Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-10-24-Speech-3-467"
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"en.20071024.44.3-467"2
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"Madam President, I speak on this matter in a personal capacity, and not on behalf of my Group.
The production of illicit opium in Afghanistan has flourished since US and allied forces have been in that country. This despite the setting-up of various anti-drug-production authorities and anti-narcotic programmes, sometimes using large amounts of EU taxpayers’ money.
So it is obvious, even to the blind, that the Afghan people will go on producing opium come what may. The reason for this is quite simple. The world’s anti-narcotic agencies are growing in size, number and expertise, and they are doing their job more effectively. They are therefore managing to confiscate larger amounts of drugs. However, since the demand from drug-addiction sufferers remains unaltered and since criminal drug traffickers continue to make huge profits from the illegal supply of opium to these sick people, the price of opiates goes up and the profits from dealing in opium increase.
Therefore, the Afghan people are just following basic liberal market principles. They are increasing their production in order to meet illicit trade demand and in order to increase their profits. So it is a pure fallacy to expect that sponsoring more opium control programmes in Afghanistan is going to have any significant effect.
The only way to deal effectively with opium production in Afghanistan, and elsewhere for that matter, is to deal with the drug problem globally. The only common-sense way to do that is to legalise drugs and recognise that drug addicts are not criminals, but sick people who need help.
If those addicts were offered therapeutic drugs in a controlled medical setting, then the chance of avoiding serious side-effects, as well as the chance of achieving detoxification, would be much improved. At the same time, the enormous criminality involved in drug trafficking would vanish, and all anti-drug police agencies would be scrapped, leading to phenomenal budgetary savings.
The logic of this is so basic, but politicians worldwide are having difficulty seeing it."@en1
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