The Senlis Council, a European think tank sharply critical of the international war on drugs including the manner in which opium production has been dealt with in Afghanistan, is wanted out of the country by the Afghan government, although their country manager has not of yet been officially notified. Formed in 2002 in the French town that bears its name, it has been proposing and lobbying for the licensing of Afghan opium for the production of medicines such as morphine and codeine, in order to substantially reduce the illegal trade in opium.
However, according to an announcement on the weekend by the Counternarcotics Minister after a meeting of the upper house of the Afghan parliament last week, the production and use of opium, apparently even for medicinal reasons, is invalid on constitutional and religious grounds. The destruction of poppy crops and the concomitant “encouragement” of farmers to grow other (less remunerative) crops thus remain in Afghanistan, while Senlis may not.
The Council, who have an office in Kabul (in addition to others in London, Brussels and Paris), launched the first phase of a feasibility study into the proposal back in March 2005. The results were released in September 2005, concluding that the licensing of opium “could provide not only an effective tool to complement existing development initiatives in Afghanistan, but also a vital response to the global shortage in opiate-based medicines.” How much longer the second phase, already under way, will remain is unclear.
Technorati Tags: afghanistan, war on drugs
