POPPY CROP COULD HAVE POSITIVE USE

Think-Tank Opposes Eradication Policy -- Plants Can Be Used For Other
Painkillers -- Bid To Kill Opium Trade Is Futile, Think-Tank Argues

Let Afghans Help Ease Shortage Of Painkilling Drugs

The attempt to eradicate Afghanistan's opium poppy crop is
ineffective and destructive, and should be abandoned, says an
international security and development policy think-tank.

Afghan farmers should be encouraged to grow the plants for
production of morphine, codeine and other opium-derived painkillers
in critically short supply around the world, the Paris-based Senlis
Council says.

While Afghan police, guarded by coalition troops, plow illicit
poppies into the ground, millions of people with cancer, HIV/AIDS
and surgical or accident wounds endure excruciating pain with no
access to drugs that offer relief, the council says.

Meanwhile, powerful drug lords -- who convert the crop into the
world's main source of heroin -- are squeezing impoverished Afghan
farmers and undermining the country's fragile economy and political
system, says the council's director general, Emmanuel Reinert.

"Instead of believing in the crazy idea of us being able to
eradicate it, why not use the resource for legitimate and worthwhile
purposes," says University of Toronto's Benedikt Fischer, who did
research for Senlis.

The eradication policy assumes farmers will switch to other crops.
But no alternatives pay enough, so it turns them against the
struggling government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Canadian
and other foreign troops trying to eliminate Taliban insurgents.

Farmers get $100 to $150 (U.S.) per kilogram for opium. After paying
bribes, and payments for security and supplies to drug lords,
they're left with little.

They'd be better off in the legal trade, Reinert says. And the
government would win support if it protected their crops.

Poppies are grown under stringent regulations in Australia, India,
Turkey and France for production of painkillers. Supply is
controlled almost like a cartel, Fischer says.

Multinational giants in Britain, France, United States, Japan and
Australia do most of the processing. These countries, along with
Italy and Spain, account for nearly 80 per cent of global consumption.

The mark-up between farm and hospital shelf is about 5,000 per cent.

Unmet demand in the seven main consuming countries is equal to 550
tonnes of opium a year, and, because doctors are using the
painkillers more aggressively, the shortfall will soar, Fischer says.