The CIA is not happy about the drop in US black budget funding.
CIA is absolutely seething, they even wrote this completely unironically https://www.usip.org/publications/2023/06/talibans-successful-opium-ban-bad-afghans-and-world
Never heard of the US Institute of Peace before. The word “Orwellian” gets thrown around a lot these days, but that name really is up there with various ministries in the book.
TLDR: The unprecedented fall in cultivation follows the Taliban’s decision to prohibit the growing of poppies for opium in April last year.
Is the implication that the US did not prohibit growing poppies for opium?
Edit: Apparently, this is true per the article OP linked below.
Also relevant is how this is the second time the Taliban puts in place such policy, when they were overthrown by US military forces and opium production rose as high as it ever was during US occupation.
