MAYBE WE SHOULD BUY UP AFGHANISTAN POPPIES

There are currently 37 countries supplying 30,000 troops to NATO in
an effort to help to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan. Canada's
contribution to the effort is about 2,500 strong according to the
Department of National Defence. Our troops are trying to stabilize a
nation and bring it entirely under the control of the Afghan
government, in addition to a number of other tasks, including rooting
out al-Qaeda and maybe even finding Osama bin Laden.

What is making our troops' job so difficult you might ask? Simply
put, the country of Afghanistan is largely ruled not by its own
government, but by local warlords who can afford to run their own
private armies. Those private armies are being paid with money from
the opium trade, which brings in enough money to make it impossible
to unseat these warlords.

The other problem is the economy of the country in general.
Afghanistan is a poor nation with a per capita share of the GDP being
around $800. To give you a sense of exactly how poor that is,
Canada's per capita GDP is $33,900. In extreme poverty, especially
poverty at least partly rooted in violence and warfare, people turn
to radical solutions and away from what we like to think of as
peaceful democratic traditions. Is it really any wonder that the
warlords have no shortage of help in maintaining themselves?

If we got rid of the poverty or at least increased the standard of
living, maybe some of the people might decide the warlords need to go
and not the national government. A real bonus in this process would
be if this could be done in a way that would take money away from the
warlords themselves and put it in the hands of the elected government.

A radical solution that might meet a lot of these goals is for the
international community to buy the opium, not from the warlords of
course, but from the Afghan government. The government could then pay
a decent wage to its own army, the warlords would have no money and
the people would hopefully take part in the increased amount of money
in the country.

Here in Canada we do not necessarily cry out for drugs that can be
created from the poppy as we have more sophisticated, less addictive
synthetic alternatives. We still use morphine though and a number of
other drugs that come from poppies. There are people in other
countries who would love to have access to the pain relief that a
supply of morphine or codeine would provide.

This is not a perfect solution, but it might begin the process of
stabilizing the region and offer a way to make something we have all
vilified into something that can help everyone involved and finally
get rid of the warlords. As Remembrance Day was just last month, and
synthetic poppies were in evidence everywhere, it seems only fitting
to wish all our troops the very best and hope that every one of them
comes home safe and sound. For those who have returned, thank you for
a job well done in difficult circumstances.

Durham resident Adam Mercer has a passion for political issues. He is
a frequent contributor to this space.