Taliban is/was pretty ardently anti-opium even when they were running the show and could make infinite cash off its taxation or production.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanis...

> The opium trade spiked in 2006 after the Taliban lost control of local warlords

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/...

> Ironically, the only power that has demonstrated an ability to cripple the Afghan drug industry is the Taliban.

> In July 2000, when the Taliban controlled most of the country, its reclusive one-eyed leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, declared that opium was un-Islamic and imposed a ban on growing poppies.

> Much to the surprise of the rest of the world, the ban worked. Afraid to cross the Taliban, Afghan farmers immediately ceased planting poppies. The United Nations estimated that poppy cultivation plunged by 90 percent from 2000 to 2001.

I'm skeptical of this common claim. Perhaps that was true when they were an insurgent force needing funds, but I don't think it will continue now that they are in power. Afghan heroin production was at its lowest - essentially none - after it was completely forbidden the last time the Taliban were in power in 2000/2001.

I just heard the Taliban is tithing at 10% a year.

In bad years, they don't expect any taxes.

(It does look like the Taliban has lightened up a bit, but time will tell. Every news station is bashing every aspect of the Taliban.)

China has easier access to opium/heroin from the golden triangle anyway, if they need a non-syntheic.

China can have both, I don't see why having both Afghanistan and the Golden Triangle in your pocket is a bad thing if you're interested in opiate production at the global scale.