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May 31, 2007

Away from the quick fix...

Excellent op-ed on narcotics today by Crisis Group's Nick Grono and Joanna Nathan. They succinctly rebut black and white solutions to the drug problem (large-scale eradication and regulated legalization) and suggest some wiser measures:

  1. Target the 20-25 top traffickers with extradition and asset seizures.
  2. Destroy labs and warehouses (ANA backed by NATO).
  3. Cooperate with Iran and Pakistan to shut down middlemen operating on their terrain.
  4. Focus alternative livelihood programs on areas before they produce poppy in order to inoculate farmers to its influence.

Skeptics might argue that these steps are difficult to implement with the current levels of corruption, or that they require of politicians an unrealistic embrace of moral ambiguity and long time horizons. I don't think Grono and Nathan would disagree, but they remind us that "it is much easier to say what won't work than what will."

"The challenge," they write, "will be to keep (politicians) focused on smart courses of action that yield long-term results – and away from superficially "easy" policies that end up backfiring." We should do what we can to help make these arguments.

Posted by Carl Robichaud on May 31, 2007 at 02:32 PM in Opium, Pakistan, Parliament, Politics, U.S. Policy |

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