OF WAR AND POPPIES

In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing,
fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. - John McCrae, 1915

The association of the poppy to those who had been killed in war has
existed since the Napoleonic Wars in the 19th century, over 110 years
before being adopted in Canada. There exists a record from that time
of how thickly poppies grew over the graves of soldiers in the area
of Flanders, France. This early connection between the poppy and
battlefield deaths described how fields that were barren before the
battles exploded with the blood-red flowers after the fighting ended.
- - The Royal Canadian Legion

California's Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve is truly one of
the Golden State's most unique state parks. Located in the western
Antelope Valley, the poppy reserve is dedicated to preserving the
state's famed species of poppy - the California poppy. The state
flower of California grows unrestrained in a 1,745-acre state park.
The park does not water the poppies or provide any other maintenance
to ensure the field is totally natural. Sheep used to graze amidst
the poppies, however in the early 1970s the park relocated the flock,
since the California poppy prefers to grow in an undisturbed
environment. The only proactive means the poppy reserve has taken is
performing prescribed burns. This action is performed in hopes to
prevent devastating wild fires.

- - poppies.ws . . .

The opium poppy was first grown in the western Mediterranean, in the
region of southern France and Italy. There are archeological finds in
that area dating to about 4000 BC. The opium poppy was probably first
grown for food. The seed is rich in edible oil - always a precious
resource. Poppy cultivation spread to central Europe and to the
Aegean by 1000 BC.

Opium flourished in the Arab world, as in Islam opiates were not
proscribed in the same way as alcohol. In the 7th century, the
Islamic cultures of western Asia had discovered that the most
powerful narcotic and medicinal effects could be obtained by igniting
and smoking the poppy's congealed juices.

- - Plantcultures.org

The Opium War, also called the Anglo-Chinese War, was the most
humiliating defeat China ever suffered.

By the 1830s, the English had become the major drug-trafficking
criminal organization in the world; very few drug cartels of the 20th
century can even touch the England of the early 19th century in sheer
size of criminality. Growing opium in India, the East India Company
shipped tons of opium into Canton which it traded for Chinese
manufactured goods and for tea.

War broke out when Chinese junks attempted to turn back English
merchant vessels in November of 1839; although this was a low-level
conflict, it inspired the English to send warships in June of 1840.

The Chinese, with old-style weapons and artillery, were no match for
the British gunships, which ranged up and down the coast shooting at
forts and fighting on land. Finally, in 1842, the Chinese were forced
to agree to an ignominious peace under the Treaty of Nanking.

- - Richard Hooker, Washington State University . . . At home, the red
European wild poppy is a symbol of Canada's military heritage. But
the Canadian soldiers of today are trudging through fields of opium
poppies every day in Afghanistan, and for them, the potent
tall-stalked plant has become a contemporary symbol of the
frustrations of nation-building in a failed state. Illicit poppy
production is simultaneously a hard-to-replace source of income for
thousands of small Afghan farmers and a valuable source of revenue
for the enemies of NATO and the legitimate Afghan government. Over 90
per cent of the world's illegal raw opium is thought to come from
Afghanistan. Ultimately, its byproducts go on to wreak havoc in
cities around the world. -National Post, June 2007 . . .

Opium production soared last year to 6,400 tonnes, and Afghanistan
now produces 92 per cent of the world's heroin. The "war on drugs"
lobby in the United States insists that something be done about it,
so the U.S. and allied armies end up trying to destroy the farmers'
crops. The Taliban swallow their anti-drug principles and promise to
protect the farmers. Guess who wins the war?

Afghan farmers get paid considerably less than $100 a kilo for their
raw opium. Multiply 6,400 tonnes by $200 a kilo, to outbid the drug
smugglers, and the International Security Assistance Force could have
bought up last year's entire Afghan crop for $2.5 billion.

What's more, the money would be going straight into the pockets of
the people whose "hearts and minds" are at stake: the 13 per cent of
Afghans who are involved in the opium trade.

- - Gwynne Dyer, May 2007 . . .

Afghanistan produced record levels of opium in 2007 for the second
straight year, led by a staggering 45 per cent increase in the
Taliban stronghold of Helmand Province, according to a new United
Nations survey.

While the report found that opium production dropped in northern
Afghanistan, Western officials familiar with the assessment said,
cultivation rose in the south, where Taliban insurgents urge farmers
to grow poppies.

Although common farmers make comparatively little from the trade,
opium is a major source of financing for the Taliban, who gain public
support by protecting farmers' fields from eradication, according to
American officials. They also receive a cut of the trade from
traffickers they protect.

- - The New York Times, August 2007

Peter Jackson is The Telegram's editorial page editor.