Balancing an AK-47 assault rifle slung around his left shoulder and with a large stick in his right hand, Abdul hits the heads of poppies as hard as he can. The stalks fly in the air, as does the sap from the poppy bulb, releasing the distinctive, pungent smell of opium in its most raw form.

阿卜杜勒左肩挎着一支AK-47突击步枪，右手拿着一根大棍子平衡身体，他拼命地击打罂粟花的头部。罂粟花的球、茎飞出汁液，释放出鸦片最原始的、刺激性的气味。

Within a matter of minutes, Abdul and a dozen other men raze the poppy crop which covered the small field. Then the armed men, all wearing a shalwar kameez (a traditional Afghan tunic with loose fitting trousers), most with long beards and some with kohl-lined eyes, pile into the back of a pickup truck and move on to the next farm.

几分钟内，阿卜杜勒和另外十几个男人摧毁了覆盖在小田地上的罂粟花作物。然后这些手持武器的男人们（他们都穿着传统的阿富汗长袍配宽松的裤子），大多留着长胡子，有些眼睛画了烟熏妆，挤上皮卡车的后座，前往下一片农田。

The men belong to a Taliban anti-narcotics unit in the eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, and we've been given rare access to join them on one of their patrols to eradicate poppy farming. Less than two years ago the men were insurgent fighters, part of a war to seize control of the country. Now they've won and are on the ruling side, enforcing the orders of their leader.

这些男人是阿富汗东部南加尔省塔利班缉毒部队的成员，我们得到了罕见的机会加入他们的巡逻行动，铲除罂粟种植业。还不到两年前，这些人是叛乱战士，参与夺取阿富汗的战争。现在，他们已经赢了，并且处于执政方，执行他们领袖的命令。

In April 2022, Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada decreed that cultivation of the poppy - from which opium, the key ingredient for the drug heroin can be extracted - was strictly prohibited. Anyone violating the ban would have their field destroyed and be penalised according to Sharia law.

2022年4月，塔利班最高领袖海巴图拉·阿克洪扎达发布命令，严禁种植罂粟——从罂粟中提取鸦片，是制造海洛因毒品的关键成分。任何违反禁令的人都将被毁掉他们的农田，并根据伊斯兰教法惩罚。

A Taliban spokesman told the BBC they imposed the ban because of the harmful effects of opium - which is taken from the poppy seed capsules - and because it goes against their religious beliefs. Afghanistan used to produce more than 80% of the world's opium. Heroin made from Afghan opium makes up 95% of the market in Europe.

一名塔利班发言人告诉BBC，他们实施禁令是因为鸦片的有害影响——从罂粟的种子荚中提取——并且这违反了他们的宗教信仰。阿富汗曾经生产了全球80%以上的鸦片。由阿富汗鸦片制成的海洛因占欧洲市场的95%。

The BBC has now travelled in Afghanistan - and used satellite analysis - to examine the effects of the direct action on opium poppy cultivation. The Taliban leaders appear to have been more successful cracking down on cultivation than anyone ever has.

BBC现在已经前往阿富汗，并使用卫星分析，研究了直接打击罂粟种植业的影响。塔利班领导人似乎比任何人都更成功地打压了罂粟种植业。

We found a huge fall in poppy growth in major opium-growing provinces, with one expert saying annual cultivation could be 80% down on last year. Less-profitable wheat crops have supplanted poppies in fields - and many farmers saying they are suffering financially.

我们发现，主要的鸦片种植省份中罂粟花的种植量大幅下降，有专家称年度种植量可能比去年少80%。不赚钱的小麦作物代替了罂粟花，许多农民表示他们在经济上遭受了苦难。

We travelled to provinces including Nangarhar, Kandahar and Helmand, drove through bumpy, mud roads, walked for miles in remote, mountainous areas, making our way through farmland, leaping across gurgling streams to see the reality on the ground.

我们前往南加尔、坎大哈和赫尔曼德等省份，驶过崎岖不平的泥路，穿越偏远山区的地带，跃过潺潺流水，以了解当地的现实情况。

The Taliban decree wasn't applied to the 2022 opium harvest, which according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) increased by a third over 2021.

塔利班的法令并未适用于2022年的鸦片收成，据联合国毒品和犯罪问题办公室称，该收成比2021年增加了三分之一。

This year though, is very different. The evidence we saw on the ground is backed up by imagery taken from above.

