HOOKED ON POPPY'S POWER

It's Hard To Wean Afghanistan's Poor Farmers From Only Crop That Pays
With Toxic Results

KANDAHAR - At the only heroin treatment clinic in the province, the
Addiction Recovery Symposium comes to order.

One after another, men step to the podium -- young men, old men,
crippled men -- telling their stories of salvation and offering thanks
to Allah. Islam can be a powerful proscription against the ruinous
narcotic.

It all belies the fallacy that drug addiction is strictly a Western
problem, Afghanistan merely the bountiful cornucopia for poppy production.

Though it catastrophically is that, too: A 59 per cent increase in
opium cultivation last year over 2005, according to the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime, giving Afghanistan the dubious distinction
of having a near monopoly on the world heroin market.

Ninety-two per cent of global opium production is contained within
this country's borders, a spike from 87 per cent in 2005, now
encompassing 28 provinces, but with the most fertile poppy basket
still in the five southern states, especially neighbouring Helmand
province. Where the poppy grows most lushly, resistance to law and
order is fiercest.

And, while NATO troops are not directly involved in Afghanistan's
poppy eradication efforts (though the United States and Britain
heavily fund it), the blowback commonly falls on foreign soldiers,
including Canadians, who find themselves targeted for attack when they
venture into those lawless areas.

Opium equals money equals power equals neo-Taliban
financing.

When the Taliban ruled, opium production fell drastically, was very
nearly eliminated, with even Washington grudgingly impressed. Of
course, that was done at the point of a gun and worse. Further, as
became evident afterwards, the Taliban had stockpiled massive amounts
of opium, purposely driving up the world price and enjoying those
riches even after the regime was deposed by a U.S.-led coalition in
2001.

The financial bottom line is that opium alternatives remain
unattractive. As well, many farmers, little more than serfs in
bondage, are forced to grow poppy by drug lords and Taliban militants.
After all, it's not as if their own government or donor nations have
offered appealing options.

Saifullah Agha, 48, laughs heartily when asked why he continues to
grow poppy.

"Do you think this amount is enough to support a family? I have six
sons and three daughters. Do you think it's enough to buy seeds for
the field? Do you think it's enough to buy fuel and to fix the wells?"

Agha expresses a common sentiment, and one regrettably based on truth.
"What a stupid policy this government has. They stress the poppy issue
but they close their eyes to the real corruption and the drug lords
who are at the highest level of government."

Mohammad Daud Daud, deputy interior minister in charge of the
anti-drug effort, is a former warlord accused by an Afghan senator of
being a drug trafficker himself.

Last year, the governor of Helmand, Mohammad Daud, was fired for his
alleged links to the drug trade. Production of opium -- the raw
ingredient of heroin -- had risen 49 per cent to 6,700 tonnes, or 42
per cent of Afghanistan's poppy crop, according to the United Nations.

The hypocrisy that runs hand in glove with the corruption has further
fuelled bitterness towards Kabul, particularly in regions that have
seen little evidence of promised reconstruction despite billions in
aid pouring into the country.

If nothing else, the poppy is reliable.

"The money we earn from the poppy, I can feed my family for a whole
year," points out Haji Niyamatullah, a 45-year-old farmer in Pashmul.
"If I didn't grow the poppy, how would we live in this materialistic
world, in this unmerciful environment, under this corrupt
government?"

Niyamatullah acknowledges that the poppy as opiate runs contrary to
Islam. "But tell me another way to live in this greedy world. The
government can't help us in order to do another business."

Various voices have recommended licensing opium rather than
eradicating it -- buying up the crop for the production of morphine
and codeine for medical purposes. But that would only account for a
small portion of Afghanistan's poppy crop.

Further, as argued by officials with the country's ever-escalating
poppy eradication campaign, a patina of legitimacy for opium
cultivation would bludgeon Afghanistan's democratization objectives.

"Not feasible," flatly declares Gul Mohammad Shukran, co-ordinator of
the Kandahar office for the Ministry of Counter-Narcotics. "That would
only encourage further poppy cultivation. And how many metric tonnes
of opium would they buy for these medical purposes, 5,000? That's not
even 5 per cent of what's grown.

"In the end, what's needed is to replace all the illegal
crop."

There are two poppy eradication programs in Afghanistan.

However, this season's bumper crop is unprecedented in its vastness,
with far more "standing poppy" in surveyed villages than a year ago.
In other words, they've bulldozed more than ever but there's still
more than ever out there.

A sharp criticism of the eradication programs is that they have
targeted almost exclusively the small and powerless farmer. Shukran
disputes this.

"There is not a single case where it can be shown that we have ignored
influential cultivators. We eradicate without any discrimination."

Shukran grants that it is immensely difficult to wean Afghan farmers
off the poppy. "These are poor and jobless people. We are doing our
part and meeting all of our targets. But the problem is that there are
no alternative programs for the farmers, because it has been slow
reactivating other government departments such as the ministry of
agriculture."

It would be insanity for foreign troops to get drawn into this mess.
It's equally deranged, says Shukran, for Westerners to promote the
poppy as a meritorious crop, if judiciously handled.

While it may have healing properties as morphine, it is overwhelmingly
toxic -- to Afghan society, governance and nascent democratic ideals.

At the Kandahar clinic, men who've beaten the demon lift their hands
and pray.