Drug Wars - You're Doing It Wrong

The Philly Inquirer reports that US Marines are doing the drug industry in Afghanistan a solid - they're promising to protect the poppy fields in Helmand province.

"Many of the people who have approached our patrols have told us how happy they are that the insurgents have left. They seem genuinely glad to be home," said Lt. Col. Anthony Henderson, the commanding officer of the MEU's infantry battalion.

Helmand province is the world's largest region for growing the opium poppy, the main ingredient in heroin.

The Marines arrived during the poppy harvest season, but didn't cut down the flowery plants. That would have alienated farmers with no other means of feeding their families, the Marines said. Most of the profits in the poppy trade go to traffickers, not farmers.

"Poppy fields in Afghanistan are [like] the cornfields of Ohio," said Staff Sgt. Jeremy Stover, 28, of Marion, Ohio. "When we got here they were asking us if it's OK to harvest poppy, and we said, 'Yeah, just don't use an AK-47.' "

The government's war on drugs - you're doing it wrong. So we get a few million more heroin users in the United States and Europe (considering the statistics in the link are from 1998). I guess it's all collatoral damage when you under-resource a war effort.

Burn the Poppies!

UPDATE: How many military rifles, explosives, and other combat gear do you think the Taliban will buy with their $100 million in "drug taxes?"

Comments

[JB]

If the farmers really don't make any of the profits, how much (I wonder) would it cost to just reimburse them and burn the fields?

[boz]

So we get a few million more heroin users in the United States and Europe

Allowing the poppies to grow in Helmand won't increase the number of heroin users any more than eradicating them will decrease the number. The supply/demand chain on illicit drugs is fairly complex, but it's well established that eradication of supply tends to simply move and alter supplies, not change demand.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't "burn the poppies." After all, eradication does cut off funding to traffickers who are well linked in with the Taliban. However, in terms of worrying about the numbers of users, it's not going to matter.

[belphegor1527]

Sorry J,

I just can't get behind the eradication argument. The best thing to do is buy the product directly from the farmers so that the narcotics traffickers can't get their hands on it and the Taliban can't extort their share of the profits.

It'll cost a lot but the farmers will be encouraged to throw their lot in with us and we get to deprive the bad guys of a major source of their funding. Besides, we've been spending a few billion a week in Iraq, I'm sure we could hide a few hundred million in the budget somewhere.

[J.]

Or... pay the farmers up front and THEN burn the poppy fields! Everybody's happy except the narco lords...

[Kilo]

I think you might be underestimating the scale of this national industry.
It's been going on since 400bc. How long you planning on covering that tab ?

[J.]

Only as long as we have forces in theater. So that's just another 100 years, right?

[belphegor1527]

I'd pick up the tab until we could get the infrastructure built up to the point where farmers could ship other, profitable products out. Even if that were to take 10 years and a few billion a year it'd be a bargin. There's no reason why the U.S. would have to foot the entire bill. Afghan heroin affects much, much more than the U.S. and so other nations could kick some money into the pot.

Of course, starving the Taliban and narco traffickers of a substantial amount of their profits for a few years would be nice as well.