然而，今年情况大不相同。我们所看到的证据得到了从空中拍摄的图像的支持。

David Mansfield, a leading expert on Afghanistan's drugs trade, is working with Alcis - a UK firm which specialises in satellite analysis.

阿富汗毒品贸易专家大卫·曼斯菲尔德正在与英国卫星分析公司Alcis合作。
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"It is likely that cultivation will be less than 20% of what it was in 2022. The scale of the reduction will be unprecedented," he says.

他说：“种植面积可能会少于2022年的20%。这种减少规模是史无前例的。”
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A large number of farmers have complied with the ban, and Taliban fighters have been destroying the crops of those that haven't.

大量农民已遵守禁令，塔利班战士一直在摧毁那些没有遵守禁令的庄稼。

Toor Khan, the commander of the Taliban patrol unit we are with in Nangarhar, tells us he and his men have been destroying poppy fields for nearly five months, and have cleared tens of thousands of hectares of the crop.

我们在南加尔省与塔利班巡逻队指挥官图尔·汗在一起，他告诉我们他和他的士兵已经摧毁了近五个月的罂粟田，并清理了数万公顷的庄稼。

"You're destroying my field, God destroy your home," one woman shouts angrily at the Taliban unit as they raze her poppy field.

“你们摧毁我的庄稼，上帝会毁掉你们的家，”一名妇女愤怒地对着塔利班部队喊道，他们正在摧毁她的罂粟田。

"I'd told you this morning to destroy it yourself. You didn't, so now I have to," Toor Khan screams back. She retreats indoors.

“我早上告诉你们自己摧毁它。你们没有，所以现在我必须这样做，”图尔·汗回应。她退回室内。

Her son is detained by the Taliban, released with a warning a few hours later.

她的儿子被塔利班扣留，几个小时后被释放并受到警告
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The Taliban go armed and in large numbers, because there have been instances of resistance from angry locals in this area. At least one civilian was killed in a shooting during the eradication campaign and there are reports of other violent clashes.

塔利班武装人数众多，因为该地区曾经发生过愤怒的当地人进行反抗的情况。在铲除行动期间，至少有一名平民被枪杀，有报告称还发生了其他暴力冲突。

Farmer Ali Mohammad Mia has a stricken look on his face as he watches the unit destroy his field. Pink poppy flowers, green bulbs and broken stems cover the ground when they are done.

农民阿里·穆罕默德·米亚脸上带着沮丧的表情，看着部队摧毁他的田地。当工作完成时，粉红色的罂粟花、绿色的球果和折断的茎蔓覆盖了地面。

Why did he cultivate poppy despite the ban, we ask.

我们询问他为什么违反禁令种植罂粟。

"If you have no food at home, and your children are going hungry, what else would you do," he says. "We don't have large pieces of land. If we grew wheat on them we would make a fraction of what we could from opium."

他说："如果家里没有食物，你的孩子们正在挨饿，你还能做什么呢？我们没有大片土地。如果我们在上面种小麦，我们赚不了罂粟赚的零头。"

What is remarkable is the speed at which the Taliban carry out the job using only sticks. Six fields, each between 200-300 sq m in size, are cleared in just over half an hour.

值得注意的是，塔利班用棍子在短时间内完成了铲除工作。在短短半个小时内，他们清除了六个面积在200-300平方米之间的田地。

How do they feel about destroying a source of income for their own people who are going hungry, we ask Toor Khan.

我们问图尔·汗，他们如何看待摧毁自己人的收入来源，这些人正在挨饿。

"It is the order of our leader. Our allegiance to him is such that if he told my friend to hang me, I would accept it and surrender myself to my friend," he says.

他说："这是我们领袖的命令。我们对他的忠诚是如此之高，如果他让我的朋友把我绞死，我会接受，并向我的朋友投降。"

Helmand province in the south-west used to be Afghanistan's opium heartland, producing more than half of the country's opium. We travel there independently of the Taliban's anti-narcotics unit, to see first-hand how it now looks.

西南部的赫尔曼德省曾经是阿富汗的罂粟中心地带，生产了该国超过一半的罂粟。我们和塔利班的禁毒部队分开前往该省，亲眼看看它现在的情况。
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Last year when we were in the province, we saw swathes of land covered with poppy fields. This time we can't spot a single field of the crop.

去年我们在该省时，看到大片土地上覆盖着罂粟田。这次我们找不到一块罂粟的田地。


Alcis's analysis shows that poppy cultivation in Helmand has reduced by more than 99%. "The high resolution imagery of Helmand province shows that poppy cultivation is down to less than 1,000 hectares when it was 129,000 hectares the previous year," says David Mansfield.

