PBS Frontline: Opium Brides

The safest place in the world to grow opium is in the Taliban controlled territories of Afghanistan. In areas that are not controlled by the Taliban, the Afghan government is destroying poppy crops. Loans for those crops, however, were provided by drug traffickers (the most successful banking system in Afghanistan). When the government destroys the crops, traffickers demand that the loans be repaid, often by handing over young daughters (the "Opium Brides").

Since the Taliban continues to use the opium trade as a primary source of revenue, while the rest of Afghanistan is attempting to grow far less valuable crops, it isn't difficult to see which side is going to be more powerful in the future.

In PBS Frontline's "Opium Brides," Najibullah Quraishi journeys deep into the Afghan countryside to reveal the deadly bargain local farm families have been forced to make with drug smugglers in order to survive.