Skepticism
Despite the obvious success of Thailand and to a lesser extent Pakistan and Vietnam, many people deny that opium replacement is actually effective. The first argument is that Thailand is the only really resounding success, but that its success is due to lots of unique and non-replicable factors. The second is that development activities simply cause production to relocate to other areas (what is often called "The Balloon Effect"). On one hand it is true that there are many farmers who don't grow drug crops as a result of agricultural and social development. On the other hand, the world's supply of illicit drugs is continually rising and prices are falling, despite the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars by development agencies and national governments on these kinds of projects. Despite this controversy, the programmes go on.
Read more about this topic: Opium Replacement
Famous quotes containing the word skepticism:
“A major problem for Black women, and all people of color, when we are challenged to oppose anti-Semitism, is our profound skepticism that white people can actually be oppressed.”
—Barbara Smith (b. 1946)