From the Gulf Times in Qatar:
KABUL: The war against drugs in Afghanistan is a failure and the strategy needs to be changed, the top UN official in the world’s biggest heroin-producing country said yesterday.
“Nobody can say that we have been successful if the poppy production has increased,” Tom Koenigs, the UN Secretary-General’s special representative in Afghanistan, told a monthly press conference.
“Certainly the strategy and the effort have to be rethought,” said Koenigs, adding: “The problem has increased and the remedy has to adjust.”
Gee, if only someone could come up with a solution. Oh, that’s right. Someone did.
We’ve been talking about it here for some time.. The Senlis Council has been working on a detailed feasibility study, and senior conservative MPs in Britain have urged this approach.
Of course the U.N. drug czar and representatives can’t consider a proposal that’s economically and logically sound, but doesn’t involve destroying, seizing, or arresting.
So all they can do is scratch their heads and say, “Boy, this is a tough one!”
Update: Meanwhile, our own drug czar decides to increase the stupidity involved exponentially.
But Mr Walters today said that eradicating the opium crop was the only way for Afghanistan to achieve lasting peace.