# Should USA try to stop opium production in Afghanistan? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 19, 2014, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-usa-try-to-stop-opium-production-in-afghanistan/681675 "2014-02-19T02:27:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CCitizen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@CCitizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CCitizen)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-usa-try-to-stop-opium-production-in-afghanistan/681675/1 "2014-02-19T02:27:20Z")
The opium production sustains Afghan farmers. The opium almost does not reach USA. The country most affected by the trade is Russia. Given that during their aggression in Afghanistan they wiped out many villages with inhabitants, is it unfair? ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-usa-try-to-stop-opium-production-in-afghanistan/681675/2 "2014-02-19T09:35:21Z")
Trying to do anything in Afghanistan is pointless. Generations have tried, generations have failed. It will slip back into tribal and religious conflict soon enough and the best policy is to get out and leave well alone. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-usa-try-to-stop-opium-production-in-afghanistan/681675/3 "2014-02-19T09:45:56Z")
No, it’s not our country and not our business. Should a Muslim country that forbids the use of alcohol send in teams to blow up American breweries? ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-usa-try-to-stop-opium-production-in-afghanistan/681675/4 "2014-02-19T10:28:25Z")
That depends on what you mean by “try to stop”. The current military presence clouds the issue, but if it wasn’t for that, is there a reason the USA and the rest of the civilized world shouldn’t use the regular means of international pressure to urge Afghanistan to curb the production of opium? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Accident](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Mr.Accident](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Accident)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-usa-try-to-stop-opium-production-in-afghanistan/681675/5 "2014-02-19T11:44:28Z")
Hell no. It’s not our job to police the world. The US should stay out of other countries unless it is self defense. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2014, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-usa-try-to-stop-opium-production-in-afghanistan/681675/6 "2014-02-19T16:33:59Z")
No one’s mentioned yet that the fudamentalist regime U.S. overthrew [had eradicated Afghanistan’s opium trade!](http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/13/world/taliban-s-eradication-of-poppies-is-convulsing-opium-market.html) It was U.S. intervention, its alliance with crime bosses, pseudo-Friedmanist experimentation, and its stupid “purple-finger” election that brought back the opium. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-usa-try-to-stop-opium-production-in-afghanistan/681675/7 "2014-03-01T23:30:50Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > No one’s mentioned yet that the fudamentalist regime U.S. overthrew [had eradicated Afghanistan’s opium trade!](http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/13/world/taliban-s-eradication-of-poppies-is-convulsing-opium-market.html) > > It was U.S. intervention, its alliance with crime bosses, pseudo-Friedmanist experimentation, and its stupid “purple-finger” election that brought back the opium. Well, there was that, but there’s also the fact that [internal repression](http://www.thenation.com/issue/june-4-2001) makes that sort of thing so much easier. (_The Nation_ from 2001; scroll down to Robert Scheer’s column.) Stamping out the opium trade is about the only thing the Taliban were ever praised for by the West, which says a lot about the war on drugs and the prohibitionist approach. > [@OP](#): > > Should USA try to stop opium production in Afghanistan? Haven’t we been trying to stop things in that part of the world for far too long?