poppy Archives - Marketplace

How the "economic fundamentals" of opium undermined U.S. strategy in Afghanistan

by Kai Ryssdal and Maria Hollenhorst

Aug 24, 2021

The U.S. spent billions trying to suppress Afghanistan’s illicit opium and heroin trade. It didn’t work.

A U.S. Marine sergeant patrols in an Afghan poppy field in 2011. With many farmers dependent on the opium trade, Jeffrey Clemens says, "the effort to win hearts and minds" was set back by the U.S. eradication program.

Bay Ismoyo/AFP via Getty Images

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