Analysis: Afghanistan's Painkiller
Council on Foreign Relations
November 5, 2007
Prepared by: Toni Johnson
A U.S. plan to step up use of an herbicide for poppy eradication is causing controversy. The Afghan government has concerns about the possible health impacts and is now studying (NYT) the problem. Opponents in Afghanistan fear mass eradication of the country's cash crop could alienate Afghan farmers and create a backlash (McClatchy) against Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who's already politically weak, according to EU and U.S. officials. Chemical fumigants are used extensively in South America to combat illegal drugs, often at the behest of Washington. But they have been criticized by political activists and environmental advocates for causing illness and killing legal crops. Opposition to such eradication policies helped Bolivian President Evo Morales rise to power (World Politics Review) with his pro-coca farmer stance and recently pitted U.S. ally Colombia against Ecuador's leftist regime. The Paris-based Senlis Council, an international think tank, argues that "extreme poverty and a lack of sustainable alternatives" in Afghanistan makes eradication an "ineffective as a counter-narcotics policy tool" and should be replaced (PDF) with a policy that licenses Afghan opium for "essential opium based medicine such as morphine."
Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.
Copyright 2007 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.
NEWSLETTER
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |