Taking farmers into confidence on opium eradication
The Senlis Council, a drug policy advisory forum, says that in the face of mounting violence and instability in Afghanistan, the focus should be on the real stakeholders in Afghanistan's future. ''The Afghan farming communities must be empowered and included in decisions on the future of their country,'' the report says. Instead, governments meeting at the conference are considering destroying the livelihood of farmers by wiping out whole opium cultivations, the report says.
Heroin made from opium grown in Afghanistan is known to be spreading at an alarming pace in Europe and North America. But opium is used also to develop morphine and codeine in controlled laboratories, particularly in India, France and Turkey. ''We are saying that Afghan farmers should be encouraged to grow opium and use it in a domestic industry for production of codeine and morphine,'' executive director of The Senlis Council Emmanuel Reinert told IPS.
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