Alcis的分析显示，赫尔曼德省的罂粟种植面积减少了99%以上。大卫·曼斯菲尔德表示：“赫尔曼德省的高分辨率图像显示，罂粟种植面积已经下降到不到1,000公顷，而前一年则为129,000公顷。”

We meet farmer Niamatullah Dilsoz in the Marjah district - south of Helmand's capital, Lashkar Gah - while he is harvesting wheat. Last year, he grew poppy in the same field. He tells us farmers in Helmand, a Taliban stronghold, have all but complied with the ban.

我们在拉什卡尔加南部的马尔贾区与农民尼亚马图拉·迪尔索兹见面，他正在收割小麦。去年，他在同一个地块种植了罂粟。他告诉我们，塔利班势力蔓延的赫尔曼德的农民们几乎都遵守了禁令。

"A few farmers tried to grow poppy in their courtyards hidden behind walls, but the Taliban found out and destroyed those fields," Niamatullah says.

"尼亚马图拉说：“一些农民试图在他们的庭院里种植罂粟，隐藏在墙后，但是塔利班发现并摧毁了那些田地。”
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Except for the sound of wheat stalks being cut and the calls of birds, it is quiet in the farm. During the war, the field was a front line. Helmand was where UK troops had a base and where they fought some of their fiercest battles.

除了小麦被切割的声音和鸟儿的叫声，农场里非常安静。在战争期间，这片田地曾是前线战场。赫尔曼德是英国部队的基地，他们在那里进行了一些最激烈的战斗。

Niamatullah is in his early twenties. This is the first time in his life that he doesn't fear being hit by a bomb when venturing out. But for a people already battered by a long war, the opium ban has struck a crushing blow, coming as it does amid an economic collapse which has caused near universal poverty in Afghanistan. Two thirds of the population don't know where their next meal will come from.

尼亚马图拉二十出头。这是他生命中第一次没有害怕冒险被炸弹袭击。但对于一个已经被长期战争折磨的民族来说，鸦片禁令打击致命，因为它是在经济崩溃之际出现的，这导致阿富汗几乎普遍陷入贫困，三分之二的人口不知道下一餐从哪里来。

"We are very upset. Wheat earns us less than a quarter of what we used to make from opium," he says. "I can't meet my family's needs. I've had to take a loan. Hunger is at its peak and we haven't got any help from the government."

他说:“我们非常沮丧。 小麦收入不到我们从罂粟中赚到的四分之一，我无法满足家人的需求。 我不得不借款。 饥饿达到了顶峰，政府没有给我们任何帮助。”

We ask Zabiullah Mujahid, the Taliban government's main spokesman, what his government is doing to help people.

我们问塔利班政府的发言人扎比乌拉·穆贾希德，他的政府正在做事情来帮助人民。

"We know that people are very poor and they are suffering. But opium's harm outweighed its benefits. Four million of our people from a population of 37 million were suffering from drug addiction. That is a big number," he says. "As far as alternative sources of livelihood go, we want the international community to help Afghans who are facing losses."

他说:“我们知道人民非常贫困，他们正在受苦。但罂粟带来的伤害大于好处。从3700万人口中，有400万人患有药物成瘾。这是个很大的数字。”他说：“至于替代生计，我们希望国际社会帮助面临损失的阿富汗人民。”

He rejects assertions by the UN, the US and other governments that opium was a major source of income for the Taliban when they were fighting against Western forces and the previous Afghan regime.

他驳斥了联合国、美国和其他国家关于罂粟是塔利班与西方军队和前阿富汗政权作战时的主要收入来源的说法。

How can they expect international organisations to help, when the Taliban government has jeopardised their operations and funding by banning women from working for all NGOs, we ask.

我们不禁要问，当塔利班政府禁止女性为所有非政府组织工作，从而危及他们的运作和资金时，他们怎么能指望国际组织的帮助呢？


"The international community should not lix humanitarian issues with political matters," replies Mujahid. "Opium isn't just harming Afghanistan, the whole world is affected by it. If the world is saved from this big evil then it is only fair that Afghan people receive help in return."

