Afghanistan didn’t have poppy production till it was allowed by the Bush administration. Their primary exports were food stuffs but it was easy to spoil the Iranians and Russians with cheap drugs that ruin society. This was patterned after the british opium wars but done at a funky scale. Now our chickens have come to roost now that pill based pain medication has gotten so hard… life finds a way.
The primary flows of fent into the USA are from Mexico and China [1]. India is emerging as a source for finished fentanyl
powder and fentanyl precursor chemicals.