The upside to downers

CAIRO, Egypt – Here’s an idea: Let’s sweep the auto industry out from Detroit. While we’re at it, let’s knock out tourism from Egypt. No?\nThen why has the U.S. undertaken the revitalized surge in the movement to eradicate poppy fields in Afghanistan? The poppy plant is used in the production of opium and heroin – an industry that accounts for the main source of revenue for the Afghan state. Bush holds that the destruction of the fields is necessary to cut off a major source of income for the Taliban insurgency.\nI guess I missed where every human born within the Afghanistan borders became a member of the Taliban. Cut off a country’s main industry, and you cut off their standard of living, period. In a recent Senlis Council survey of 17,000 Afghan men, 80 percent responded that they constantly worry about feeding their families. Is this really about terrorism here?\nSensationalist trigger-happy Westerners are all too happy to blur the line between “Taliban” and “Afghan state.” But the influx of Taliban members is a function of more than just the Bush Administration – if the objective really is to minimize violent Taliban activity by cutting down on factors that lead to the organization’s recruitment, perhaps the West should stop nudging the Karzai Administration into a plan that could provide incentive to actually join the Taliban. Isn’t that the very spirit of the West – people respond to incentives?\nThen we go in, cut out an enormous percentage of a developing country’s gross domestic product, and act surprised when Taliban recruitment shoots up because they were able to offer food and shelter for impoverished farmers’ families? \nCome on, George. And you thought Greenspan hated you now.\nNot only would this cut off revenue, the chemical used to spray the crops, glyphosate, has potentially very harsh effects on non-poppy crops as well, thus shortening the already-scarce food supply even further. Additionally, opposition officials worry that the Taliban could view the U.S.’s spraying chemicals on their lands as an aggressive beginning of chemical warfare.\nAnd more importantly, even controlling for the excruciating blow this would deal to Afghan families, there’s a no-brainer argument against it: Don’t like heroin? Make morphine! The global shortage of morphine, codeine and other drugs derived from the same crop present an economically viable alternative to the illegal heroin trade. More production of these drugs would lower the market price, allowing poor countries to have easier access to it in medical procedures. \nRight now, 80 percent of the world’s morphine consumption is concentrated in six of the world’s richest countries. Give Western firms incentive to invest in Afghanistan: not exactly invest in illegal drugs, but potentially invest in pharmaceuticals. Afghanistan grows, Taliban numbers don’t skyrocket and illegal narcotics may be on their way to being replaced by a shift to rigorously controlled opium production.\nThe poppy industry as it stands needs to be checked, no doubt. But there are more efficient ways to do it than stripping the countryside.