According to a UN doc cited on wikipedia, production pre-Taliban restriction reached a peak in 1999 with a bumper crop of 4,500 metric tons. [1] 99% of this was

According to a UN doc cited on wikipedia, production pre-Taliban restriction reached a peak in 1999 with a bumper crop of 4,500 metric tons. [1] 99% of this was wiped out in 2000 which amounted to a 75% reduction in the world supply of opium. So total world production was ~6,000 metric tons in 1999. According to this 2014 UN report [2] the total area of opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan was estimated at 224,000 hectares with an average yield of 28.7kg/hectare. Converting this to metric tons: 224,000 * 28.7 / 1,000 = 6,429 metric tons of opium produced. Report cites a possible range from 5,100-7,800 metric tons produced. So not only is Afghanistan back to pre-Taliban production levels, it is producing more than the entire world production of opium in 1999. This is just 15 years after a 99% eradication of the crop in the region. Interestingly, the farm gate value of this opium is only $850m. Using an average of the conversion ratios cited in the report (18.5:1 for pure heroin, 9.6:1 for export-grade heroin) and a price of $60,000USD/kg of heroin [3] we get a total processed value of $27.4bn. That's a crazy amount of value locked into processing and distribution. The Mexican govt seized ~3,600kg of opium seeds in 2014. [4] Assuming a seizure rate of 1%, we get a total opium crop of 360 metric tons, or ~5.5% of total Afghan opium production. I'm definitely not an expert here so please correct me if I've made any mistakes in drug weight/price conversions. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanistan#cite_ref-13 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanista... [2] https://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/Afghanistan/Afghan-opium-survey-2014.pdf https://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/Afghanistan/... [3] http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-drug-dealers-next-door-how-nyc-heroin-mills-are-blending-in/ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-drug-dealers-next-door-how-n... [4] http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/mexico-poppy-production-feeds-growing-us-heroin-demand http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/mexico-poppy-produ...