What did $7 billion spent on opium eradication in Afghanistan buy? More opium.

[n2doc]

With the outcome of Afghanistan's controversial presidential election still in doubt, and uncertainty over Afghan forces' ability to stand against the Taliban after most US forces withdraw, it's hard to say with certainty what the US-led war there has accomplished, or failed to accomplish.

But one thing is clear, as shown by latest quarterly report from the US Special Inspector General on Afghanistan Reconstruction: The $7 billion US program to eradicate poppy cultivation there over the past decade has been a flop.

The country is today the world's largest supplier of opium, the purified latex sap from the Papaver somniferum poppy species that is usually then converted into heroin. It accounts for about three-quarters of the global recreational supply, and surging Afghan production is one reason why street heroin prices have been falling across the globe.

What has the anti-opium effort in Afghanistan yielded US taxpayers?

The latest (United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime) Opium Survey estimates that 209,000 hectares are under opium-poppy cultivation, an all-time high and a 36% increase from 2012.

more

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Backchannels/2014/0703/What-did-7-billion-spent-on-opium-eradication-in-Afghanistan-buy-More-opium?cmpid=FB

[WinkyDink]

1. I think the term you want is "Mission Accomplished." Just ask the CIA.

[pipoman]

2. Poppys would be very difficult to eradicate

Their seeds are tiny and each flower produces enough to plant a large area. It would be silly to think it would ever be eradicated...

[dipsydoodle]

3. Its difficult not to laugh.

Mugs.

[blueridge3210]

4. I've never understood why

we don't just buy the product and then resell it on the market to drug companies. The sap is used for a variety of medicines; it would seem to make sense to allow production and simply buy the product.

[MH1]

5. I've wondered the same thing. Co-opt the economics of it and squeeze out the Taliban.

I assume the problem with that is that naive anti-drug warriors (or the disingenuous who would use them) would make political hay out of it.

Hell, doctors can barely prescribe opiates any more to people who need them.

[blueridge3210]

6. Pill mills by dishonest practicioners have messed up

a good thing for those with true chronic pain issues. Not a "big brother" type, but maybe a national database for high abuse prescription drugs to prevent "doc shopping"? Haven't really thought that one through a lot, but it may be one approach.

[n2doc]

9. Either that, or admit that people will find a way to abuse drugs

And stop being so uptight about painkillers. When Rush Limbaugh can get tons of Oxy and not get punished for it, while someone with real chronic pain issues is treated like a felon, things are screwed up.

[MH1]

11. Rush could also afford addiction treatment if he needed it. Many addicts can't.

Rush could also afford to procure his drug of choice without committing other crimes that would land him in jail. (Oh, I think he's committed plenty of crimes, at least morally, but he doesn't need to knock over a convenience store or steal stuff from someone's house.)

I used to think exactly like you posted, but then I knew an addict. So I modified it a little. Yes, we should be less uptight about painkillers, and people with chronic pain should be able to get what they need, but we should also recognize and handle the possibility of addiction - even when the person started using for a legitimate pain condition. In fact many addicts start with a legitimate need; the problem is that narcotics are evil in the sense that they suck you in and won't let you go. So addiction needs to be medically treated as well, and that treatment needs to be readily available. ** AND ** we SHOULD shut down pill mills that just exist to profit off of the addiction. As noted in my other post, some progress could be very easily made with minimal data collection via e-prescribing. IF the government could get its act together and do something right IT-wise for once.

[n2doc]

13. However, the drug war is a dismal failure

We can continue with the punishment, or we can try to be enlightened human beings. No argument that narcotics are bad and are abused. So's Alcohol and Tobacco. I've lost 3 close family members to tobacco-caused cancers. But the present system does little to stop such abuse, if someone wants narcotics badly enough they will get them. If the money that went into punishment went instead into treatment we might get somewhere.

People who are desperate will steal and commit crimes to get relief. This might be for drugs, food, shelter....


I find it notable that Colorado's experiment in legalizing MJ has led to a drop in crime. Narcotics are a different beast, and undoubtedly we will never try that experiment.

[MH1]

10. It would be relatively easy to do with e-prescribing, BUT

as I was shocked to learn a year or so ago when I did some ad-hoc free "consulting" on an EMR for a relative who is a doctor, actually narcotics are prohibited from being prescribed electronically. (as of then. maybe it has changed. hopefully it will.)

All you would have to do is monitor certain things, without keeping a full-up database of people's prescriptions.

1. Quantity of schedule 1 narcotics prescribed per period by a single entity (doctor or practice). If a certain threshold is crossed, perhaps temporarily capture more data to determine if there is a need to investigate. Maybe the entity serves a certain patient group where a higher than normal quantity is legit. But pill mills could easily be found this way, or they'd at least have to lower their output to avoid detection.

2. Unusual quantities of narcotics going to a single patient in a short time. If e-prescribing is the only mode for narcotics (maybe with an allowance for an emergency supply - couple of pills - by hand written script to be followed by e-script), then this is easy to catch without maintaining any long term database. Just a patient id (that can only be linked to the real person through complex algorithm), date, drug, and quantity, with records deleted after appropriate aging (like a month or so). So if a person gets 200 hydrocodone in a month than maybe further checks are in order. Someone like myself, who might get a script for 20 every 6 years or so, wouldn't even register as a blip.

Yeah, it wouldn't be too hard to do. But then again, I hate to say it but our government doesn't have a great batting average when it comes to IT solutions. Maybe give it to DARPA to figure out and they'd get it right.

[blueridge3210]

12. Yup. Clearly a complicated issue with no "easy" solution.

In spite of what politicians of all stripes will tell you. I've know addicts and their families. The same families that will yell if the addict gets locked up will yell just as loud if the OD and wonder "why someone didn't do something?" Not easy being in that box, to be sure.

[Danascot]

15. NYS has such a database

and it's reported to be working pretty effectively.

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20140208/MAGAZINE/302089950

[eomer]

7. It's because we are not in charge.

The people who are really in charge derive the ability to do things around the world under the cover of the "War on Drugs". They derive power and money. They don't care in the least about the goals that you have in mind.

[hobbit709]

8. Heroin is cheaper and more plentiful than ever ion the streets here

Anyone that anything about drugs predicted that in 2002

[valerief]

14. The War "On" Drugs has always been the War "For" Drugs. nt