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| Opium Poppies-Source: Wikimedia Commons |
Over the past decade, the United States has spent $7 billion dollars trying to eradicate opium in Afghanistan (Security Inspector General). The result of this policy has been an all-time high in opium poppy production. This crop has an annual "farm gate" value of $.85 billion dollars (Al-Jazeera) and contributes to the employment of about 3.3 million Afghans (Guardian) out of a total workforce of about 7.7 million (CIA World Factbook). Given the relative expense and ineffectiveness of the current policy of interdiction and eradication, why not just buy the opium?
