POWER OF POPPIES RULES THE COUNTRY

Liberal MP Offers Alternatives To Destroying Afghanistan Crop

Opium is a key element of the current conflict in Afghanistan.

Opium poppies are now a form of livelihood for
many farmers. But U.S. commanders with NATO
forces have ordered poppy fields destroyed,
sending farmers stripped of their livelihood
straight to the Taliban: at least the Taliban and
drug lords allow the farmers means to put food on
the table, Liberal MP Keith Martin (Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca) said.

"The Americans only want to destroy more of the poppy crop, which
drives the subsistence farmers to the Taliban."

Some military pundits have suggested that Canadian forces have been
targeted - the fatality rate for Canadians in 2006 was six times the
NATO average - because Canadian soldiers turned a blind eye to poppy
growth and, rather than destroy the poppies outright, had begun to
encourage transition to other cash crops.

That has only enriched and empowered the warlords and drug lords in
Afghanistan, creating more power struggles and conflicts, said NDP MP
Denise Savoie (Victoria).

Martin suggested that Western countries should purchase opium poppies,
and use those materials in the manufacture of legitimate opiate-based
pharmaceuticals.

At the same time, farmers should be guided on a transition away from
poppies to other viable crops.

That, in turn, will undermine the power and influence of the
drug-dealing warlords that currently afflict Afghanistan.

The cost of purchasing poppies will be extensive, but "it will be an
awful lot cheaper than waging a war," Martin said.

"Unless we deal with that - the opium crop is the financial fuel for
the Taliban and al-Qaida."

Conservative MP Gary Lunn (Saanich-Gulf Islands) did not wish to
discuss the role of the opium crop in the ongoing conflict.

Savoie agreed that the opium trade - made more lucrative by
"simplistic" U.S. intervention is a key issue in bringing some measure
of peace to Afghanistan.

"There's no easy answer and I'm not an expert, but I'm told by many
that have looked at it that there are many legal, medicinal uses for
(poppies)," she said, echoing Martin's thoughts.

"There would, I am told, be a way of dealing with it that could be
channeled into a legal way that would not take away - and that's the
key - that would not take away (farmers) only livelihood."

Such uses include legal, medicinal applications and more, she
said.

"I am told that there are other uses that we're not even aware of, in
terms of fuel," Savoie said.