Taliban claim to be working with foreign companies in the production of medical cannabis

If it sounds like a seriously bad joke, the idea has all of the elements of a modern (social media enhanced) soap opera. Namely, that the Taliban, an extremist group that is more radical against things like women’s rights and cannabis reform, would enter into an international cannabis deal. And announce it on Twitter.

However, this is exactly what happened last week and beyond on a global scale. They say the truth is stranger than fiction – and the truth is, it’s very hard to believe that someone didn’t make it up.

Here are the developments so far.

Announcement of the Taliban deal on Twitter

In a move that could make some of the world’s largest cannabis companies green with envy, particularly regarding the type of media attention the announcement generated, Taliban press director Qari Saeed Khosty claimed that a contract had been signed between the government and a cannabis company urged Cpharm to build a $ 450 million cannabis processing center in Afghanistan and said the facility would be “operational in days.” The news was broadcast worldwide and picked up by media such as the Times of London.

This also coincided with a report by the Afghan Pajhwok Afghan News Service that officials from the company met with drug control officials at the Home Office to discuss the manufacture of medicines and creams.

Cpharm Australia, the first company to be identified in the press as being involved in the deal, subsequently dismissed the claim – via Reuters. The company is a cannabis consultancy, not a manufacturer, and is reportedly unable to raise the said amount.

Confusion upon confusion – and the German twist

Even after reports surfaced that the story was actually fake, another report surfaced, this time in the German-language zine Taz.de, only this time claiming that the Taliban government was working with a German company called Cpharm and that the Der Deal was signed the day the Traffic Light Coalition agreed to legalize recreational cannabis. According to Taz.de, Taliban spokesman Khosty claimed that the agreement provides for the German company to build a factory for processing medical cannabis in Afghanistan and in return receive a monopoly on the domestic industry.

According to online company reports, the only listed Cpharm GmbH was founded in 2005, liquidated in 2009 and deleted from the company register in 2015 global cannabis projects, including in Afghanistan. However, when High Times reached out to an associated partner company, BONGLOBAL Germany, based in Berlin, we were told that the story was fake and that the company’s CEO, Werner Zimmermann, was unavailable for comment and was traveling outside of the country .

The many strange twists …

Whoever the company the Taliban are referring to in official communications, and regardless of the actual stage of the project (if it does indeed exist), the reality is that the group is quite duplicitous about cannabis (and Opium). In fact, in early 2020, the Taliban banned cannabis cultivation in areas they controlled in the country. After overtaking all of Afghanistan in August, the group pledged to crack down on cannabis production across the country. Just months later, in October, Yussef Wafa, a governor of Kandahar, said he had arrested both drug users and banned local farmers from growing opium and cannabis.

However, local farmers have reported no real change in the group’s attitudes towards cannabis (or them) in the last few months since the land was taken over by a military coup. In fact, they are reporting a bumper crop this year.

Indeed, this would be more in line with Taliban’s history when it comes to cannabis (and indeed poppy seeds). Both crops have historically been sources of income to fund the group as they acted as a US-funded insurgent against the Soviet occupation of the region in the 1980s.

However, whoever the company is that may or may not be involved in this project (if that is actually in progress) remains a mystery.

Regardless of the company that might be involved, it will have significant difficulties transferring profits out of Afghanistan, starting with obtaining exemptions from the US Treasury Department.

The plot thickens.