"The motives for the Taliban ban have been challenged,
as possibly a move to raise prices by restricting production. It does seem likely that the Taliban had large stocks of processed opium on hand, perhaps even a year's worth, as was widely reported by the London Guardian and others.
Nevertheless, we can conclude that:
1) In 2000 the Taliban decreed an almost totally effective ban on opium cultivation, a fact reported at the time of the November-December 2000 planting season;
2) The Northern Alliance responded by radically increasing opium cultivation, amounting to 90 percent of Afghanistan's 2001 opium crop; (Our allies!)
3) However the 2001 crop of an estimated 185 metric tonnes (MT) of raw opium represented a reduction in opium production of 94% from the 2000 total of 3,276 MT, and a reduction of 96% from the record high of 4,581 MT reported by the 1999 survey. Furthermore the net reduction of approximately 3,100 MT in Afghan opium production has apparently not been offset by increases in other areas or countries.
4) Thus the world heroin traffic was on the point of experiencing a major reduction after 2001. It now appears that this may not happen, if as alleged there is a rapid expansion of opium cultivation in provinces seized by the Northern Alliance with US support."
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~pdscott/qf7.htmlSo, I guess, when our good buddy Ahmad Shah Masood was growing the stuff it was alright, but if the Talibs do it, it's a bad thing.
Smells just about right, to me.