Dealing with the drugs problem in Afghanistan

BrianSJ

US tarriffs on cotton? Look at the trade barriers to Afghan farmers growing anything other than drugs.

Paul B

There is a solution to the drug problem. And its simple. legalise the bloody stuff. Afghani farmers can then farm opium poppies without fear of prosecution by British troops, they can sell it us earning valuable foreign reserves-trade not aid. The produce can then be sold legally in the UK bringing in revenues for HMG.There then will at least a semblance of control on drugs,like there is on alcohol,that we don`t have now, when the rules of very violent jungle apply.Lastly the user will benefit as his/her supply will be cleaned up and the toxins that are used by dealers to cut the supply will be removed. Prohibition just does not work, much as Melanie P and other believe otherwise .We have lost the ar on drugs, which was a needless war of our own making. By imposing prohibition we create countless problems for society and the individual .We need to break free of the notion that all drug use leads to misery. It doesn`t have to be that way.

David Duff

Thank you, Paul above, for saving me having to say the same thing. Perhaps I could add one further advantage from legalising drugs and that is the disbandment of all those anti-drug forces the savings from which could finance more drug rehab units.

Canadave

The drugs war has long been lost. As Paul B says, legalise. Authorities can never get the better of this industry, particularly as many law enforcers are easily corrupted. And yes, in Britain too.

Rhoda Klapp

Of course, we can't say the war on terrorism is succeeding either, so why don't we legalise that?

Mike

If legalising it is beyond the pale for some people. It has to be noted that there is a shortage of painkillers throught the world. so why dont we just pay them for the crop at market prices. I recall a while ago that a woman died in agony because there was a shortage of diamorphine at the chemist. It could have been bought on most street corners. Prosperous people are less prone to destroy their wealth or allow it to fall into the hands of thugs.

Tim Carpenter LPUK

What David and Paul say.

The war on drugs was never going to succeed just as the war on alcohol did not. It is just another form of prohibition and the results are the same - growth of wealthy, corrupting illicit cartels, high prices, poor or variable quality, bloody turf wars.

As for the shortage of diamorphine, let us call it by its real name - heroin. Countless women take it during labour and do not become smack-heads overnight.

The Libertarian Party is almost alone in having drug legalisation in its manifesto.

Daniel Korski

Thanks for this, guys. The legalisation option is clearly favoured by many Coffee Housers.

Personally I have always been sceptical about legalistaion in Afghanistan (if it is not done in our own societies) for a number of reasons.

First, only a small portion of arable land actually goes to poppy cultivation. If you guarantee no impunity for poppy-growers, then this may rise further.

Second, even legalisation requires some form of state control -- at the border, through taxation etc. Since this capacity is clearly absent in Afghanistan it is hard to see how legalisation would work.

This argument goes even more for limited licensing, as it requires even more state involvement i.e deciding who can get a license, policing the decision etc.

Third, guaranteeing an income for farmers will be astronimcally expensive for the Western tax payer -- at a time of decreasing budgets -- and may destroy the country's ability to feed itself. Right now, there is too little food in Afghanistan because too little wheat etc was grown last year...

Finally to the question of whether there is enough painkillers in the world or not. The Senlis Council argues that the Afghan opium crop could be used to relieve a global shortage of opiates - and become a source of affordable analgesics, particularly within the developing world.

But not everyone agrees that there is, in fact, a shortage. Thomas Pietschmann from the UN argues: 'It's true that developing countries are not using enough opiates, but the problem is in dispensing the drugs, not in the supply of opium itself. The infrastructure simply does not exist in many of these countries to get the drugs to those who need them.'

As I said, I am sceptical not religious about this. If someone can argue persuasively against these objections, I am happy to consider changiong my view on this question.

Rhoda Klapp

When you legalise opium production, you take away the farmer's protection from the insurgent forces, without producing the environment to get his crop to market. The Taliban (how I hate that simple word to describe what Daniel correctly says is a heterodox insurgency) will now prevent the movement of poppies just as they have done for any other crop a farmer might grow. Security is no less a problem than it is today. Security is the problem we can't solve, and the one we must solve before we can proceed with all the rest.

Paul B

I understand the point that Rhoda makes about taking away the farmers security protection if said farmer decvdes to farm opium. That is arbitary because I assume Nato countries deem opium a "black" crop and illegal crop. In affect we are operating an old fashioned gangster protection racket on the farmer, not to mention the moral blackmail. Just leave the protection in place if the farmer decides it is financially orthwhile to crop poppies.

I also understand the point about the farmer struggling to get his crop to market, in that case we need the surge to step up protection and to drive the Taliban back.

Daniel this is a good article and raise some interesting points, thanks. I immediatly went for the legalising in the UK route, being a libertarian at heart, not fully thinking how this would affect matters on the ground in Afghanistan. BUt surely your paragraph that states- and I accept its point-

"Second, even legalisation requires some form of state control -- at the border, through taxation etc. Since this capacity is clearly absent in Afghanistan it is hard to see how legalisation would work"

-applys to any export crop and not uniquely to heroin, especially so if made legal.