CANADIANS BACK LEGALIZING OPIUM TRADE: POLL

80% Support Project To Use Abundant Crop For Legal Pain Drugs

A new poll commissioned by the international think-think that is
championing the legalization of Afghanistan's contentious opium poppy
crop shows overwhelming Canadian support for the proposal.

The Ipsos Reid survey of 1,000 Canadians conducted on behalf of the
Senlis Council found that eight in 10 want Prime Minister Stephen
Harper to get behind an international pilot project that would help
transform Afghanistan's illicit opium cultivation into a legal way of
providing codeine and other legitimate pain drugs to the international market.

The release of the poll yesterday comes two days after the United
Nations' latest audit of the poppy farming trade found that
Afghanistan's production of opium, the key ingredient in heroin, has
now reached record levels in the six years that western nations have
controlled the country.

This week, the UN said for the first time that the illicit trade is
directly linked to funding of the Taliban insurgency that threatens
Canada and its military allies.

The poll also found that 82 per cent of respondents opposed the
U.S.-led policy of chemical spraying to eradicate poppies, while
seven of 10 said they would be willing to use "fair trade"
Afghan-made morphine, as long as it conformed to international standards.

"Prime Minister Harper has to listen to Canadian people who are
looking for a common-sense solution," Norine MacDonald, head of the
Senlis Council told a news conference yesterday, where she unveiled
her organization's findings.

She urged the government to move quickly because the next Afghan
poppy planting season begins in October.

The Liberal opposition supports the Senlis proposal as a sound
alternative to the poppy problem.