Pubdate: Thu, 30 Aug 2007
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2007 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Mike Blanchfield
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

CANADIANS BACK LEGALIZING OPIUM TRADE: POLL

80% Support Project To Use Abundant Crop For Legal Pain Drugs

A new poll commissioned by the international think-think that is 
championing the legalization of Afghanistan's contentious opium poppy 
crop shows overwhelming Canadian support for the proposal.

The Ipsos Reid survey of 1,000 Canadians conducted on behalf of the 
Senlis Council found that eight in 10 want Prime Minister Stephen 
Harper to get behind an international pilot project that would help 
transform Afghanistan's illicit opium cultivation into a legal way of 
providing codeine and other legitimate pain drugs to the international market.

The release of the poll yesterday comes two days after the United 
Nations' latest audit of the poppy farming trade found that 
Afghanistan's production of opium, the key ingredient in heroin, has 
now reached record levels in the six years that western nations have 
controlled the country.

This week, the UN said for the first time that the illicit trade is 
directly linked to funding of the Taliban insurgency that threatens 
Canada and its military allies.

The poll also found that 82 per cent of respondents opposed the 
U.S.-led policy of chemical spraying to eradicate poppies, while 
seven of 10 said they would be willing to use "fair trade" 
Afghan-made morphine, as long as it conformed to international standards.

"Prime Minister Harper has to listen to Canadian people who are 
looking for a common-sense solution," Norine MacDonald, head of the 
Senlis Council told a news conference yesterday, where she unveiled 
her organization's findings.

She urged the government to move quickly because the next Afghan 
poppy planting season begins in October.

The Liberal opposition supports the Senlis proposal as a sound 
alternative to the poppy problem.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman