NATO CONSIDERS LEGALISING AFGHAN OPIUM

LAHORE: As international efforts to eradicate Afghanistan's opium
production have proven fruitless and the problem keeps getting worse,
some European governments are weighing legalisation of the drug
trade, a German magazine, Spiegel Online, reported on Tuesday.

"Governments in Berlin, Paris and Rome, along with NATO leadership
are discussing a potentially explosive new idea: the legalisation of
Afghanistan's opium production. The plan envisages farmers being able
to sell their poppies to officially licensed buyers for the same
price they currently get from the drug barons. The product could then
be sold to the pharmaceutical industry for pain medication and other
products," says the report.

"We are not bringing drug cultivation under control with the concepts
we have had up to now," the magazine quoted a NATO general
responsible for Afghanistan as saying. A quick glance at production
statistics proves the general's point. The UN Office on Drugs and
Crime (UNODC) found that the amount of raw opium produced in
Afghanistan in 2006 had increased by 49 percent over the previous
year to around 6,100 tons. Much of the proceeds - an estimated $3
billion - are pumped back into the Taliban, as the Islamists continue
to gain ground against NATO and US forces in the southern part of the country.

The UN suspects that many in the Afghan government may be complicit
in the opium trade. Afghan President Hamid Karzai's brother is
likewise suspect.

So far, the coalition forces and the Afghan government have focused
on trying to eradicate the poppies used to produce opium and heroin
and attempting to convince poor farmers to plant something else. The
US likewise prefers destroying poppy crops. The strategy, though, has
served to force many desperate farmers into the arms of the Taliban.

According to the report, legalisation could pose its own risks.
Critics of the plan warn that as long as some members of the state
apparatus are in the pay of the drug barons, the legalised
cultivation of poppies could just serve to increase their income.

Daily Times - All Rights Reserved