CALL TO DECLARE WAR ON AFGHAN POPPY FIELDS

Afghanistan's opium crop appears set to rise by up to 20 per cent in
the wake of last year's record haul, prompting calls for NATO and
United States forces to play a bigger role in the war on drugs.

With growing drug profits flowing to the Taleban, western governments
are being urged to use a two-pronged approach: combining their
efforts on anti-narcotics and anti-terrorism.

Thomas Schweich, a senior US state department official, has briefed
NATO ambassadors in Brussels and General Dan McNeill, the top NATO
general in Afghanistan, on the need for increased military
co-operation on the drug front.

"Counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism are effectively the same
thing," said Mr Schweich."I think everybody recognises that with the
Taleban receiving funding from narcotics, much more so than in the
past, that there has to be a co-ordinated effort."

Afghanistan accounts for more than 90 per cent of the world's heroin
supply, and a significant portion of the profits from the AUKP1.57
billion trade are thought to reach the Taleban, who tax and protect
poppy farmers and drug-runners.

Campaigners are calling for a radical approach to tackle the poppy
boom, including buying the entire crop to prevent the flood of heroin
into Europe and the US.

The Senlis Council, a group based in Europe and Afghanistan, proposes
legalising and managing the poppy crops, turning them into medicines
such as morphine. It wants to adapt a programme that largely
eliminated heroin production in Turkey in the 1970s.

The group is proposing pilot projects under which morphine factories
would be set up in Afghan villages and monitored by village elders
and outside groups. The factories could provide employment and income
for the villages - and plough some profits into alternative industries.

Military commanders who viewed drugs as a minor irritant in 2002,
when poppy production was much lower, have reassessed the importance
of the vast fields of red and white poppies their soldiers drive past
in security convoys, a western official said yesterday.

Although it is too early to say definitively what this year's crop
will be, it is estimated the harvest will cover up to 482,000 acres -
compared with a UN figure of 407,000 acres last year.

General Khodaidad, Afghanistan's deputy minister for
counter-narcotics, said: "The problem is a lack of security, a lack
of governance, the Taleban, drug-lords, warlords and corruption. It's
a bad list with very bad results."

The US is pushing Afghanistan to spray poppy fields with a
crop-killing herbicide, much as is done with coca in Colombia, and
develop new sources of income for the poppy farmers.

But some Afghan cabinet members have expressed reservations about the
impact on legitimate crops and livestock. It is feared such a move
would make a deteriorating situation even worse.

NATO and US forces in Afghanistan rely heavily on intelligence and
support from Afghans. Resentment is rising as more civilians are
killed or hurt in operations against Taleban forces.

Just the threat of spraying poppy fields is increasing that anger, as
spraying could destroy the livelihoods of an estimated three million
farmers, driving them into the arms of the Taleban.

While poppy production is falling in north and central Afghanistan,
where security is stronger, that decline is expected to be
overwhelmed by a surge in production in the southern province of
Helmand, the most violent region in the country and the scene of
heavy fighting this year.

Helmand - where British troops are responsible for security - is
expected to account for more than 50 per cent of Afghanistan's poppy
crop for the first time, meaning the province by itself would be the
world's largest opium producing region. Ronald Neumann, who recently
stepped down as US ambassador to Afghanistan, said that opium
production in the region had seriously undermined success in other
parts of the country.

"What you see is that where you have a reasonable level of peace and
a little bit of government, you can start to make progress against
the poppy. Where you are in the middle of the insurgency, it's much
harder." What's to be done?

[sidebar]

TWO VIEWS

DESTROY IT

Buying up the Afghanistan opium crop sounds like a good idea: if you
can't beat them, then join them. But what would be the impact of a
policy that involved the UK and United States governments negotiating
with those who supply 90 per cent of the world's heroin?

Each and every year you would have to agree the same thing, no matter
what the increase in price. "If you don't pay, I sell to the drugs
trade," would be the simple message underlying negotiations.

In agreeing to that deal, you would be sending out a powerful message
to every country in the region that, if they wanted a guaranteed
income, then all they need to do is start farming opium.

Far from stemming the drugs trade, you could find yourself
stimulating its growth.

Further, if you persuaded a local farmer to sell you his opium crop,
you would be placing him at enormous risk as the gangs who run drug
production are not going to watch their market disappear.

They are going to use whatever force necessary to ensure that no
matter who buys the drugs, the money goes into their pockets.

Yes, we need to encourage local farmers to produce non-opium
harvests. But we also have to show those committed to heroin
production that they are going to pay a heavy price.

Neil McKeganey is Professor of Drug Misuse Research at the
University of Glasgow.

USE IT FOR MEDICINE

The news that Afghanistan's opium poppy production could rise yet
again this year is proof that the hugely damaging counter-narcotics
policy of poppy crop eradication in the country is completely ineffective.

Poppy crop eradication has been pivotal in hindering stability,
security and development in Afghanistan's poorest areas, destroying
the one crop that serves as the main income to millions of Afghan people.

This has led to widespread disillusionment among the local
populations, which has badly undermined the Karzai government.

It is therefore time for a new counter-narcotics measure.

A poppy-for-medicine model, where village-cultivated plants would be
transformed into codeine and morphine tablets, could help Afghanistan
diversify its economy and become an international trade partner.

By controlling the entire production process - from seed to tablet in
the villages, farmers and their communities would be given the
financial incentive necessary to sever links with the insurgency.

As the revenues from all medicine sales would remain in the villages,
communities would be given an economic opportunity they would want to
protect - particularly against drug traffickers, and alternative
development would be possible.

Emmanuel Reinert is the executive director of the Senlis Council.