Poppy farmers in Afghanistan

In Badakshan, northern Afghanistan, these farmers grow poppy as a cash-crop. “People here grow opium because they have to…otherwise their children would die,” a farmer tells us.

Poppy pays for their children’s school, although most of the profits go to the big traffickers, powerful men who can afford the political protection that money can buy.

The poor farmers across the globe who grow illicit plants, and grew them before they were illicit, suffer from the War on Drugs. Their crops are destroyed, but the trade goes on. Why? Because there is, and history tells us there has always been, a demand.