DRUG FARMING MUST BE HALTED

While arguments continue over which presidential contender can win the
"war on terror," not enough is being said about another "war" on one
of its battlefields.

In Afghanistan, long a focal point and problem spot of the "war on
drugs," the situation has gotten worse.

The State Department reports that Afghanistan is on pace to produce a
record opium poppy crop this year.

Afghanistan already is estimated by the United Nations to produce
three-quarters of the world's opium. The $2.3 billion trade is
responsible for half of the poor nation's gross national product.

Afghanistan's former ruling Islamist clique, the violent Taliban, did
hardly anything that was praiseworthy. But it did eventually restrict
production of opium poppies, thanks to Islam's prohibitions on narcotics.

But in the chaos that's dominated since the Taliban's fall, Afghan
farmers have returned to their most reliable cash crop.

The farmers in most cases have little choice. The Times of London in
August reported the plight of the Afghan poppy grower. He owns a small
plot of land without irrigation where the hardy poppy is one of the
few plants that can survive. He borrows money from an opium trader to
start his crop, and - like the sharecroppers of America's past -
typically never earns enough to pay off the loan. Farmers who fall too
far behind have been reported to give away their daughters to satisfy
a debt.

When the Taliban rather abruptly ordered poppy growing halted four
years ago, many farmers were stuck with debts they could not repay. No
other crop is as lucrative. With the Taliban on the run, poppy
production has increased, and Northern Alliance warlords who fought
the Taliban now are accused of exploiting its absence to make opium
deals.

The situation was put succinctly by Assistant Secretary of State
Robert Charles, who in congressional testimony in April said: "In
Afghanistan there are no more urgent and fundamental issues than the
drug situation, which if left unchecked, will become a cancer that
spreads and undermines all we are otherwise achieving in the areas of
democracy, stability, anti-terrorism and rule of law."

While Afghan farmers see little of the revenue generated from their
crops, billions of dollars from the sale of opium and its derivative
heroin are bankrolling criminal and terrorist organizations. Winning a
"war on terror" then requires a victory against opium traders.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last month said coalition forces
fighting the Taliban and searching for terrorist leader Osama bin
Laden soon would add to their tasks a coordinated effort to address
Afghanistan's drug trade. But the failure of military actions to end
the cocaine trade in Columbia provides little reason for optimism.

It's time to abandon the "war" rhetoric when addressing the steps the
world community must take in ending the illegal drug trade.

Poppy farmers, like coca farmers, have few, if any, cash crop
alternatives. They won't stop growing these narcotic plants until they
have another way to feed their families. Ultimately, narcotics-buying
nations such as ours must address that issue, as well as the demand
for illegal drugs that fuels this killing trade.