21/9/2007
Call to produce legal analgesics instead of illicit opium in Afghanistan

The EP Foreign Affairs Committee is urging the Council to put forward a plan to the Afghan government which would include the possibility of a pilot project to turn part of the illicit poppy crop into legal opium-based analgesics.

In an own-initiative report drafted by Marco Cappato (ALDE, IT), and adopted on 12 September by 33 votes to 8 with 23 abstentions, the committee notes that "insurgents, warlords, the Taliban and terrorist groups are obtaining their major source of funding through trade in illicit narcotics", thereby jeopardising the political stability and economic development of Afghanistan.
 
Almost 40% of Afghanistan's GDP is opium-related and, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Afghanistan produces 93% of the opiates on the world market. 
 
Fight against corruption
 
MEPs want the Council to look at "the possibility of pilot projects for small-scale conversion of parts of the current illicit poppy cultivation into fields for the production of legal opium-based analgesics".
 
The report also urges the Council to devise and submit to the Afghan government a "comprehensive plan and strategy aimed at controlling drug production in Afghanistan", by "tackling corruption at the highest levels of the Afghan administration", especially the Ministry of the Interior.
 
Eradication
 
Lastly, the report calls for measures to improve rural development in the poorest areas of the country, especially in those not yet producing opium on a large scale, by "carefully and selectively engaging in manual eradication".
 
The European Union is the biggest donor as regards efforts aimed at reducing the opium supply through projects to promote alternative livelihoods for Afghan farmers.