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Afghanistan
UK's new Afghanistan plan: pay farmers to ditch opium
2007-11-10
Gordon Brown is planning a radical scheme to subsidise farmers in Afghanistan to persuade them to stop producing heroin, as part of a wide-ranging drive to re-energise policy in the conflict the prime minister now regards as the front line in the fight against terrorism. The Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown has admitted that the rise in opium production in the country means Britain "cannot just muddle along in the middle" and must come up with more imaginative ideas on opium eradication.

Ministers are looking at what Lord Malloch-Brown describes as a system of payments loosely along the lines of the common agricultural policy to woo the Afghan farmers off opium production. The government is conducting joint research on suitable economic incentives with the World Bank.

British and allied forces are also looking at destroying drug factories inside Afghanistan, and a much better-targeted drive against the big traffickers responsible for 90% of the opium which reaches the west.
Posted by:Steve White

#14  How about we just buy the stuff for more than the Talibunnies will pay? Resell it cheap to Pharm companies who'll process it to morphine.
Posted by: Uneath Guelph3593   2007-11-10 16:57  

#13  How about genetically creating an opium poppy that causes a user to turn blue and be covered in itchy warts? I think the incentive to get rid of the drug, and the lure to new addicts, would drop dramatically. We could then trace the pipeline backwards as disgruntled users turn on their pushers who in turn turn on their suppliers who in turn turn on their wholesalers, ad nauseum.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2007-11-10 14:33  

#12  Good luck. I think they'd do better just buying the opium, but I suppose the Brits have already had enough problems with the opium business.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars
Posted by: Darrell   2007-11-10 14:15  

#11  What will the British Legion be selling if this happens?
Posted by: Jack is Back!   2007-11-10 12:59  

#10  Was he born that smart, or did he had to study?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2007-11-10 11:14  

#9  Can you make ethanol out of poppies?
Posted by: eLarson   2007-11-10 09:06  

#8  Only if we don't have Hillary's socialized medicine.
Posted by: lotp   2007-11-10 08:46  

#7  The best way to reduce the number of drug users is to legalize the drugs and let them take as large a dosage as they can.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2007-11-10 08:36  

#6  Decrease the supply, and only the rich addicts will be able to afford the stuff. What, then, will the poor addicts, ie almost all of them, do?
Posted by: trailing wife   2007-11-10 07:53  

#5  For reducing nulber of drug users we have the virtue solution (people leave drugs or at least poppy-based drugs voluntarily), the forced desintoxication solution and the Stalin solution
Posted by: JFM   2007-11-10 05:56  

#4  But that would entail the West, Americans among them, adopting self control as a virtue again JFM. Not a popular suggestion, I'm afraid.
Posted by: lotp   2007-11-10 05:48  

#3  A poppy disease will only ncrease the price of opium : revenue will not decrease for poducers and after a time we will have disease resistant poppy either throght natural selection or genetically engineered.

The solution is to decrease the numbe of drug users.
Posted by: JFM   2007-11-10 02:52  

#2  I like the idea of a genetically targeted bacteria or bug or something.

Also, unless this subsidation scheme is well thought out, it will not work. First, if the farmers are given one lump sum then the Taliban will just come by and take the money. If the money is given in installments, the Taliban will expect some kind of monthly protection payment. And last but not least, I'll bet every man, woman, and child in Afghanistan becomes a poppy farmer right after they get over the shock of disbelief when they hear the good news that the British are handing out free money to people who are or threaten to become farmers. Including the Taliban.

Typical Department of State approach; fiddle fiddle fiddle. Too much thinking and not enough doing. Just spray the dam* stuff and be done with it. It would defund more Taliban than such action will create.
Posted by: gorb   2007-11-10 01:12  

#1  Just spread a poppy disease.
Posted by: 3dc   2007-11-10 00:38  

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