Pubdate: Tue, 07 Aug 2007 Source: Chilliwack Progress (CN BC) Copyright: 2007 The Chilliwack Progress Contact: http://www.theprogress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/562 HARPER SHOULD CONSIDER P4M POPPY PROJECT The P4M project is a counter-insurgency, counter-narcotics initiative in which licensed farmers cultivate poppy plantations for the production of painkilling medicines, writes Margaret Evans Canada's military personnel are pretty stretched in Afghanistan as they help to reconstruct this war-shredded country. But to win this war against insurgents and win the hearts of the Afghan people maybe Ottawa needs to reconstruct its conventional, entrenched position on the Afghan farmer's opium poppy crop. There are 24 Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) in Afghanistan with Canada's team in Kandahar. It is at the forefront of the UN-sanctioned 37-nation International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) stabilization and reconstruction mission. The Canadian PRT team consists of Canadian Forces members, civilian police led by the RCMP, representatives of the Department of Foreign Affairs and CIDA. Their focus, in broad strokes, is security, governance and development. But when you cut to the details it would make a lot of sense for Prime Minister Harper to take a closer look at a recommendation by The Senlis Council, a respected international policy think tank, to launch a trial Poppy for Medicine project (P4M project) that could beef up security, embrace governance and enhance economic development. "We are still spending over ten times more on security and military projects than we are spending on humanitarian aid and development," stated Norine MacDonald, QC, Founder and Lead Field Researcher for The Senlis Council who has been living and working in Kandahar for the past two years. "We need a major management overhaul of our approach." Currently, farmers grow opium poppies for the illegal international drug trade. According to the U.N. they are responsible for 87 per cent of the world's supply of opium made into heroin. The P4M project is a counter-insurgency, counter-narcotics initiative in which licensed farmers cultivate poppy plantations for the production of painkilling medicines. The entire production process from harvesting the poppies, extracting the morphine (ten kilos of raw poppies yield one kilo of morphine medicines) and processing the finished pharmaceutical-grade morphine tablets would be done locally by project participants in collaboration with the Afghan government and international experts. The government would purchase the finished product for international marketing under its own label. Under the trial program, the farmers would receive $140 U.S. per kilo (compared to the $92 U.S. per kilo paid them by drug traders in 2006) and in addition they would be assured stable employment, long-term security and potential for growth in a legal economy. To prevent poppy harvests from being diverted to illegal channels, high levels of control would have to be implemented with policing and security. There's a huge, worldwide, undersupplied market for morphine and morphine-based products. According to The Senlis Council, just six countries (U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, Germany and France) use 80 per cent of the world's supply. The developing countries that account for 80 per cent of the world's population use just 5 per cent because of lack of affordability. Afghan-produced morphine could be economically marketed in regions such as Latin America and Asia. This is brilliant strategy, all the more so compared to the dogmatic stupidity of the United States' counter-narcotics strategy to eradicate poppy growing with chemical spraying. So far this year, forced crop eradication has left the poorest farmers with no means to feed their families. And people wonder why there is growing hostility against the international presence in southern Afghanistan. "There should be no crop eradication, manual or chemical, until the poverty-stricken farmers have other means to feed their families," stated Ms. MacDonald. Currently, France, India, Turkey, and Australia grow opium poppies under license. If the Afghan government sanctions the project, and it should, the program could start this fall when poppy seeds are planted. Good on the Senlis folks for thinking outside the box and suggesting something different. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek