ANTI-DRUG POLICIES NEED OVERHAULING

LONDON -- Counter-narcotics policies in Afghanistan need to be
urgently overhauled before they push the people of southern
Afghanistan into the arms of the Taliban insurgency, a security think
tank said yesterday.

A poppy-eradication program that began last month has already sparked
a new wave of violence, said Norine MacDonald, president of the Senlis
Council, a European security think tank. She said the program was
costing NATO the popular support it needed to counter a looming
Taliban offensive.