I don't know if I have noted this move. An aid organization has been pushing this idea. This is the first indication I have seen that the officials in NATO and elsewhere are seriously considering this plan. It would be so helpful if the distribution system could be subverted because these are the guys who are making all the money, and it is said they like the instability so support the Taliban.
RLC
United Press International
"Key NATO members are mulling the legalization of Afghanistan's opium poppy industry, according to a German news magazine."
"Instead of selling the poppies to drug lords who make opium and heroin from the raw material, the farmers under the plan would sell them for the same price to an official institution that would relay the poppies to the international pharmaceutical industry, the magazine said."
"Afghanistan produces close to 90 percent of the world's opium, the raw material from which heroin is made. Afghanistan's farmers depend on the income from the poppy production, but the drug business also finances the Taliban in its war against the West.Recent efforts that included burning down the poppy fields -- a U.S.initiative -- have failed to bring about change."
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