Winning Hearts and Minds v. The Opium Trade
Perhaps more accurately, winning them with the opium trade.
KABUL, Afghanistan — The effort to win over Afghans on former Taliban turf in Marja has put American and NATO commanders in the unusual position of arguing against opium eradication, pitting them against some Afghan officials who are pushing to destroy the harvest.From Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal on down, the military’s position is clear: “U.S. forces no longer eradicate,” as one NATO official put it. Opium is the main livelihood of 60 to 70 percent of the farmers in Marja, which was seized from Taliban rebels in a major offensive last month. American Marines occupying the area are under orders to leave the farmers’ fields alone.
“Marja is a special case right now,” said Cmdr. Jeffrey Eggers, a member of the general’s Strategic Advisory Group, his top advisory body. “We don’t trample the livelihood of those we’re trying to win over.”
United Nations drug officials agree with the Americans, though they acknowledge the conundrum. Pictures of NATO and other allied soldiers “walking next to the opium fields won’t go well with domestic audiences, but the approach of postponing eradicating in this particular case is a sensible one,” said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, who is in charge of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime here.
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The U.S. government has been going back and forth on this issue since the invasion. Ever since the "Awakening Councils" worked in Iraq (when sunni insurgents apparently determined that getting paid to not fight was as good as fighting), the U.S. military looks to have decided that making sure people have a livelihood is one way of reducing tension in an area.
People making money and enjoying a reasonable standard of life don't like to commit crimes and endanger their lifestyle. Its a smart move and if we can figure out a way to do something non illegal trade related with the opium, a win for all of us.
Legalize it!
Opium for all!!!!!!
Just buy their damn opium. Process it into cheap narcotics for use in pain management Stateside.
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We already flattened their country with our War on Terror. We don't need to import the War on Drugs, too. If Afghan politicians want to get rid of the opium trade that's their business. The US military is not their personal police force.
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Somewhat, the problem is, the quality is pretty much unregulated, and the quantity is so vast, it would bottom out prices. Allegedly, if we imported all of the Afghan product and turned it into morphine, the cost of morphine would be along the lines of bottled water.
Not really seeing the problem with that.
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One messed up batch hitting the US could be pretty damaging.
You mean, worse than the tons and tons of other unregulated drugs that we import every year?
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Wouldn't legalizing and taxing it make that a lot less likely? Once it's officially recognized, you can can regulate and even test it.
Elewis17 wrote:
What end and who does the testing? Testing it on that end brings up a host of problems, and on the other side, who does the testing? Each nation, a clearinghouse? It's not impossible, but theirs a lot of issues that involve governments, ngo's, pharm companies and the various nato military's to deal with.
Sure, but God knows it would be cheaper than what we're doing now. Plus, we could fund the testing with the taxes, although with the way we handle money in this country, it would just disappear into a black hole.
Elewis17 wrote:
I read something once (though can't remember sources) that there was a shortage of pain meds. Seems like getting access to a cheap source of opium, of which a lot of pain meds are based, would help things.
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McChuck wrote:
Can we back this up? Given how much Opium the US and Europe consumes in the form of painkillers alone, why is Afghanistan thinking of giving up this gold mine? Second, why is the army talking about this and not Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer, Bayer?
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That shortage is due mainly to doctors being afraid of prescribing too many meds, not availability of the drugs. The DEA has made public examples of several doctors who prescribed what the DEA believed were too many pain meds.
The small man builds cages for everyone he knows. While the sage, who has to duck his head when the moon is low, keeps dropping keys all night long for the beautiful rowdy prisoners. - Hafez
Did not realize this. Even so, easy access to the source should lower the price of the products that are used.
There is always a solution and it is never black and white. Anything can be used in a "good" way.
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McChuck wrote:
Legal opioids are pretty cheap, the price supported only by the onerous regulations that have to be observed. The main reason heroin and other illegal opioids are so expensive is not due to supply restriction, but rather due to Prohibition. If such prohibition were ended, the price would likely crash hard, along with marijuana and a few others whose manufacture is trivial.
The small man builds cages for everyone he knows. While the sage, who has to duck his head when the moon is low, keeps dropping keys all night long for the beautiful rowdy prisoners. - Hafez
Maybe that is our solution. Legalize marijuana and have them grow that instead.
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