Legalize it!

No, not that.

For the past couple of years I have relentlessly advocated the legalization of poppy growth in Afghanistan. And now an expert agrees!

Poppy grows really well in Afghanistan and is easily converted into very transportable tar, a primary ingredient for heroin. The Taliban had effectively outlawed poppy farming; but Anti-Government Forces (taliban with a "little t") have found it an incredibly effective means of filling their coffers (taking a page from the narco-terrorist FARC's playbook). Poppy growth rates exploded the past few years, especially in the more dangerous and uncontrollable southern and eastern provinces of Afghanistan - which now contain 82% of the global area under opium poppy cultivation.

Counterinsurgency 101 tells us to cut off financial support for insurgents, but with drugs this can be really tricky. You will isolate/anger a non-aligned farmer by destroying his crop, whatever it might be. After all, he's just trying to get by. It's hard enough to win hearts and minds in rural areas where the central government has little presence and it doesn't help when the first government official a farmer might ever meet comes to eradicate his income. So I advocate legalizing poppy growth with an important caveat: government monopsony.

Perhaps such an effort would need to be subsidized, but a legal market for poppy could feed legitimate morphine production by pharmaceutical companies. And in the spirit of Obama-mania, we could probably even engage with Iran in this effort; which is suffering high levels of opium use these days, especially in their youth population (and we know why dissatisfied youth are dangerous).

(Photo: LA Times)