I’ve been looking at Afghanistan and hearing about how they want to end the Opium trade. And while I don’t believe this to be true, I don’t think drug policy is about ending the drug trade, more about controlling it, but that’s another discussion.
However, is it really a good idea to end the opium trade? It’s such a huge percentage of the economy. What are we going to do? End the trade and replace it with what?
Why does our foreign policy always have more to do with our interests than the country affected? Is it reasonable to do this? We’ve been subjugating Colombian coca farmers for years to little effect. It seems like this gets in the way of third world progress. We should allow countries to develop the cash crops they wish to develop, and try to stop it at our own borders.
So the question is, can we stabilize Afghanistan while destroying it’s one cash crop?
Here’s some reference on the Opium trade in Afghanistan.
The Senlis Council has a feasibility study for opium licensing in Afghanistan. Isn’t that an obvious answer? Divert the opium to legal trade. The main objections are probably the economic interests of current legal producers of opium like Australia, India and Turkey. Of course, there’s no guarantee that if Afghanistan’s opium trade were to be legitimised, India’s produce won’t become the predominant source for illicit drugs.
As Mark Kleiman has noted, most of American heroin doesn’t come from Afghanistan. Britain has a more vital concern about the Afghan trade.
Speaking of Britain, 10 Downing Street prepared a nice report on the drug trade. It’s covered on this blog.
I’m not convinced that we need to stop the opium trade at all. It seems like a non-issue to me. It seems like more of the same old western colonial policy that is designed to suit the western cultural mores.
My question is how does it benefit Afghanistan. I understand how it benefits the western states, at least within the conventional wisdom that I completely disagree with.
Erek
That’s not what diverting opium trade will do. Whatever opium stays inside Afghanistan and neighbouring countries will be used recreationally, whereas whatever goes to the West will be used for medicinal products.
How? The prices at the source are pretty low, and affordable by Pharma. The mark-up is at the import and retail stage. Follow my last link in first post.
It would limit their production to selling in Afghanistan, and selling to pharmaceutical companies that already have sources of opium, when they could be selling it recreationally to people who want it. That would diminish the amount of money that Afghanistan receives from the opium trade.
You think Afghanistan can’t offload its average annual output to Pharma and the regional market? Like the British report says, 70% of Afghan output stays within Asia. 15% goes to Europe and 15% is seized. Pharma should be able to pick up 15-20%. Remember there’s a shortage of opium for medicinal products, so it’s not so much competition with the existing producers as expansion of market.
This is so not a trade issue. The problem isn’t between U.S. and Afghanistan, it’s the stupid drug laws here. If drugs were legal and controlled (a la alcohol) the price would come down to a reasonable level, for recreational use as well as for pharmaceuticals. (OK, recognizing that this is arguable, I’m sure there have been dozens of threads here about legalizing drugs, so I’ll just say IMO.) Afghan opium farmers could still make money at it, but it would be less attractive, and some of them might start growing something useful.
Making farmers miserable in AfGhanistan, destroying their crops and livelihoods because of our precious drug war, that is what imperialism looks like in the 21st century.
God, I hate our drug laws and their destructive effect on civil liberties, foreign countries, prison populations and whole cultures. But that’s another thread.
I agree with you completely, but it is a trade issue, because I wanted to discuss a particular facet of the drug war, and not the overarching broad ideas.
I think the drug war is the single greatest ill in our society, beyond terrorism even. However, in this particular case I just wanted to discuss the trade issue with Afghanistan.