Coming in the thick of a relentless campaign for eradication of poppy crop in Afghanistan and other narco countries, odd enough will appear to be international think-tank Senlis Council's reported exhortation to Western countries, to buy opium from Afghanistan, and to use it for medicinal purposes, rather than soldiering on in what it termed a futile bid to destroy the poppy crop.
And for this it has proposed development of a licensing system to allow Afghans to sell opium legally for use in painkillers like morphine and codeine. "It is a pipe dream to believe that the goal of the reconstruction of Afghanistan will be achieved by using force against Afghan poppy farmers," it warned.
More to this, the Senlis executive director, Emmanuel Reinhert, is reported to have averred that it is unrealistic even to attempt at eliminating the crop, which accounts for as much as 60 percent of the country's economy. A news report, pointing to this development, also has it that Afghanistan is by far the world's biggest source of illicit opium and its refined product, heroin, accounts for about 87 percent of global supply.
It has also pointed out that production has risen to record levels since the 2001 US-led invasion of that country. Mention, in this regard, has also been of a United Nations report last year, saying if nothing was done, Afghanistan could turn into a lawless "narco-state" run by drug cartels. While drawing attention to President Hamid Karzai's vow to wipe out poppy production, it has been pointed out that he admitted it could take up to 10 years.
Senlis, unveiling its findings from the first stage of its feasibility study of opium licensing, pointed out that there was a ready market for, at least, part of Afghanistan's huge opium crop, which had soared to around 4,100 tonnes last year. According to it, the shift could help make morphine, codeine and thebaine, all of them used in painkillers.
It will also be noted that while pointing out that presently opium is produced legally in several countries - including India, Turkey, Australia and France - for use in medicine, Senlis spelled out the need of more to be done. As three-quarters of the world's morphine is used in just seven developing countries, with its increased availability the price of painkillers would fall.
At the same time, it also argued that in view of the existence of a huge untapped market for opium-based painkillers in developing countries, they could be used there, as they are in the West, to alleviate pain caused by cancer, heart attacks and surgery.
In making such an appeal to the West, Senlis urged Britain, in particular, which has led counter-narcotics operations in Afghanistan since 2001, to reconsider what it described as a deeply misguided policy of crop eradication, drawing attention to the vast sums of the British public's money spent since 2001 on failing policies.
The Western nations may have their own reasons to dismiss the think-tank's exhortations. But viewed in the perspective of a number of other reports, in this regard, its ideas will still have an appeal to sanity. For one thing, it would be recalled that the US State Department warned in a report in March, that ballooning illegal drug revenues were fuelling global crime and terrorism, and expressed particular concern over the narcotics problem in Afghanistan, Colombia, Myanmar and Mexico.
It said the illicit drug trade had become "a threat to national security and international stability." According to the annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, the world's largest opium producer, tripled in 2004 while Myanmar failed in its international counter-narcotics obligations. More to this, the State Department pointed out that illegal drug revenues had become so great that probably most large international criminal enterprises rely to some extent on drug money to finance part of their operations.
Maintaining that drugs were "inextricably linked with transnational organised crime and many terrorist organisations," it also warned that billions of dollars generated by the illicit trade paid for "a significant portion of all international criminal activity." Reference, in this regard, may also be made to its observation that drug trafficking organisations in countries as far apart as Afghanistan, Colombia, Myanmar, and Mexico direct the drug flows, which "poison societies, foster corruption, and finance international crime and terrorism." Now that the world has had enough of drug and arms proliferation, with increasing spread of terrorism, the idea of diverting opium away from its monstrous direction to positive channels should come to millions as a breath of fresh air.
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