HEROIN PROBLEM RIPE TO RESURFACE IN AFGHANISTAN

There are a lot of reasons the war on drugs is a dismal failure. Primarily
it's because the supply has been able to meet the demand. Another reason is
that the poorest nations tend to be the top producers, and what they reap
from sowing narcotics is food and clothing for their impoverished families
and communities. It's no different in Afghanistan, where the recent flight
of the Taliban means farmers can abandon the wheat fields for the more
lucrative and prodigious poppy plant.

The Taliban had enforced a three-year ban on poppy-growing, although years
of drought caused untold hardship on farmers and despite the fact that the
growers were not necessarily drug users themselves - albeit they were
world-wide suppliers. From the flat barren dustbowls at the foot of hostile
mountains, farmers tried to eke out a living by funneling mountain spring
runoff to irrigate their crop of wheat. The poppy, they contend, needs
watering only twice a year, compared to nine times a year for wheat.
According to the UN Drug Control Program, Afghanistan was once the world's
largest opium producer - supplying 75 percent of the world's heroin. Two
hundred fifty acres of poppies will yield 650 pounds of opium - and produce
enough income for a family of 10 to live on.

As if that's not enough of an incentive to whack the wheat and prop up the
poppy, the local farmers say that UN anti-drug programs gave
alternative-crop incentive money to the Taliban, assuring that the aid
would never reach the growers themselves.

In its efforts to set up an interim administration in Afghanistan, the UN
will have to be sure to include representation from all the country's
various parties, ethnic groups and social factions. Only by hearing the
voices of all the people can there be a sustainable government entity and
regional stability. Afghan groups must make most of the progress happen by
themselves, for themselves. But there are definite and pressing interests
on the part of the United States and Europe. The country has become a
ground zero of sorts for the protracted war on terrorism. But helping to
set up a stable government is one thing - trying to police a post-Taliban
nation in fiscal, social and religious crisis is quite another. One aspect
of reconstruction of war-ravaged Afghanistan is to offer agricultural and
technological assistance to poor farming families who say they would gladly
grow beneficial crops if the cash rewards were commensurate.

People of poor nations will continue to grow the crops that feed their
needs. The scenario is being played out from Africa to the Far East to
South America. The U.S. government would be wiser to spend money peacefully
helping eliminate the supply of drugs instead of waging a losing battle
against its drug-addicted citizens.

While Americans ask themselves what to make of the failed drug war, the
Afghans and peoples of countless impoverished nations have answered that
question. They make a reasonably good living of it.