:StonedPutin:

[Felch]

Specifically wrt Afganistan, why can't we buy the poppies off them and use them for prescription drugs?

Because then the terrorists would win.

[onodera]

Is it illegal to grow it there? If it's illegal to grow it there, that's different.

I guess it's illegal to extract opium from them and sell it.

[Riesstiu IV]

The military should form a company, the American East India Company, and just seize the opium and sell it to Chinese and Indians. That would help pay for the war.

[Elok]

Specifically wrt Afganistan, why can't we buy the poppies off them and use them for prescription drugs?

-Arrian

I don't know the figures on legitimate consumption of opiates in the developed world. Is there enough demand to take up a significant portion of Afghanistan crop, and if so would it take business away from farmers in other countries? Anyone know?

[onodera]

I think the illegal production of opitates is at least twice the legitimate one.

[Blaupanzer]

onodera reveals he knows more than he lets on about heroin production.

In certain backtail stories the US has controlled heroin production worldwide since the Viet Nam war. The center of production was the golden triangle for over 30 years. Activities on the part of China and Burma (Myanmar) have blocked acess to both the fields and the slave labor of those earlier years. Production moved to Columbia and Afghanistan as those areas destabilized. The US "assisted" in stabilizing Columbia and entered Afghanistan at about the same time. If these stories are to be believed, once the US gets its share of the Afghan harvest, the rest is left to the farmers, undsoweiter, to distribute outside US criminal markets. Russia fits that definition and has its own distribution system in the so-called Russian Mafia.

[Kidlicious]

I buy opium for recreational purposes occasionally. It's very relaxing, even more than pot and I never get paranoid on it.