Trying To Stop The Afghan Drug Trade

Canadian soldiers patrol through an Afghan poppy field - Photo MCpl Robert Bottrill

Marines Try Unorthodox Tactics To Disrupt Afghan Opium Harvest -- Washington Post

CAMP LEATHERNECK, AFGHANISTAN -- U.S. Marines are mounting an intensive effort to disrupt the opium harvest in the former Taliban enclave of Marja by confiscating tools from migrant workers, compensating poppy farmers who plow under their fields and collaborating with Drug Enforcement Administration personnel to raid collection sites.

The steps amount to one of the most novel U.S. attempts to crack down on a key part of Afghanistan's drug trade while seeking to minimize the impact on individual farmers, many of them poor sharecroppers who face economic peril if they cannot harvest or sell their crops.

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My Comment: Growing opium is what the Afghan farmer knows best. The marines may be successful with stopping much of this year's crop, but there is always next year, the following year, and so on. This is a stop gap measure at best .... with results that will probably only be temporary.