War. Tyranny. War. Tyranny. And war again.

Against this backdrop, you can’t expect much from the Afghanistan economy. And yet, one industry has bounced back, producing record gross returns. But there’ve been few Hurrahs. Why? The product is opium, made from the lovely poppy.

This year Afghans are producing a second bumper crop, and the heroin derived from it will glut the European market. Street prices are falling. This disturbs Western governments. Their drug wars have always been hit-or-miss, no matter how many billions spent. Now, in the midst of actual, bomb-and-bullet mass warfare, opium production is up. The only successful halt to Afghan’s opium production was when the U.S. bribed the Taliban to put an end to it.

The ruthless Taliban forbade poppy harvesting, and its effort may have been the most successful drug interdiction in world history. This doesn’t seem like such a triumph anymore. When America blasted the Taliban out of power, Afghans quickly went back to the poppy. Yes, certain farmers have been induced to stop growing, but some of those inducers have wound up dead. “We are not in love with the poppy,” an Afghan farmer recently explained. “We grow it because we have to. The government destroyed our land and then paid us nothing. . . . If we don’t get our due soon, we are ready to start growing again.”

War is tragedy. Drug wars, too. In Afghanistan, apparently, we can expect not only tragedy but a bumper crop of opium.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.