[Lurker]

We should just buy every scrap of opium they produce at market rates and refine it into morphine which could then be sold, once again at market prices, on the open market.

But leave it to FedGov idiots to completely overlook the free market solution to their made up problem.

L

[FreedomCalls]

We should just buy every scrap of opium they produce at market rates and refine it into morphine which could then be sold, once again at market prices, on the open market.

And there currently is a world-wide shortage of legal morphine (it's made from the same strain of opium poppies that illegal heroin derives from). It's a win-win for everybody. Less opium to be made into herion, more legal pain relieving drugs for medicine, legitimate jobs for Afghans that can't do anything else (it's such a perfect climate for poppies that they grow wild there), less money for the Taliban, more incentive to get legitimate trade and business networks up and functioning, more tax money for the Afghan government, and so forth. Like was said up thread, is there any downside to just purchasing the damned opium from the Afghans?