US announces Afghan drug policy shift

Good. That's a start, now can they look at Mexico with that same frame of mind?

That's nice but what are the alternative crops and how are the farmers going to be compensated for them and when?

We're there to prevent the Taliban from taking over, but what the fuck gives us the right to enforce OUR drug policies on them?

Ofcourse marijuana is a safe alternitive, but that can only happen when we educate the ones against it.

another U.S. fail

Not sure they can grow hemp in Afghan climate. But that could be a viable cash crop of some amount. No where near what they are getting now, though.

That's right. the problem is not the farmers. Most of them are victims of slavery and fear that if they don't produce the crop, they will be put in danger by the drug traffickers. We must go after the traffickers and the groups of people receiving the shipments. People will not admit this, because they don't know any better but Lyndon H Larouche has been saying this should be the policy of Afghanistan and it appears the government is listening. In fact, today he is having a webcast. Government officials around the world will be watching. You guys should check it out. It may change your idea of the man. He has more influence around the world than one might think.
http://www.larouchepac.com/

So now their policy will drive them into the hands of Monsanto.

Excerpt:

Multinational companies move into farming

"Soya has never been grown in Afghanistan and it doesn't form part of the country's culinary tradition, but a new programme, supposedly devised to combat malnutrition, plans to change all that. 1 USAID has funded Nutrition and Education International (NEI), set up by Nestle, to teach Afghans to sow and eat soya beans. 2 NEI is linked to the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH),3 which was founded by the American Soybean Association (ASA) in 2000,4 to organise the distribution of free soya milk to pregnant women and infants throughout the developing world. WISHH works with the North American Millers' Association (NAMA), whose members include global giants ADM, Bunge Milling and ConAgro. In Afghanistan NEI works with Stine Seed Company, Iowa, and Gateway Seed Company, Illinois, both of which supply it with genetically modified Roundup soya and Roundup-Ready herbicide to be sold on to the farmers. According to NEI, it distributed two tonnes of genetically modified soya seed in Afghanistan in 2005. "
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Did anyone really think this government would do anything there because they care? There is MONEY to be made by these companies. The farmers will just go from one drug dealer relationship to another.

This post is also featured on the Sustainable Agriculture Channel:

http://current.com/topics/86293911_sustainable-agriculture/

Wow, the US was slow to the obvious on this one but at least they are coming around.

Maybe too late. But but better late than never I suppose.

The whole "war on terror" has created so much more hatred for the US than there was before hand it is like watching morons cut down every tree in the forest to protect it from forest fires. So painfully stupid.

This is great as long as they keep Monsanto, Cargill, and the other thieves and thier GMO crops out of the loop, plan, picture etc. Get my gist?

I guess they only did this once it was deemed profitable for the mega farming industries to step in??

This has been a huge problem in Afghanistan since before we decided to go in and "fight al-queda".... The land owners never get in trouble even thoigh they are the ones forcing this specific crop to be grown, only the farmers get sanctioned... Why?? Good ol' corruption.... Plenty of money to pay off the politicians to word the laws in certain ways that protect the landowners, but villify the farmers.... Corruption such as this is not just an American disease....

Weed of course as you all know grows wildly over there. The local nationals smoke weed on the base, so i do not see this as being a reliable story let alone true.

Ironically the Taliban, while not great people, weren't enemies if the US either until the unprovoked invasion of their entire country over the pretext that Al Qiada had a base in some unknown mountain cave somewhere there...

hey dmass, considering the story itself is about opium farmers, i find your comment to be unreliable, let alone thought out.....

try reading the articles and not just the comments....(oh yeah try interpreting the comments correctly as well so you dont look so....shall we say uninformed??)

It is absolutely true. The soldiers that i know personally told me policy has shifted several times on the ground level. Sometimes they are supposed to get it and seize it and other times they are to ignore it. It is there biggest economy and why you might ask? This is the good part. Our junkies support the afghan war.Heroin is the biggest funding the taliban gets. Before we where leaving the taliban alone. because we where busy. Now they are a target and so is there funding.Address the drug problem in america in a responsible way and no more demand.Rehab and not prison. is the answer. Education not incarceration.

Going after demand is a "blue sky" concept at best. We have been getting high in one form or another since the beginning of recorded history, so that will never change.

Everyone has their "drug" of choice, and their rationale for using it, whether it be tobacco, caffeine, weed, pills, alcohol, meth, coke, whatever. Decriminalization is the answer. We need to take a serious lesson from European policy makers in this regard