Turkey did it. Can Afghanistan?
TheStar February 25, 2007
Article Link
Analysis | Experts debate whether the Afghan poppy problem could be solved by following Ankara's strategy of diverting heroin production into legal medical products, writes Lynda Hurst
Back in the 1960s, Marseilles was the conduit, but Turkey was the originating source of almost all the illegal heroin flowing into the West.
Today, it's Afghanistan. Ongoing attempts by the United States to obliterate the poppy fields of that embattled land have been a fiasco. Afghan fields now supply the opium for 92 per cent of the global heroin trade.
And Turkey? It's still growing opium poppies and selling the product – but not to the black market. It earns $60 million (all figures U.S.) a year exporting the raw materials that are turned into medical morphine and codeine.
The country's shift in 1974 from an out-of-control supplier of criminal narcotics into a licensed system of legal farming is a clear model for what could be done in Afghanistan. Or so a growing number of analysts are controversially arguing.
Chief among them is the Senlis Council, an international policy think-tank with offices in London, Paris, Kabul and, as of this month, Ottawa.
It says that legitimizing the poppy crop is the only feasible solution to Afghanistan's drug crisis. Licensing not only would cut out the drug-lord insurgents, but also correct the shortfall in painkilling medicines available to the developing world.
Faced last month with an opiates shortage in the United Kingdom, the British Medical Association surprised many by calling for an investigation into the idea: "We should be looking at this and saying how can we convert it (opium) from being an illicit crop to a legal crop that is medicinally useful?"
Even Liberal deputy leader Michael Ignatieff got in on the act. Last week, he told a military audience in Ottawa that he had "stress-tested" the Senlis proposal and thinks Canada should spearhead an international effort to license Afghan poppy fields.
Washington, however, remains implacably opposed, saying complete eradication, no matter how long it takes, is the only acceptable outcome.
But then, the U.S. once said that about Turkey.
It was Richard Nixon, of all people, who set the wheels in motion. By the mid-1960s, the U.S. had a major drug problem with its troops in Vietnam and a growing one at home as well. In 1968, Nixon was elected president in part because of his vow to wage a "war on drugs," heroin in particular.
Courtesy of orbiting satellites, the White House knew exactly where poppy fields were located around the world. When it identified Turkey as the source of 80 per cent of the illegal heroin flooding into the U.S., Nixon made eradication of those fields a top priority.
More on link
TheStar February 25, 2007
Article Link
Analysis | Experts debate whether the Afghan poppy problem could be solved by following Ankara's strategy of diverting heroin production into legal medical products, writes Lynda Hurst
Back in the 1960s, Marseilles was the conduit, but Turkey was the originating source of almost all the illegal heroin flowing into the West.
Today, it's Afghanistan. Ongoing attempts by the United States to obliterate the poppy fields of that embattled land have been a fiasco. Afghan fields now supply the opium for 92 per cent of the global heroin trade.
And Turkey? It's still growing opium poppies and selling the product – but not to the black market. It earns $60 million (all figures U.S.) a year exporting the raw materials that are turned into medical morphine and codeine.
The country's shift in 1974 from an out-of-control supplier of criminal narcotics into a licensed system of legal farming is a clear model for what could be done in Afghanistan. Or so a growing number of analysts are controversially arguing.
Chief among them is the Senlis Council, an international policy think-tank with offices in London, Paris, Kabul and, as of this month, Ottawa.
It says that legitimizing the poppy crop is the only feasible solution to Afghanistan's drug crisis. Licensing not only would cut out the drug-lord insurgents, but also correct the shortfall in painkilling medicines available to the developing world.
Faced last month with an opiates shortage in the United Kingdom, the British Medical Association surprised many by calling for an investigation into the idea: "We should be looking at this and saying how can we convert it (opium) from being an illicit crop to a legal crop that is medicinally useful?"
Even Liberal deputy leader Michael Ignatieff got in on the act. Last week, he told a military audience in Ottawa that he had "stress-tested" the Senlis proposal and thinks Canada should spearhead an international effort to license Afghan poppy fields.
Washington, however, remains implacably opposed, saying complete eradication, no matter how long it takes, is the only acceptable outcome.
But then, the U.S. once said that about Turkey.
It was Richard Nixon, of all people, who set the wheels in motion. By the mid-1960s, the U.S. had a major drug problem with its troops in Vietnam and a growing one at home as well. In 1968, Nixon was elected president in part because of his vow to wage a "war on drugs," heroin in particular.
Courtesy of orbiting satellites, the White House knew exactly where poppy fields were located around the world. When it identified Turkey as the source of 80 per cent of the illegal heroin flooding into the U.S., Nixon made eradication of those fields a top priority.
More on link