“国际社会不应将人道主义问题与政治问题联系起来，”穆贾希德回答道。“鸦片不仅危害阿富汗，整个世界都受到了影响。如果世界能够摆脱这个大恶魔，那么阿富汗人民得到帮助也是公平的。”

At the source, the impact of the ban on opium prices is already evident. In Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban and traditionally another major poppy-growing area, we meet a farmer who is holding on to a small stash of his harvest from last year - two plastic bags, each about the size of a football, filled with dark, smelly opium resin. We're hiding his identity to protect him.

在鸦片禁令的影响下，鸦片价格的下降已经显现出来。在坎大哈尔，塔利班的精神家园，也是另一个主要的罂粟种植区域，我们遇到了一位农民，他手里拿着去年收成的一小部分——两个足球大小的塑料袋，装满了黑色、发臭的鸦片树脂。我们隐藏了他的身份以保护他。

"Last year just before the ban, I sold a bag like this for a fifth of what I could get now. I'm waiting for the price to increase further so it can sustain my family for longer. Our situation is very bad. I've already taken a loan to buy food and clothes. Of course, I know opium is harmful, but what's the alternative?" he asks.

“去年就在禁令前，我以现在的五分之一的价格卖了一个像这样的袋子。我正在等待价格进一步上涨，这样可以维持家庭更长时间。我们的情况非常糟糕。我已经贷款买了食物和衣服。当然，我知道鸦片是有害的，但是还有什么选择呢？”他问道。
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It might take a while for the price impact to filter down the chain of illicit drug trafficking to the street price of heroin.

毒品交易链条中的价格影响可能需要一段时间才能传导到海洛因的街头价格上。

"While opium and heroin prices remain at a 20-year high, they've been falling over the last six months, despite such low levels of poppy cultivation this year," says Mansfield. "This suggests there are significant stocks in the system, and the production and trade in heroin continues. Seizures in neighbouring states and beyond also indicate a shortage of heroin is not imminent."

“尽管今年罂粟种植水平如此之低，但鸦片和海洛因的价格仍保持在20年高位，并在过去六个月内出现下降，”曼斯菲尔德说。“这表明系统中存在大量的库存，海洛因的生产和贸易仍在继续。邻国和其他地方的缉毒行动也表明，海洛因短缺并不会立即发生。”

Mike Trace - a former UNODC official - was a senior UK government drugs policy adviser when the Taliban's first regime banned opium cultivation in 2000, a year before the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

迈克·特雷斯是前联合国毒品和犯罪问题办公室官员，当塔利班第一次禁止鸦片种植时，他是英国政府的高级毒品政策顾问，那是在美国领导的阿富汗入侵的一年前。

"That didn't lead to a massive and immediate impact on Western prices and markets, because there is an awful lot of stockpiling by the actors along that drug-trafficking route," he says. "That's the nature of the market and it hasn't fundamentally changed for the last 20 years."

“那并没有对西方的价格和市场产生巨大和直接的影响，因为沿着贩毒路线的各方都进行了大量的库存，”他说。“这是市场的本质，过去20年没有根本性的改变。”
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Billions of dollars were spent by the US in Afghanistan to try to eradicate opium production and trafficking, in the hope of cutting the Taliban's source of funding.

美国在阿富汗花费了数十亿美元试图根除鸦片生产和贩运，希望削减塔利班的资金来源。

They launched airstrikes on poppy fields in Taliban-controlled territory, burnt opium stocks and conducted raids on drug laboratories.

他们对塔利班控制的罂粟田进行了空袭，焚烧了鸦片库存，对毒品实验室进行了突袭。
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But opium was also grown freely in areas controlled by the US-backed former Afghan regime, something the BBC witnessed prior to the Taliban takeover in 2021.

但是，在美国支持的前阿富汗政权控制的地区，鸦片也被自由种植，这是BBC在2021年塔利班接管之前目睹的。

For now, the Taliban appears to have accomplished in Afghanistan what the West couldn't. But there are questions about how long they can sustain it.

目前，塔利班似乎在阿富汗实现了西方无法实现的目标。但是，人们对他们能够维持多久存在疑问。

As far as heroin addiction in the UK and the rest of Europe goes, Mike Trace says a dramatic reduction in opium cultivation in Afghanistan is likely to alter the type of narcotics consumed. "People are likely to turn to synthetic drugs which can be far more nasty than opium."

至于英国和欧洲其他地方的海洛因成瘾问题，迈克·特雷斯表示，阿富汗鸦片种植的大幅减少可能会改变所消费的毒品类型。“人们可能会转向合成药物，这些药物可能比鸦片更加恶劣。”

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