Given the current desperate state of both the counter-narcotics and counter-insurgency efforts in Afghanistan, there is little to lose in trying to implement Poppy for Medicine in the country. This proposal foresees the local production of an Afghan brand of morphine to boost the rural economy and diversify it over time. Poppy for Medicine does not pretend to completely wipe out illegal opium production. Instead, it aims to integrate as many poppy farmers as possible within the legal economy and cut off the biggest possible amount of income from the Taliban's funding base.

The system would borrow successful elements from similar poppy licensing schemes in India and Turkey, and should reduce diversion to illegal channels over time while stressing compulsory economic diversification. By focusing on the unmet needs of morphine around the world, Poppy for Medicine would provide much needed painkillers to those people with little or no access to them – currently about 80 per cent of the world's population. In Afghanistan, you have to start somewhere and you have to start with something that works. Counter arguments focusing on corruption or a lack of institutional capacity to run or control these projects, should not be used to prevent us from testing whether the current situation (100 per cent diversion of opium towards illegal channels and into the pockets of the Taliban) can be considerably improved. Instead, Poppy for Medicine and similar economic development projects should be implemented to see whether they can boost the rural economy and build capacities and new skills at the same time.
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As a part of ongoing research on the Poppy for Medicine initiative for Afghanistan, the British pharmaceutical consulting firm Heathside Information Services Limited has undertaken research on the economics of processing raw poppy materials into morphine medicines in a small factory in Afghanistan. Based on the project model outlined in ICOS’s June 2007 publication Poppy for Medicine, the resulting report is reproduced in full in Appendix I to this Case Study.

In addition, this Case Study examines the possibility of extending the Poppy for Medicine project model, and adapting the medicine factory accordingly, to add value to other locally-produced agricultural commodities. In particular, this Case Study explores the possible local manufacture of the malaria medicine Artemisinin in the local medicine factories. The extended Appendices to this Case Study provide extensive details of the economics of producing morphine in small local factories.
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June 2007

Licensing poppy for the production of essential medicines: an integrated counter-narcotics, development, and counter-insurgency model for Afghanistan.
Resolving Afghanistan's illegal opium crisis is the key to the international community's successful stabilisation and development in the country. Yet, by overemphasising failed counter-narcotics strategies such as forced poppy eradication, the United States-led international community has aggravated the security situation, precluding the very reconstruction and development necessary to remove Afghan farmers' need to cultivate poppy.
The Poppy for Medicine model provides a village-based solution to these challenges.
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By Romesh Bhattacharji, former narcotics commissioner of India

Important lessons from the experiences of Indian farmers, administrators and security experts could inform the implementation of a Poppy for Medicine project in Afghanistan. The role played by the Indian farming villages, and in particular the role played by the village headman, in controlling poppy cultivation and limiting diversion in licensed poppy cultivation projects has empowered a variety of stakeholders. This lesson is particularly relevant with regards to the social control hierarchies present in Afghan rural societies. more...

Effective control lies at the very heart of a fully functioning poppy licensing system. This paper presents an analysis of how such control might be attained. It is clear that formal, state governance structures alone are insufficient to propagate effective, nationwide control. Rather, effective control of a poppy licensing system can only be achieved through the integration of traditional, local governance with and alongside state institutions and processes. The model control system presented here proposes to integrate existing formal and informal local level social control structures with formal, state government institutions, maximising the capacities and aptitude of both for the efficient and extensive control of licensed poppy cultivation.
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Turkey’s successful transition from a culture of widespread, unregulated poppy cultivation to a licensed, controlled system of poppy cultivation for the production of medicines provides an interesting model for Afghanistan.
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