“From Bad They Made It Worse” The concentration of opium poppy in areas of conflict in the provinces of Helmand and Nangarhar

Levels of drug crop cultivation have long been seen as an indicator of the success or failure of counternarcotics efforts. However, to rely on this indicator is to misunderstand the socioeconomic and political processes that support farmers moving out of opium poppy cultivation, as well as the limited scope of many interventions currently categorized and budgeted as “counternarcotics” by the international community and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA).