Poppy eradication: 'least effective programme ever'

This one almost slipped past: Richard Holbrooke, American "envoy" to Afghanistan, recently declared that our long-standing tradition of poppy eradication just flat out doesn't work, and it's time to try something else:

Holbrooke, at a G8 meeting in Italy, said current measures against poppy growers had been "a failure"....

Mr Holbrooke said that existing programmes of eradication had not reduced by one dollar the amount of money the Taliban earned from production.

"Spraying the crops just penalises the farmer and they grow crops somewhere else. The hundreds of millions of dollars we spend on crop eradication has not had any damage on the Taliban."

"On the contrary, it has helped them recruit. This is the least effective programme ever," Mr Holbrooke added.

Interesting. I might posit that "war on drugs" in general is more "least effective," but whatever. So what's the new plan?

According to Reuters, eradication of crops will still occur, but only in limited regions. As crop destruction is phased, the "emphasis will shift to intercepting drugs and chemicals used to make them, and going after drug lords."

The new direction was welcomed by officials from the other G8 countries and in the international community, many of whom felt the eradication of crops was deeply flawed.

Antonio Maria Costa, the head of the UN's Office of Drugs and Crimes said the policy had been a "sad joke...Sad because many, many Afghan policemen and soldiers ... have been killed and only about 5,000 hectares were eradicated, about 3 percent of the volume."

Oh. Just 3 percent, huh? Yeah, okay, that's definitely some serious "least effective" going on. Anyway, we here at DoseNation wish the Obama administration luck with "intercepting drugs and chemicals used to make them, and going after drug lords." Because, as we all know, when a drug lord is taken out, the power vacuum left behind is filled by unicorns and missionaries.