[JTN]

Given that an illegal market in opium benefits only thugs and terrorists, this makes sense. An earlier story on how eradication efforts are damaging the local economy.

[JTN]

Ping

[Yo-Yo]

No, buying opium from Afghanistan will only encourage more Afghan farmers to grow opium, both for the guaranteed market, and because the drug dealers still want their heroin.

Giving meaningful protection to the farmers from the drug trafficking warlords, combined with encouraging the Afghan farmers to grow legitimate food crops that are needed by their own country is the logical answer.

[razorgirl]

Given that an illegal market in opium benefits only thugs and terrorists, this makes sense. An earlier story on how eradication efforts are damaging the local economy.

Given the billions that we spend on drug interdiction, we should make the same offer to all the coca growers in SA.

[A CA Guy]

Sounds like a PING for the Libertarians to come forward from the shadows once more.

[sure_fine]

the west should have sprayed and killed it all, then, if anuthing, gave the seeds for corn, wheat, soy beans

[msnimje]

Why not treat the Afghan Poppy farmers the same way we treat some American farmers, pay them NOT to grow poppies.

[dead]

Whatever they ask for it, you have to haggle them down to about 20% of their asking price.

"Okay, 3.4 billion, my friend."
"Dude! No way dude! Are you kidding me?!?! 400 million."
"You're killing me! I got bills man. 2.5 billion."
"That's more than I paid in the eighties, when things were tight man! This sh*ts all over these days man. Buyer's market. 550 million."
"Then go, man! Just forget it. One point five."
"750, man, and that's it. That's all I got."

[zeaal]

The U.S. is subsidizing U.S. farmers to not plant crops (and that is corn, beans, soy, wheat, etc.) ... why not take opium crops out by paying Afghani farmers to not plant that crop. It will directly benefit the U.S. population to not have the by-products of opium on the streets.

[JTN]

Libertarian ping

[humblegunner]

Senlis argues that as there is a shortage of pain-killing drugs, and the EU allows farmers to grow opium under licence, the same opportunity should exist for Afghanis.

They ought to sell it online.
I burn up four or five hundred dollars a year on Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen.

I'd like to see a comparative study.

[Publius6961]

Given that an illegal market in opium benefits only thugs and terrorists, this makes sense. An earlier story on how eradication efforts are damaging the local economy.

Silliest thing I've read all week; but the week is young.

Given that the legal market in opium also benefits only thugs and terrorists, this makes no sense whatsoever.
The identical thugs and terrorists control both the illegal or the ostensibly legal supply. And given also the nature of the drug, one year's supply probably satisfies 25 years of legal use. Then What?

This sounds like a thinly disguised Thug and Terrorist welfare plan...

[TBall]

Maybe they could use the plant to make biodiesels. All the hippies would be out jogging on smoggy days.

[Turbopilot]

The free market always handles economic issues better than government intervention. But while this policy would make sense from the perspective of the Afghan farmers, I doubt it would have much of an influence on criminal activities by drug cartels, as there is a large demand even at prices that are artificially inflated above equilibrium by the high risk involved with selling a product for a use that is illegal in much of the world.

There are, of course, free-market solutions to these problems, as there are with most any problem. But many people are not interested in considering those solutions, for various reasons.