Fringe Candidate Endorses Opium Industry

M.Dancer · August 30, 2007

Party Leader Elizabeth May says efforts to eradicate the country's opium trade have failed and it's time to try something different.
She says legitimizing poppy cultivation would allow Afghan farmers to earn a decent living while cutting out the drug lords and the Taliban, who now reap the benefits from the illegal trade.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...y/National/home

In other news, if I was allowed to grow the stuff, I could earn a decent living too.....now on the otherhand, the legitimate market for legal opium is saturated...meaning falling prices.....legalize it yolu will, but in a nation that is lawless, it will only mnake it even easier to sell on the black market where they get far more money for it.

jennie · August 30, 2007

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...y/National/home
In other news, if I was allowed to grow the stuff, I could earn a decent living too.....now on the otherhand, the legitimate market for legal opium is saturated...meaning falling prices.....legalize it yolu will, but in a nation that is lawless, it will only mnake it even easier to sell on the black market where they get far more money for it.

I have difficulty understanding this when I hear from nurses that our hospitals are in dire need of morphine supplies, and they anticipate huge increases in the future as the baby boomers age.

To me it seems a reasonable solution. It is a commercial as well as an illegal product. Make it legal, enforce it, control it same as many other potentially dangerous products.

I read something a while ago that said that Canada was in the process of considering legal contracts with some farmers, when the US unilaterally decided to drop by Afghanistan and drop a few bombs on those poppy fields. It left our soldiers there is a very dicey situation with the locals, who then went to the Taliban for help to keep people from starving since their whole year's income was destroyed.

I really think the Canadian strategy was better.

M.Dancer · August 30, 2007

It's just another feel good inititive by the Sprialgraph Party. Sounds goiod at forst, but in reality it has no chance of success. On the otherhand, it did get her name in the spotlight for 30 seconds so as far as the party policy goes, this one is smashing success.

Legalization of the illegal industry, which is being promoted by the Senlis Council (and was recommended at least as a pilot project in a recent report of the House of Commons National Defence committee), also has its drawbacks. It has been done successfully in Turkey. Other countries, such as India and France, have legal opium industries. But as these two experts point out, a legal industry requires government infrastructure to impose and enforce regulations, something that Afghanistan lacks. The majority of the opium in Afghanistan is produced in the unstable provinces of the south and southeast, where Western troops, including those of Canada, are still fighting.
Without strict government oversight, illegal production could flourish alongside the legal industry. Only three per cent of farmland is currently used for poppy cultivation, leaving lots of room for expansion. They also believe there is no shortage of legal opium globally, so producer countries will have to cut production to make room for Afghan production. This last point is disputed by the Senlis Council. Finally, it is not just the Afghanistan government’s ability that is lacking, it is also its willingness to end an illegal trade that involves some senior government officials. So what is the answer? Attractive as the idea seems, there is no silver bullet. Instead, a mix of well-designed and well-integrated policies is needed to tackle illegal opium production in Afghanistan. And even then, success will take decades, not years.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/vp_drohan/20070705.html

guyser · August 30, 2007

The opium industry is alive and doing great business this year in Afghanistan. The yield is good, the security even better.

The downside is that some of the money goes to the Taliban. The other downside is that it is very hard to find people to assist the NGO's . NGO's paid $5-$10 a day, but the poppy growers give them that and a little more, as in half of what they collect after slashing then scraping.

The supply will outstrip the demand and prices are going to fall. Watch for cheap heroin coming to a neighbourhood near you in about 6 months.

Edited August 30, 2007 by guyser

Topaz · August 30, 2007

I heard a report about the opium coming out of Afghanistan and it said that its production has increased 2x-3x in the last two years and that its supplies 93% of the world's opium or herion which ever yoiu want to call it. So if its getting into the US and Canada then someone that the border isn't doing their job and therefore, a "dirty bomb" could come into N. America, also!! The gov't in Afghanistan , also profits from the sells.

Fortunata · August 31, 2007

Obviously the USA's eradication program isn't working so well. They can't destroy all the crops; the money that comes from opium helps buy weapons that kill Canadians and other NATO soldiers, it drives people to fight against us and people will starve without income of some kind. Better let them grow it legally and sell it to us than the alternatives. When things get better there and there are other ways of making a living then gradually wean them off the poppy crops.

geoffrey · August 31, 2007

Better let them grow it legally and sell it to us than the alternatives. When things get better there and there are other ways of making a living then gradually wean them off the poppy crops.

This is the most BS argument for the legalise and tax argument. Why would they sell it to us? The heroin dealers will always pay more.

jennie · August 31, 2007

This is the most BS argument for the legalise and tax argument. Why would they sell it to us? The heroin dealers will always pay more.

And create more danger for them and their families too ... I think many would like to have the security to grow and sell legally, but they just don't have that option yet.