BUY AFGHAN HEROIN CROP, SAYS SCOTS MP

A SCOTS MP yesterday urged the government to buy Af-ghanistan's entire
heroin crop and destroy it.

Jim Murphy, Labour MP for Eastwood, wants the international community to
arrange a one-off amnesty for farmers to help them switch to less harmful
crops.

The move, which would cost about UKP40m, would save the lives of thousands
of heroin addicts in Britain, Mr Murphy argued.

"There are only two things that can happen to these drugs," he said.
"Either the drugs are destroyed and many Afghans will starve or they will
be exported and tragically many Britons will die.

"The choice is clear. Either governments buy the entire crop and destroy it
or our communities will buy it and it will destroy many of their lives."

During a Westminster Hall debate on combating the drugs trade in
Afghanistan, Mr Murphy told MPs: "When 70 people in one city like Glasgow
die from heroin overdoses in a year, and 90% of the heroin in that city
comes from Afghanistan, no-one could ever suggest to me or to any of those
families that this isn't a crucial domestic issue of human life and human
well-being."

Mr Murphy said that, considering the enormous loss of life and the strain
on law and order and health resources, "I think it a small price to pay".

He also asked ministers what was being done about a Taliban stockpile of up
to 300 tonnes of heroin, which he said was enough to supply Britain for a
decade.

The MP outlined a number of proposals to help end Afghanistan's reliance on
the drugs trade, including banning those involved from government and the
armed forces, helping the country's own addicts and giving extra aid to
neighbouring countries, such as Iran, to help with border controls.

Extra international aid should also be made available to the country if it
succeeded in cutting the supply of drugs to the UK, he suggested.

Earlier, Mr Murphy said the UKP40m would enable governments to destroy the
crops, ensure farmers could still feed their families and fund alternative
crops for next year. Farmers who participate would be free from punishment
while those who did not would be prosecuted.

Replying for the government, Ben Bradshaw, foreign office minister,
admitted Afghanistan life was so deeply entrenched in the drugs trade that
tackling it would be "no easy task". He said there were no plans to buy the
opium crop and warned it could make the situation worse by making farmers
believe it could be exchanged for financial help.

It also could lead to other countries increasing production, although he
promised the government would "examine the proposal more carefully".

He said growing poppies for opium was the only means of survival for many
of the country's farmers and a crop substitution programme would be vital.

The installation of the new interim administration presented a unique
chance to tackle the issue, and had been a central part of the Bonn agreement.

Drugs experts warned that buying up the Afghan heroin crop would not be a
long-term solution.