Canadian troops could soon target Afghan drug trade

I think this is widely overdue. I understand that they are afraid of messing with people's livelihoods but, why can't we work with them to provide alternatives to growing opium? It would have double impact of eliminating Taliban revenue and allowing civilians to still support themselves.

I still think the other problems of the war torn nation should be dealt with first. There is no point in taking down the opium trade if the Taliban is still there in numbers. They are just going to either coerce people into growing it, or kill them.


I enjoy this quote: "Most times that we have operations, our soldiers, sailors and airmen have found drugs right there with Taliban," he said. "So the nexus between drugs and terror is very, very strong."

Now I'm not saying there is no correlation between terrorists and drugs, but I think this quote is misrepresents things. The nexus between drugs and PEOPLE is very, very strong. Is what I'm saying.

Good idea, but what could they grow that pays as much as opium?

I was under the idea that the UN tried this before in the region. They apparently tried to get the poppy farmers to switch to wheat, but that was a dismal failure since they couldn't feed their families on what they earned growing wheat.

Your not going to stop the farmers from growing opium since it's the biggest cash crop they get. So what we have to do is get it out of the hands of the Taliban and the only way we can do that is to buy it up from the farmers at a higher than fair market value, then destroy it.

Then, and only then, when you've financially ruined the Taliban, you can concentrate on removing the opium growing.

Either way, we're gonna have to pay alot of money for either overpriced wheat, or overpriced opium before we bankrupt the Taliban.

agree totally....

Set up a Canadian opium marketing board and their screwed for sure.

This is really bad news; I have seen civilians attack the ANP when they tried to destroy their crops. Im all for shooting the Taliban, they are fucking assholes, but it would take a lot out for me to kill a 50 year old farmer who is shooting at me for destroying his means to feed his family.

Another point is that the farmers are not the ones making the money, they are pretty much serfs. It is the landlords the rake in the cash from the opium trade, if they want to end the drugs they are going to have to have state run farms until there is enough demand for other produce.