History Argues Against Legal Afghan Opium January 9, 2007
Reader Lettersby David H. Kerr
I am writing in response to your article, U.S. Lawmakers Suggest Legal Poppies for Afghanistan (January 4, 2007).
Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-St. Louis) needs to review history about our efforts with other countries to grow different crops instead of poppies.
We encouraged countries in the "Golden Triangle" -- Burma and Thailand -- to grow strawberries instead of poppies and we would help buy the strawberries. They grew strawberries, we bought them, and they kept growing poppies in more discrete areas.
In response to the plan of Rep. Carnahan, here is what will happen according to history: Afghanistan will sell us opium for medical purposes and continue to sell poppies to the illegal market.
This is a 101 history lesson that we should know by now.
When Nixon visited one of the South American dictators years ago, he asked, "why don't you stop growing coca plant?"
Answer: "Why don't you stop using it?"
David H. Kerr
President, CEO
Integrity, Inc.
PO Box 510
Newark, NJ 07101
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Boston University School of Public Health 
