Inside the box
While acknowledging that it would present its own raft of practical and ethical issues, I'm very frustrated by the fact that nobody in either big party would be willing to even consider the notion of rerouting, rather than eliminating, the $100 million in annual heroin revenues currently going to the Taliban. A policy of elimination costs more, takes longer, generates much more ill will locally, and requires constant maintenance to be even partially effective. And that's when our partner is a friendly, industrialized, Western nation.
Demand will beget supply; someone's going to grow the opium. Expecting a desperately poor agricultural nation to willingly ignore that enormous cash potential is ridiculous. If we're going to be over there, it's better and easier to put the opium farmers into our column. Reducing the global availability of heroin is not part of this mission.
Demand will beget supply; someone's going to grow the opium. Expecting a desperately poor agricultural nation to willingly ignore that enormous cash potential is ridiculous. If we're going to be over there, it's better and easier to put the opium farmers into our column. Reducing the global availability of heroin is not part of this mission.