SHOULD WE ALLOW AFGHANISTAN TO GROW POPPIES LEGALLY ?

in an article in toronto's "globe and mail" newspaper , John Polanyi , a Nobel laureate and member of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toronto , recommends that afghanistan farmers be allowed(you might even say "be encouraged") to grow poppies (opium) legally .
he argues that there is a shortage of painkilling medication , particularly in poor , third world countries , and that afghanistan could supply the needed poppies at a lower price than commercially produced painkillers .
i saw the interview he gave on CBC-TV recently and he seems to know what he is talking about .
as he put it : "the afghan farmer has to make a living to feed his - often large - family . we can force him to produce the poppies illegally and feed into the illegal drug market or we can buy the poppies from him and help provide pain-killing drugs ."

as i posted sometime ago , countries such as :france , australia and india are permitted to grow poppies legally for the production of drugs - why not allow the afghan farmers the same privilege ?
have a look at the article and see if you agree with him or not .
hbg

from the article :
"Traffic in morphine and codeine is licensed by the International Narcotics Control Board. The INCB points out that the richest nations (the United States, United Kingdom, France, Japan, Germany, Australia and Canada) consume nearly all of the world's opiates, leaving 80 per cent of the globe's population virtually without.

Could opiates made from Afghan poppies make up the shortfall, if the INCB were to license growing there, as it does in France, India and Turkey? Undoubtedly. Meeting the global demand for pain medication has been estimated to require about double the current Afghan production. Maia Szalavitz, a senior fellow at Stats, a media watchdog group, has estimated the cost of buying the entire Afghan poppy crop at the current market price, set today by Afghan drug lords, as about $600-million -- less than the $780-million the United States budgeted last year for eradication.

It's important to remember that buying poppies for legal use sends a different message to the Afghan people than destroying their livelihood to prevent illegal use. Legal traffic is, at once, more profitable for farmers, who need no longer buy protection. It is hugely more profitable in the long run, since it allows citizens to share in the benefits of a stable, law-based society -- the very thing that we, our NATO allies, and the elected government of Afghanistan, are seeking to achieve. "




...POPPIES AND AFGHANISTAN...


...JOHN POLANYI - BIOGRAPHY...