A Losing War - by Romesh Bhattacharji, former counter-narcotics commissioner of India
7 August 2008

Nature achieved this year what six years of United States-led anti-narcotics enforcement could not do in Afghanistan. Bad weather effected a decline in the country’s opium production by ruining a sizable chunk of the crop. For Afghanistan, narcotics and insurgency are intertwined and inseparable problems. Illicit cultivation of opium was used by the U.S. to finance the insurrection against the Najibullah government. Many members of the Mujahideen, who were the Central Intelligence Agency’s paws, are now holding powerful posts in the U.S.-propped Hamid Karzai government...
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Mr. Harper: Don't let Insite close
27 May 2008

Safe injection sites have met with resounding success in many countries around the world, reducing crime rates and putting local communities at less risk. Their impact has been undeniably effective and the necessity for continuing them remains vital. The positive impact on public security includes reducing the social nuisance associated with drug use and drug-related crime. Instead of punishing drug users, safe-injection sites provide the police with an opportunity to engage with the drug users and alleviate the harm drug use has traditionally caused communities...
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Medizin statt Heroin?
June 2008

Die gegenwärtige Drogenpolitik in Afghanistan ist nicht nur unwirksam, sondern auch hochgradig kontraproduktiv. Die Zerstörung von Mohnfeldern vernichtet die Haupteinkommensquelle von mehr als drei Millionen Afghanen. Das fördert die Popularität der Taliban und setzt die Soldaten der Koalitionstruppen zusätzlichen Gefahren aus. Zugleich schwächt diese Politik den Rückhalt der afghanischen Regierung in der Bevölkerung und untergräbt deren Legitimität.
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Fixing Afghanistan
04 April 2008

Afghanistan's thriving heroin drug trade is a significant barrier to the country fully moving into modernity after centuries of chronic instability, poverty, and barbaric rule. The U.S.-led counter-narcotics program, which emphasizes poppy crop destruction, hasn't been able to thwart it. Absent a suitable anti-drug alternative the nation risks becoming a failed state again, crippling the war against radical Islamic extremism.
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Don't destroy Afghan poppies – use them to cultivate peace
8 January 2008

On 12 December, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, stood up before a packed House of Commons to outline his government's new approach to Afghanistan. This eagerly anticipated statement would, it was believed, herald a fresh approach to the country's opium problem. Unfortunately, the reality failed to match the pre-speech optimism...
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EU leadership on narcotics strategy in Afghanistan
1 December 2007

An important step in the right direction of Europe’s policy vis-a-vis Afghanistan has unfortunately gone unnoticed: with an overwhelming majority, the European Parliament recently adopted a recommendation to the European Council calling for a scientific pilot project to further investigate the possibilities for strictly- controlled morphine production in Afghanistan.
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MEPs open door for a sensible opium strategy By Raymond Kendall
28 October 2007

The European Parliament last week (25 October) took a crucial first step towards EU backing for more effective counter-narcotics policies. The overwhelming support for strictly-controlled morphine production in Afghanistan was a victory for common sense and pragmatism. Full article

The Portuguese news paper Diário de Notícias talks about opium licensing and support for this initiative in Portuguese politics.
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Poppies for Peace: Reforming Afghanistan’s Opium Industry
28 February 2007

With the September 2005 parliamentary elections, Afghanistan took another important step toward democracy and stability. Over the past four years, President Hamid Karzai’s government has put an end to decades of civil war and offered the Afghan people the possibility of rising from their abject poverty.
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How to beat the opium economy
1 December 2006

At NATO's summit meeting in Riga this week, one thing was undisputed: In order to save Afghanistan from turning into a narco-state the all-invasive drug industry has to be crushed. The opium business sustains a clan-based and crime-ridden society, it impedes Afghanistan's economic growth, hinders reconstruction efforts of the international community, and ultimately fuels instability and terrorism.
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There's a way to end Afghanistan's and the world's pain
23 September 2006

In his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper stressed the historic importance of the UN-sponsored intervention in Afghanistan. The rich have conspicuously come to the aid of the poor in the common interest. Calling it the UN's “greatest test,” Mr. Harper said, “we cannot afford to fail.” He then warned that “we haven't made Afghanistan's progress irreversible. Not yet.”
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Winning with opium in Afghanistan
16 July 2007

Despite considerable effort by the international community in Afghanistan since 2001 to eliminate the Taliban and al-Qaida, the insurgency in the south of the country has gathered momentum at breakneck speed in recent months. Our field research shows that we are not winning the campaign for the hearts and minds of the Afghan people — the Taliban are. Indeed, the international community's methods of fighting the insurgency and eradicating poppy crops have actually helped the insurgents gain power.
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Let A Thousand Licensed Poppies Bloom
13 July 2005

EVEN as Afghanistan's immense opium harvest feeds lawlessness and instability, finances terrorism and fuels heroin addiction, the developing world is experiencing a severe shortage of opium-derived pain medications, according to the World Health Organization. Developing countries are home to 80 percent of the world's population, but they consume just 6 percent of the medical opioids. In those countries, most people with cancer, AIDS and other painful conditions live and die in agony.
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Drugs: Lost War, New Battles
26 October 2004

The question of controlling drug consumption in France was temporarily put aside this summer with the conclusion of government discussions and the presentation of a five-year plan by the Inter-Ministerial Mission of the Fight against Drugs and Drug Addictions (MILDT) at the end of July. This plan, which was subject to much difference of opinion, even within the ruling party itself, does not present any spectacular innovation, and does little more than rephrase the existing policy: criminalization of consumption and limited development of health care and prevention. Is this timidity appropriate when one bears in mind the dimension of the drug problem at the beginning of the 21st century?
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Drug Policy and AIDS funding: the forgotten agenda
2 August 2003

Injecting drug use is known to have a very high rate of transmission of the HIV/AIDS virus. The latest United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report on India for example, shows that 5-10% of HIV/AIDS infections are in injecting drug users. Drug users can transmit the disease to the community at large through sexual relations, especially in certain developing countries where AIDS education is often sorely lacking.
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