Two Afghan Anti-Poppy Harvesting Stickers

Kabul: Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, [ca. 2004]. Two round stickers, approx. 5 ¾ in. diameter. Text in Dari.

Two anti-poppy harvesting stickers produced by the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan several years after the American invasion in 2001. Produced in conjunction with aggressive U.S.-backed eradication efforts, these stickers suggest a harsh violence related to poppy: one depicts a skeleton hanged by a poppy plant, and the other shows the country literally gripped by poppy.

Ultimately, however, poppy eradication efforts have not been successful in a region of the country whose economy is reliant on production of the plant. In 2017, U.S. military commanders claimed that opium poppy production generated $200 million per year for the Taliban. In fact, Vanda Felbab-Brown of the Brookings Institute testified to British parliament in 2019 that, “Most counternarcotics measures adopted since 2001 have been ineffective or outright counterproductive economically, politically, and with respect to counterinsurgency and stabilization efforts” -- a sentiment shared by a number of other policymakers and thinkers across the ideological spectrum.

Powerful artifacts of the international drug trade in the 21st century, and failed attempts to control it - and, indirectly, a record of the longest foreign war waged by the United States. 

Very good.