The farmers' resistance to abandoning opium poppies is common across the province of Badakhshan.
Oguz says the cannabis plant is also much easier to grow than opium poppies.
He is 58 and comes from Afyon, a western province noted for its opium poppies.
Ateegh says this year he plans to double his cannabis crop, while cutting back on opium poppies.
The cultivation of opium poppies in Afghanistan is at an all-time high.
Last year, an estimated four hundred thousand acres of opium poppies were planted in Afghanistan, a fifty-nine-per-cent increase over the previous year.
Mr Arlacchi, who made his name fighting the Mafia in Italy, wants to eliminate the cultivation of coca and opium poppies by 2008.
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And as Friday prayers wind down on a recent afternoon in one town, a U.S.-funded poppy-elimination team pressures farmers not to plant opium poppies.
The convoy rolled down dirt roads, past endless fields of opium poppies and mud-brick farmhouses, some of which had been damaged during last month's fighting.
Precious fruit orchards, of exactly the sort that for years have been hailed as an alternative to growing opium poppies, have also been razed to deny insurgents cover.
These crops bring in vast amounts of money compared to other crops to these poor farmers which is why they persist in growing opium poppies in the first place.
The rise in the area devoted to growing opium poppies came despite the intensification of government eradication efforts, with almost 10, 000 hectares of the crop eradicated in 2012, UNODC reported.
Another was that Nad Ali, as a government-held area, was the only part of Helmand where large-scale eradication of opium poppies took place, helping to turn the population against the government.
Nangarhar, which Mr Qadir governed in the mid-1990s, is one of Afghanistan's most important areas for the cultivation of opium-producing poppies.
Many Afghan farmers are reluctant to switch to a new cash crop because they are accustomed to being paid upfront to grow poppies for opium traders.
Opium, the dried residue of poppies, was usually consumed for its anaesthetic properties.
Seeing the money on offer for ploughing up opium fields, many farmers have planted poppies in order to qualify for the subsidy.
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