IGNATIEFF URGES CANADA TO LEAD EFFORT TO LICENSE AFGHAN OPIUM
PRODUCTION

OTTAWA -- Canada should spearhead an international effort to license
opium production in Afghanistan for peaceful pharmaceutical uses to
combat the country's chronic economic dependence on the illegal
narcotic, deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said Thursday.

Ignatieff endorsed the proposal of the controversial London-based
think-tank, the Senlis Council, which has called for a pilot project
to study the licensing of the crop -- the backbone of the world's
illicit heroin trade and the cornerstone of Afghanistan's impoverished
economy.

The council, which has issued a series of scathing reports on the
world's failures in the wartorn country, has argued processing
facilities should be set up in Afghanistan to convert the opium from
Afghan poppies into codeine and morphine to meet a shortage of pain
medicines in the developing world.

Essentially legalizing Afghanistan's No. 1 criminal activity would
revitalize the country's economy, the council says.

Ignatieff made the pitch in a speech to a military audience of
hundreds at the annual gathering of the Conference of Defence
Associations Institute.