Afghan Morphine - Poppy For Medicine

Poppy For Medicine

One alternative development policy, put forward by the Senlis Council, proposes licensing poppy cultivation in order to make Afghan morphine and other poppy-based medicines and to avoid diversion of opium to illegal traffickers. Detailed in their June 2007 technical blueprint, "Poppy for Medicine", the Council propose that controlled poppy for medicine projects be established where the crop is cultivated, harvested and turned into essential medicines within the villages to limit diversion, add value to the finish product to promote economic diversification within the village and to guarantee the involvement of village inhabitants. The Council believes that the strong traditional local control systems, based around the village shura, supported by the Afghan National Army and international community, would control the legitimate production of poppy-based medicines and limit diversion. The economic resources created by the sale of the medicines would provide opportunities for the village to diversify and break ties with poppy cultivation and the illicit opium trade. A similar opium licensing scheme carried out in Turkey in the 1970s, with US support, brought illicit opium production under control within four years. Moreover, the proposal hopes that Afghan morphine can contribute to decreasing the acute global morphine shortage and provide cheap essential poppy-based medicines to countries who currently cannot afford to prescribe them.