DOCTORS PROPOSE USING AFGHAN OPIUM AS NHS PAIN-KILLER

Afghan heroin available on the NHS? It may sound far-fetched but that
is what two leading doctors from the British Medical Association have
put forward as a way of dealing with a shortage of the drug.

Heroin is used by doctors under its medical name diamorphine as a
pain-killer for the terminally ill and after serious operations. But
there is currently a severe shortage of legal diamorphine in the UK.

At the same time, British soldiers in Afghanistan are in the midst of
efforts to wipe out the cultivation of opium, from which heroin is
refined. Doctors have suggested a solution to both problems: use the
opium to produce heroin for medicinal use.

"If we were harvesting this drug from Afghanistan rather than
destroying it, we'd be benefiting the population of Afghanistan as
well as helping patients," Dr Vivienne Nathanson, the BMA's head of
science and ethics, told the BBC.

But the suggestion has been rejected by both the Department of Health
in Britain and the Afghan government. The idea of using Afghan opium
for legal medicines has been touted before by a French think-tank.
But it is the first time that the proposal has been given the weight
of an internationally respected medical association.

Britain is the leading Western donor to Afghanistan's efforts to wipe
out opium production, which accounts for 90 per cent of the world's
illegal opium. Kabul does not have a major domestic problem with
opium abuse, with most being exported to Europe.

To satisfy Western demands that this supply chain is broken, Afghan
farmers have had their entire crops destroyed. Other farmers who
voluntarily gave up growing poppies on the promise of financial help
to grow other crops say the help never materialised. Reports have
emerged of farmers made destitute by the West's anti-poppy campaign,
who have resorted to selling their children in order to stay
financially afloat.

The targeting of the poppy fields is widely believed to be a major
factor in the popularity of the Taliban insurgency in the south and
east. British troops facing some of the most intense fighting are in
Helmand, a major centre of poppy cultivation.

"There must be ways of harvesting it and making sure that the harvest
safely reaches the drug industry which would then refine it into
diamorphine," Dr Nathanson said.

Her remarks were supported by Dr Jonathan Fielden, a consultant in
anaesthesia and intensive care. He said: "Over the past year the
availability of diamorphine has dramatically reduced. It has got to
the stage where it is almost impossible in some hospitals to get hold
of this drug for use outside very specific circumstances."

But the Department of Health said the shortage of diamorphine was due
to limited production capacity, not a shortage of raw opium. Western
anti-narcotics agencies have rejected the suggestion of cultivating
Afghan opium for medicinal use in the past, saying it is too
difficult to put safeguards in place and ensure the opium conforms to
international standards.

Leading NGOs still contend the best solution is long-term investment
in alternative crops. The problem is little else will grow in many
barren parts of Afghanistan.