WRONG FRONT FOR THE DRUG WAR

The Obama administration is committing 30,000 additional troops to
Afghanistan. Yet as the United States works to stabilize that country,
the most important decisions don't just involve troop and funding
levels. Also vital is ending the prohibition on growing opium poppies
- for the policy is a key factor in Afghanistan's economic and
security crisis.

Since the US invasion in 2001, the American and Afghan governments
have made the poppy-growing areas of Afghanistan, which produce 90
percent of the world's opium, a major front in the war on drugs. Yet
despite eight years of efforts to eliminate the crop, farmers keep
growing poppies, and the crop still reaches the black market.

Earlier this month, the United Nations released a report anticipating
lower poppy production in 2009 and touting the fact that some
provinces have been declared poppy-free as a sign of success. This
claim is deceptive. While some provinces that were comparatively new
at growing poppy are now poppy-free, the crop is still entrenched in
areas of southern Afghanistan, where it has historically been a
significant part of the economy. In these areas, eradication will be
much more difficult if not impossible.

Eradication is not just an ineffective strategy, but also hurts the
security interests of Afghanistan and Western governments. While the
United States invests $1 billion in eradication efforts each year, the
Taliban profits by purchasing poppy from farmers who have no one else
to sell to, and selling it to the black market. Also, the eradication
policy fuels anti-Western hatred when farmers become sympathetic to
insurgent groups after the US and Afghan governments burn or spray
their only source of income.

The eradication policy remains in place even though it is widely
recognized as a failure. Richard Holbrooke, Obama's new envoy to
Afghanistan and Pakistan, last year called the eradication program
"the single most ineffective program in the history of American
foreign policy."

A better option would be to set up a legal market for opium poppies.
This has already happened in other countries, such as Tur key and
India. The International Narcotics Control Board could regulate the
growth of opium in Afghanistan for medical and scientific purposes.
The drugs would be bought by pharmaceutical companies around the world
for the production of licit drugs.

Such a program in Afghanistan would not only save the American
government money and decrease the amount of drugs and money funneled
through the Taliban; it would also allow the poppy to be put to good
use by decreasing the production cost of drugs like morphine. Even if
this model allowed some leaks to the black market, a wall with some
holes is better than no wall at all.