Poppies for Medicine: A project to save Afghanistan

Poppies for medicine is an optimistic project developed by independent organizations to counter-fight drug trafficking in more practical methods. Instead of attacking Afghani farmers and eradicating poppy fields, which is the only source of earning their living, this project aims to buy the poppy crop from the farmers and to develop manufactured painkillers to meet the unmet demand in the third world countries.

According to a study, (which is based on extensive field research) there is a huge gap between the amounts of supply and demand of painkillers around the world. It is stated that whereas the western countries (U.S. and Europe) amount to only 20% of the global population, they use 90% of the painkillers produced annually. Hence, it may be noted that 80% of the population of the world do not have sufficient access to painkillers. 

This proposal states that Afghani farmers would be granted licenses to grow opium and to harvest it. In each village there would be a factory to manufacture and extract morphine. The following step is that this manufactured morphine would be transferred to Kabul (Capital City) to be retested, capsulated and packed according to the international standards. The following step is that it would be sold and distributed in emerging economies. In addition, this painkiller is expected to be 55% cheaper than the average market price. However, it shall not be in competition with the international producers of painkillers as the pain target of the product is to meet the deficit of supply in these emerging countries. This will ensure that the international pharmaceuticals producers do not attack this project as it would not be targeting the same market.

For purposes of practical implementation it shall depend on a three-tier supervision system. It shall be dependant to a great extent on the efforts of the local farmers and community leaders together with the national government. Each stage is expected to participate in this project either by monitoring the process, funding, buying or providing the means necessary for success. They are not only expected to plant and harvest opium but they are also expected to participate in extraction, testing and packaging their production.

It is argued that this project has been implemented before in Turkey (1970). In 4 years the government was able to control the opium production market and to be able to cut the links between the farmers and drug traffickers after it was thought to be an extremely difficult objective to attain. This project was funded and supported by the U.S. and was considered a great success. In this scenario farmers who were granted licenses were the only ones entitled to plant opium were all the others remained illegal and were prosecuted. This created an incentive for farmers who sought to legalize their position instead of being abused by traffickers and chased by the government. 

Another main goal of the project is to induce a healthy diversified development of the Afghani economy. The project is not intended to increase the specialization and concentration of the economy to be focused on a specific product but rather to diversify it. The revenues from the production and supply of morphine are expected to support this process. Donors, investors should also invest to encourage this process.

However, there are few concerns regarding this project. First of all, the insurgents in Afghanistan are part and among the people fighting the coalition armies aiming to liberate their country. This legitimizes the cause of the insurgents and hence they gain more support from the farmers and villagers who are keen to fund them. In other words, farmers are dedicated to provide the insurgents with the necessary funds to be able to carry on fighting. There are tribal and family relations that bond the insurgents to the farmers that create close links that are not easily broken. Moreover, during the Taliban era their regime had plans and has actually started eradicating and fighting the poppy planting. There was news about a decline in the amounts of poppy planted and produced in Afghanistan. This means that the Afghani people, farmers and villagers may not be as dependent on poppy planting as it may seem. It may also suggest that the choice to grow poppy is a strategic choice to secure funding for the insurgents rather than a detrimental necessity. This may be a hurdle in implementing the project.

The second concern is that the manufacturing, capsulation and packing of the painkillers needs know-how and experience which most of the Afghani farmers’ lack. It seems quite unrealistic that they will be able to produce painkillers which meets the international standards as fast as it is proposed in the project. Hence, it seems a bit over optimistic. Even if this project succeeds in few villages it will be hard to generalize this result due to the social, cultural, geographical and geological differences between the Afghani regions.

A third concern is that international painkillers producers will certainly fear parallel imports. If the Afghani products meet international standards and are cheaper by about 55% than their international counterparts it will be extremely difficult to control and stop parallel imports from the third world countries to the Western Countries. Distributors of the Afghani product will be highly inclined to “cheat” on their distribution contracts and distribute some of their quotas in the western countries to be able to gain more profit. 

In short, the idea of the project is very optimistic and is very welcomed but it seems that further research is needed to develop the ideas and tackle the practical problems of the project in depth and in more details. I may also argue that the Afghani poppy problem has a political dimension that needs to be urgently resolved.