It's poppycock to grow crops here but destroy them in Afghan

**jarrod248** · 13-07-2009, 10:33

Originally Posted by msr

Originally Posted by jarrod248

Originally Posted by msr

Originally Posted by sc_obvious

How much would it cost to buy the entire crop ?

Pennies: http://www.poppyformedicine.net and it would be self financing

Where would it end, would they plant even more and want more money?
Does paying for the crop encourage more and better production?

Does pouring in massive amounts of soldiers and associated military hardware reduce it?

Seemingly not, then I did say I didn't know the answer. I do think we are going in the right direction with drug users though. The service I manage has recently started a service for younger people. The adult drug users often say they started using when they were 13 yrs old and upwards.
I'm not sure whether it will be a sad day or a time to rejoice when I write my first prescription so a kid can collect his/her Methadone and then catch the bus to school.

**Fallschirmjager** · 13-07-2009, 10:39

Why not kill every heroin addict on the planet. Hey presto! No more market for opium! It's not as if heroin addicts deserve to live.

**Dollsteeth** · 13-07-2009, 10:39

turning to the taliban is not the problem, as has been pointed out unless we threatened to do them serious harm the farmers will always work for the talib as all the money in the world from us will not stop the taliban doing nasty stuff to them/families etc. we cant protect them 24/7 and we wont be there forever, I dont blame them from taking the safer option.

**jarrod248** · 13-07-2009, 10:41

Originally Posted by Fallschirmjager

Why not kill every heroin addict on the planet. Hey presto! No more market for opium! It's not as if heroin addicts deserve to live.

Thailand shot hundreds of Heroin users, guess what it didn't work. The PM who was ousted ? Thaksin shinawatra ordered it.

**Werewolf** · 13-07-2009, 10:42

Buy the whole crop, use what we need for medical purposes, then distroy the rest. While I could care less about junkies, the crimes they commit to fund their pathetic "lifestyle" harm real people. I'm willing to bet that buying up the Afghan poppy crop would cost less than what we spend on dealing with drug related crime.

Once we have stopped the flow of heroin, we can start to wean the junkies off methadon; the scum will not be able to go back on heroin since there won't be any left.

**msr** · 13-07-2009, 10:43

This idea is more about solving the problems in Afghanistan, not directly solving the problem of drug abuse in the UK.

**Ord_Sgt** · 13-07-2009, 10:44

Originally Posted by jarrod248

Originally Posted by Fallschirmjager

Why not kill every heroin addict on the planet. Hey presto! No more market for opium! It's not as if heroin addicts deserve to live.

Thailand shot hundreds of Heroin users, guess what it didn't work. The PM who was ousted ? Thaksin shinawatra ordered it.

Well it didn't make it worse though, did it?

**jarrod248** · 13-07-2009, 10:45

Originally Posted by msr

This idea is more about solving the problems in Afghanistan, not directly solving the problem of drug abuse in the UK.

No but Heroin use is why we have people making loads of money out of poppy production.

**msr** · 13-07-2009, 10:46

Originally Posted by jarrod248

Originally Posted by msr

This idea is more about solving the problems in Afghanistan, not directly solving the problem of drug abuse in the UK.

No but Heroin use is why we have people making loads of money out of poppy production.

Only they aren't, because there is very little money to be made from growing it. The real money is made by the people who transport it and sell it on.

MSR

**jarrod248** · 13-07-2009, 10:47

Originally Posted by Werewolf

Buy the whole crop, use what we need for medical purposes, then distroy the rest. While I could care less about junkies, the crimes they commit to fund their pathetic "lifestyle" harm real people. I'm willing to bet that buying up the Afghan poppy crop would cost less than what we spend on dealing with drug related crime.

Once we have stopped the flow of heroin, we can start to wean the junkies off methadon; the scum will not be able to go back on heroin since there won't be any left.

I think the estimate is that for every Â£ spent on drug treatment we save Â£8 on criminal justice.

**Fallschirmjager** · 13-07-2009, 10:47

Originally Posted by jarrod248

Thailand shot hundreds of Heroin users, guess what it didn't work. The PM who was ousted ? Thaksin shinawatra ordered it.

That was the problem. Shooting hundreds is no good. You have to kill all of them for it to work.

Originally Posted by msr

This idea is more about solving the problems in Afghanistan, not directly solving the problem of drug abuse in the UK.

It will solve the problem that there would be no market for their opium, hence no funding.

**jarrod248** · 13-07-2009, 10:49

Originally Posted by msr

Originally Posted by jarrod248

Originally Posted by msr

This idea is more about solving the problems in Afghanistan, not directly solving the problem of drug abuse in the UK.

No but Heroin use is why we have people making loads of money out of poppy production.

Only they aren't, because there is very little money to be made from growing it. The real money is made by the people who transport it and sell it on.

MSR

I agree the farmers must be paid very little but more than what they'd get for other crops I imagine. the poppy does of course grow well there.

**msr** · 13-07-2009, 10:54

Originally Posted by jarrod248

Originally Posted by msr

Originally Posted by jarrod248

Originally Posted by msr

This idea is more about solving the problems in Afghanistan, not directly solving the problem of drug abuse in the UK.

No but Heroin use is why we have people making loads of money out of poppy production.

Only they aren't, because there is very little money to be made from growing it. The real money is made by the people who transport it and sell it on.

MSR

I agree the farmers must be paid very little but more than what they'd get for other crops I imagine. the poppy does of course grow well there.

Exactly, so let's start thinking intelligently about this ;)

MSR

**Werewolf** · 13-07-2009, 10:56

Originally Posted by msr

This idea is more about solving the problems in Afghanistan, not directly solving the problem of drug abuse in the UK.

Permission to speak freely, Boss? To be honest, I could'nt give a fcuk if every Afghan man, woman and child dropped dead. Our priorities MUST be to protect British soldiers and civlilians.

If offering the Afghan poppy farmers a viable alternative to selling heroin and co-operating with Terry saves British soldiers and/or reduces drug related crime in the UK, then I'm all for it. If using the tactics of Alexander the Great - basically, slaughter every Afghan man, woman, child or goat who even looks the wrong way at your soldiers - was a viable option, I would not hesitate to advocate that too.

**PartTimePongo** · 13-07-2009, 10:58

How much money (A) did the Afghan Government extort from us last year? Yes, I know what word I used, and that describes it best.

Now, how much money (B) would it take to buy as much of the harvest as we could?

How does A compare with B?