Cornering the Opium Market in Afghanistan

[yellerpup]

While arguing with my conservative brother who thinks Afghanistan should just be leveled…(I know, it’s already been leveled) because opium sales fund Taliban activities, I came up with an alternative.

Buy the entire opium crop. Own 95% of all the pain relief in the world. Corner the market and use as needed. Anyone, anywhere who has pain can have relief from pain at the hands of the USA. Every person who has ever had surgery or had a loved one who had surgery understands the importance of pain relief. Why can’t we give that (free or at a modest mark-up) to the world?

Illegal opiate sales would ideally drop in direct proportion to the percentage of the world opium crop the US would own because illegal product would no longer be available.

Instead of demonizing the product, which has been famed for it’s comforting qualities for millennia, why can’t we, in cooperation with the people of Afghanistan make a gift of pain free operations to everyone in the world?

If the USA controlled 95% of all the opium in the world we could have control over whether it ends up as professionally administered medicine and severely inhibit its client base and drive down recreational use.

Afghanis could still grow beautiful fields of flowers and continue to make their living as they have made it from time long forgotten with the only difference being the middlemen cut out so that we could pay a better price than the present drug dealers pay. Surely the USA has the wherewithal to make an opportunity for these beleaguered people to help them choose peace and give them enough money to care for themselves and their families at the same time.