Asia:
US
"Drug
Expert"
Says
No
Way
to
Afghan
Opium-Into-Medicine
Proposal
5/20/05
Even as violence once again flared in the US-backed campaign to eradicate Afghanistan's opium crop, a recently resigned former top State Department drug fighter rejected a proposal to solve the Afghan opium dilemma by diverting the crop to the legitimate global medicinal market. That proposal, made two months ago by the Senlis Council, a Paris-based European drug policy think tank, is one possible solution to the Afghan opium dilemma. With United Nations anti-drug officials warning that Afghanistan is on the verge of becoming a "narco-state" and the United States pumping some $780 million into the opium suppression effort there this year, Afghan opium production is not only the mainstay of the national economy but paradoxically profoundly destabilizing as its profits find their way into the pockets of nominally pro-government warlords and anti-government, Taliban-linked rebels alike. It also employs some 2.3 million Afghan farmers, according to the UN. The problem facing the government of President Hamid Karzai is that its Western-backed efforts to eradicate the opium trade stand to alienate the huge percentage of the population dependent on it for an income, perhaps even driving it into the waiting arms of the deposed but still deadly Taliban. The eradication campaign, which has been marked by sporadic violence since it began earlier this year, saw more deaths Wednesday. According to wire service reports, three Afghans working on crop substitution, an engineer and a government soldier were gunned down in a Taliban ambush in Helmand province. The Senlis Council proposed a solution in March, when it suggested the crop be diverted into the legal market. According to the nonpartisan think tank, based on comparisons between opioid medicine consumption rates in Europe and the underdeveloped world, there is a need for 10,000 metric tons of opium annually to meet the global demand for such medicines. In poorer nations, the Senlis Council argued, people forego the medicines because prices are so high. The entire Afghan opium crop is estimated to be 4,000 tons. Currently, the production of opium for legitimate medical purposes is limited to a handful of countries, including Australia, India, and Turkey, and is strictly regulated by the International Narcotics Control Board. Afghanistan could benefit by joining that group, the Council suggested. When Senlis first broached the idea, Afghan government officials reacted with cautious interest. But recently retired former US Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Robert Charles, in an interview with the Christian Science Monitor this week, pooh-poohed the very notion. "Anything that went about legalizing an opiate in that market would send exactly the wrong message," he said. "It would suggest that there is something legitimate to growing." Uh, pain control? Anesthesia? That's exactly the point: There is a potential legitimate market for the crop, the Senlis Council argues. Still, with Charles' comments representative of the official US line, the idea is probably a "non-starter," Kabul-based analyst Paul Fishbein told the Monitor. Citing "outside political pressure" on the Afghan government, Fishbein called the idea "a long-term prospect" that would first require the strengthening of fledgling Afghan institutions. Despite the slap-down from the Americans, the Senlis Council stand by its proposal and is sponsoring a September conference in Kabul to explore it further.
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