Drugs in Afghanistan, Yeah, not a new thing. NATO is fighting a war to eradicate opium from Afghanistan. The war against narcotics - sure it is going to be a long battle. The honest answer to the question - can that [major reduction in Afghan narcotics] be achieved in the near future, should be NO.
The reasons- involvement of local as well as high-level government officials in the opium trade is frustrating efforts to eradicate poppy fields.
The U.S. military may be turning a blind eye to Afghanistan’s drug trade, which fills the coffers of both enemies and allies but this is because Pentagon surely don’t want the over stretched U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan to become sidetracked from their main goal: to capture and kill terrorists.
However, Afghanistan’s illicit-drug trade poses the gravest threat to the long-term security, development and effective governance of Afghanistan, particularly since the Taliban are believed to be the biggest beneficiaries of drug sales. The irony behind this is that, every time a poppy field is destroyed, a poor person becomes poorer-and more likely to support the Taliban against the Western forces who wrecked his crops. And the worst aspect is, every time money is spent on alternative crops, it has to be distributed through a corrupt or nonexistent local bureaucracy.
Surely, this “cancer” worse than terrorism needs a medication. How about spraying poisonous chemicals but, that may cause environmental and health damage. However, there’s one way out, before things really get worse, before impoverished villagers, turn against the West and join the Taliban in droves- LEGALIZE IT. Why not letting U.S. drug companies to purchase, what they call “narcotic raw materials” from Afghanistan just like from the two traditional producers, Turkey and India.
Via: Slate
