This article is brilliant. And exceptionally relevant given Mr. Karzai's recent visit to Ottawa.
Gwynne Dyer on the new "War on drugs."
Mr. Dyer is who I'm gonna ask what to do when the shit hits the fan. It's bad enough that the Western world has to fight a flawed and misled "war on drugs" that we will never win, but now we are imposing our will on the rest of world in the name of "freedom".
Many Afghan farmers have been farming poppies for generations, and now those very same crops are being eradicated because they are inconvenient and illegal in our view. The human race is resilient, and duh, they are going to do what gives them the best option to survive. Opium poppies and to a lesser extent cannabis plants are exponentially more profitable than most crops, and grow exceptionally well in the Afghan climate. So the British and American (and quite possibility Canadian as well) are essentially shooting themselves in the foot. An occupying force will never successfully win the hearts and minds of the invadees if they take away their most profitable means of survival. As Mr. Dyer points out, it's profitable enough that people will always do it, regardless of its legality, so why fight it? Doing so just leads farmers and victims of this policy to support us even less then they already do, and is one of the many reasons the Taliban are proving so resilient.
Perhaps instead of dumping all of the money they are into eradicating such a abundant resource, they should as Mr Dyer reccomends, invest it into purchasing at top dollar, and pursuing legal avenues for using it. Morphine, as well as other opium derivatives still have legitimate medical uses around the world. If anything we should just stop eradicating a fledgling country's most profitable resources. Then Afghanistan would have a viable option to rebuild a country we have essentially destroyed in the name of self defense.
Gwynne Dyer on the new "War on drugs."
Mr. Dyer is who I'm gonna ask what to do when the shit hits the fan. It's bad enough that the Western world has to fight a flawed and misled "war on drugs" that we will never win, but now we are imposing our will on the rest of world in the name of "freedom".
Many Afghan farmers have been farming poppies for generations, and now those very same crops are being eradicated because they are inconvenient and illegal in our view. The human race is resilient, and duh, they are going to do what gives them the best option to survive. Opium poppies and to a lesser extent cannabis plants are exponentially more profitable than most crops, and grow exceptionally well in the Afghan climate. So the British and American (and quite possibility Canadian as well) are essentially shooting themselves in the foot. An occupying force will never successfully win the hearts and minds of the invadees if they take away their most profitable means of survival. As Mr. Dyer points out, it's profitable enough that people will always do it, regardless of its legality, so why fight it? Doing so just leads farmers and victims of this policy to support us even less then they already do, and is one of the many reasons the Taliban are proving so resilient.
Perhaps instead of dumping all of the money they are into eradicating such a abundant resource, they should as Mr Dyer reccomends, invest it into purchasing at top dollar, and pursuing legal avenues for using it. Morphine, as well as other opium derivatives still have legitimate medical uses around the world. If anything we should just stop eradicating a fledgling country's most profitable resources. Then Afghanistan would have a viable option to rebuild a country we have essentially destroyed in the name of self defense.
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