LEGALIZE AFGHAN POPPY CROP: THINK-TANK

Senlis Council Calls For Nato Action On Soaring Opium Production

The United Nations has no choice but to legalize Afghanistan's poppy
crop after its latest study documented "frightening" new levels of
opium production, the Canadian-led Senlis Council think-tank and the
Liberal opposition say.

Afghanistan's status as the world's leading supplier of the key
ingredient of heroin remained unchallenged as opium production soared
34 per cent in the last year, according to the latest annual audit by
the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, released yesterday.

The UN agency also called for more active NATO military involvement
to eradicate the illicit opium trade.

However, Senlis and its Canadian leader, Norine MacDonald, as well as
Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre, called on Prime Minister
Stephen Harper and Canada's western allies to reconsider legalizing
poppy production so money now funnelled into the illicit narcotics
trade can be spent on the production of pain-relieving medicines that
provide legitimate sources of income for Afghan farmers.

They say this latest UN report is a dramatic example of the failure
of the $600 million the U.S. has pumped into eradication efforts in
Afghanistan.

The UN opposes the legalization of the poppy trade as generally
unworkable and against the Islamic principles of the western-backed
government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Though illicit poppy cultivation has risen steadily in the six years
since western forces deposed the Taliban, yesterday's UN report was
the first to draw a direct link between the opium trade and the
anti-western insurgency that Canada and its NATO allies continue to
battle in southern Afghanis-tan.

"Since drugs are funding insurgency, Afghanistan's military and its
allies have a vested interest in destroying heroin labs, closing
opium markets and bringing traffickers to justice. Tacit acceptance
of opium trafficking is undermining stabilization efforts," said
Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN drug agency.

For the most part, the 37,000 troops from the 26 NATO countries and
its 11 allied countries are reluctant to take part in direct
counter-narcotic efforts.

Mr. Coderre reiterated his party's support for the Senlis proposal.
He said past eradication efforts have simply not worked and that in
the short term there is little financial incentive for farmers to
grow legal crops.

"This is the only way for farmers to get bread on the table," said
Mr. Coderre. "The reality is, if you eradicate, the farmers are
against you and they become allies to the Taliban. I would suggest,
like Senlis Council proposes, a supply management strategy."

Yesterday's UN report showed that Afghanistan opium now accounts for
93 per cent of the world's heroin trade (up from 92 per cent), and
that its poppy farmers are now more productive than all the coca
farmers of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia combined, who form the backbone
of the global cocaine trade.