty for mere possession of narcotics. Prices had been up for awhile and the Taliban had been hurting for cash because a multi-year drought in the whole area was cut production every year. The Taliban tax the farmers by the acre of opium cultivated, not by the amount of opium harvested and that was putting the squeeze on the farmers and pissing them off. Meanwhile the Iranians and been trying to trade weapons to convince the Taliban in Helmand province to blow up the dam on the Helmand river to increase water flow because Iran can't provide enough water to their own people. Taliban said nah, because that would mean fucking their own people. An Afghani captain working at a border entry point on the Iranian border makes about $4,000 per day in export bribes paid per kilo. BTW: https://poal.co/s/WorldNews/420685 Called it.