Leading article: Seeds of reconstruction / Independent on Sunday, 1 April 2007
http://digbig.com/4sddh
"It looks too good - and too neat - to be true. Legalising poppy growing in Afghanistan seems to solve so many difficult problems at once. It would divert some of the supply of heroin from Western drug abusers. It would make the war against the resurgent Taliban easier to fight: one of the factors driving poor Afghan farmers into the arms of the fundamentalists is the attempt by foreign troops to destroy the crop that is their main livelihood. It would weaken the criminal warlords whose control of the illegal drugs trade obstructs the country's economic development. And if drug companies could buy Afghan opium they could alleviate the shortages of medical opiates here and in the developing world."

Opium for the people: Extraordinary move to legalise poppy crops
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Francis Elliott

Poppy farmer: 'If they spray our crops there will be a big rebellion, you'll see'
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Kim Sengupta in Bolan, Helmand