Pubdate: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 Source: National Post (Canada) Copyright: 2007 Southam Inc. Contact: http://www.nationalpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286 Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n683/a07.html Author: Norine MacDonald AFGHAN POPPIES COULD SAVE LIVES Re: Buying Afghan Poppies No Solution, letter to the editor, June 5. Colonel Brian MacDonald claims that there is no global shortage of morphine. I would like to point out that the International Narcotics Control Board acknowledges that six countries -- Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia -- consume more than 80% of the world's morphine. That leaves millions of people, particularly cancer and HIV/ AIDS sufferers in developing countries, to live and die in unnecessary pain with little or no access. The global supply and demand of opium-based medicines is a vicious circle. Due to endemic under-prescription and restricted supplies, many governments' official estimated requirements rarely reflect the actual need for opium-based medicines, such as morphine and codeine. This under-prescription leads to serious errors when calculating how much morphine and codeine is needed for future years. Given that the international manufacture of opium-based medicines is restricted by these official estimates, global stocks are insufficient to meet any increases in prescription levels. The Senlis Council--an international policy think-tank -- has developed a village-based poppy for medicine model, as a means of bringing illegal poppy cultivation under control in an immediate yet sustainable manner. This would replace the current destructive U.S. policy of forced crop eradication, which is driving poppy farmers into poverty and into the ranks of the Taliban. It is also wholly ineffective -- last year cultivation was up by 60% despite large-scale crop eradication. Norine MacDonald, president and lead field researcher The Senlis Council, Kabul, Afghanistan. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman