“This year’s first poppy harvest season has just begun, and the bright red flowers are garish splotches across the heavily irrigated landscape. But unlike in previous years, there will be no serious efforts to eradicate the opium crop in Helmand, because of a combination of Taliban advances and out-of-control corruption, with both sides battling over the drug trade.”
Source: Corrupt Combatants Fight for Control of Lucrative Afghan Drug Trade – The New York Times