Smokin' Afghani opium

The taste and aroma of opium is very sweet, sweeter than any cannabis I've ever smoked. Smoking (or eating) it produces a mild and very pleasant high. Opium's availability is rather limited, so many of you may not have had the pleasure. Far more of you, however, have experienced hydrocodone and/or oxycodone (Vicodin and Percocet, respectively). These drugs are semi-synthetic morphine, derived from thebaine - and much more powerful than opium. And when washed down with alcohol, as happens more often than it should, the results are unpredictable and dangerous. But I digress...

Let's talk about Afghanistan and her opium "problem." Eradication of Afghanistan's poppy production and the introduction of crop substitution has been the mainstay solution of every president going back to Eisenhower. And it appears that President Obama is traveling down that same path - and will encounter the same roadblocks as his predecessors. And unless a more enlightened approach is taken by our president, his successors will suffer the same fate of failure.

Everyone speaks of how "difficult" Afghanistan's opium problem is, but it really is not. Most problems have simple solutions, and the one of opium is no different. Instead of allowing Afghanistan's warlords and drug lords (often one and the same) to control the opium trade, the United States should take control. (Of course, this would mean we've resolved the insanity of drug prohibition and repealed it. But let's make that assumption of enlightenment.) We could pay the poppy farmers a considerable multiple of what they now receive, changing the opium dynamic in several important ways. First, we'd be eliminating the control warlords and drug lords exercise over the poppy farmers - no small accomplishment. Next, we would bring stabilization not only to the whole of Afghanistan but to other parts of the broader region - an ever bigger accomplishment. And perhaps the most important benefit would be that the regulated opium trade would provide a solid agricultural-based economy and bring Afghanistan into the 21st century (or at least out of the 7th...).

And then more of us could enjoy the many benefits of consuming opium. What's not to like about that?