I have a hard time believing these farmers acquire anything beyond the barest subsistence income, when men with guns come to negotiate the selling price for the opium crop. My opinion, totally unsubstantiated, is that the vast majority of these folks could have a much better standard of living under the protection of a viable national government, which would allow them to retain the profits from growing legitimate crops.
Agree. Commonsense doesn’t require substantiation, or at least not much.