Why not buy all the poppy seed in afganistan at a higher than market price?

Question

this would remove the "terrorists" funding

Answer 1

yeah, then we could sell it over here and make are money back....ummm, giving them ANY money is funding the terrorists...do you think the farmers get to keep their money?

Answer 2

The irony is that the poppy plants are allowed to flourish!
Afghanistan was and still is one of the biggest producers of 'poppy seeds' which are used to manufacture opium and then heroin.
This was the case before the al-Qaeda took over the countnry and the industry became even bigger when they did.
This crop financed viritually everything in Afghanistan, before and now, inclcuding funds for the "terrorists."
The most pertinent question to ask is why the industry is not destroyed at all.
When the al-Qaeda was removed, some feeble attempts were made to destroy the poppy fields. Now, everyone knows that such acts were meant for TVs, to show the world outside that the West was doing 'something' about the poppy scourge.
However, when 'farmers' protested that destruction of the poppy fields meant the removal of their only meaningful source of livelihood, both the West and the Afghan government chose to do the least and let the industry flourish.
There could well be another aspect to this in that those who buy the poppy seeds are largely from the West, mainly America. Afterall, heroin is big and easy money.
Unlike Iraq which has oil to part finance the war activities, Afghanistan has viritually nothing of value to its international clientele other than poppy.
So it is a happy situation where one produces black while the other grows white 'gold.'
This is the classic example of the hypocrisy about fighting the drug menace.
Afghanistan is under the total control of the Western powers which intentionally allow it to continue to be one of the main suppliers of the basic raw materials for heroin production.
One perhaps should not be surprised at all. Few in the world, champions of democracy, protectors of human rights and fore-front fighters of drug menace included, could resist the millions that the poppy industry can generate.
This is virtually history repeating itself albeit in a different way. One may recall that Britiain as a country was the biggest purveyor of opium in the 19th century. It obtained the drug in India and S E Asia to export to China, earning for the UK untold millions while reducing a whole country to abject poverty and misery. Britain and itis allies even went to war with China to assert their right to continue with and to protect their drug trade.
Today, many of the most illustrous British sons and corporations had their origin or owed their wealth and expansion to drug trafficking.
The West is indeed buying all the poppy seeds from Afghanistan, at whatever on-going prices. It is simply too lucrative a trade to give up. So it would be stupid and insane to destroy the poppy fields. No way would they kill the proverbial golden goose!
It is a neat arrangement in that people of Afghanistan can earn a living, the "terrorists" have a ready and steady source of funding, those in the drug trade in the West have their raw materials for opium and heroin, the military gets its thrills with al-Qaeda while Western Governments can continue with the sham of restoring democracy and at the same time those supplying the military hardwares have their thriving business and of course, equally important, Khazai can continue to parade contentedly knowing that there will always be the West to keep his country afloat, albeit barely, with him as head honcho.
Conclusion therefore is that no one in his right mind would want to "kill" the trade in poppy seeds.
It is far better to let some poor soldiers and the terrorists try to kill one another for after all, they are expandable.

Answer 3

why not buy the poppy juice for twice the market rate
giving the peasents a fair return ,limiting supply ,and cutting out the terrorists funding.
poppy seeds will still be planted
poppy sed sells for what 5 dollars a pound ,they will need trucks to carry the lowest value ,plant ten times the poppies get harvesting machines ,have to get threshing machines buy sacks ,bagging facilities ;paid for by selling what?
buy the what ,keep thier skills base ,till medicine can offer pain relief at less than 2000 a lb ,[dont know how many unit/doses for pain relief in a pound of resin but woukld work out at pennies a dose ,and perscribed by a docter
but where would the industry go that makes dangerous druigs such as prozac that has killed over 10,ooo so far

Answer 4

And we can replace the countries Gold Reserves with Poppy reserve.

If you have money, and want to stop Poppy production, better use it to help the farmers directly.

Buy them good farming grounds, introduce high value crops.

This people are planting Poppies because they don't have anything to plant and sell.

Terrorist are not only funded thru addictive drugs, and this trade have been going on even before the word terrorist was used.