The Green Party is repeating its call to legalize, license and commercialize Aghanistan’s poppy crop. The call comes on the same day that the independent research group,The Senlis Council, releases recommendations it wants the Canadian government to adopt for a “Poppy for Medicine” program and just days after the latest United Nations report that says Afghanistan is the source of more illegal drugs than Columbia.
It’s time to abandon the failed campaign to eradicate Afghanistan’s poppy crops and adopt a new plan that helps the Afghan people earn a decent living while marginalizing the drug lords and warlords, Green Party leader Elizabeth May said today.
She called on NATO and the international community to endorse the Poppy for Medicine (P4M) project – licensing opium poppy cultivation for the production of Afghan-made morphine to be exported to developing countries through special trade agreements.
“How much more evidence is needed before we finally admit that eradication has failed?” asked Ms. May. “Opium production is exploding. The area under poppy cultivation is increasing year by year and Afghanistan now produces more than 90 percent of the world’s opium. The drug economy represents half the country’s GDP.”