A nice change in Afghanistan

From Bloomberg:

Record Afghan Wheat Crop Displaces Opium Poppies, U.S. Says
Afghanistan harvested its biggest wheat crop in 50 years as rains boosted yields and farmers switched from growing poppies that make the country the world�s largest opium producer, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.

Growers produced an estimated 4.1 million metric tons of the grain this year, almost triple the 2008 total and the most since at least 1960, the first year the Department of Agriculture kept records for the country.

�For many Afghans, this year�s bumper crop means a good winter,� Ashley Jackson, spokeswoman for Oxfam International, said by telephone from the capital, Kabul. �There are still pockets of crop failure, though, that need to be addressed, and a bumper crop this year does not mean a bumper crop next year.�

Improving food security is essential in Afghanistan, where decades of war have driven poorer farmers from the land or forced them to switch to growing opium poppies, aid workers said. The trade in opium, the raw ingredient for heroin, is worth as much as $3 billion annually to traffickers, warlords and the Taliban, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Very cool -- the Afghan diet uses a lot of wheat so this is a perfect crop to substitute. My only concern is that the opium still yields more money and the farmers will plant this if they can. Why do we simply not just buy the entire crop. Spending $3 Billion to eliminate the majority of the heroin problems worldwide is a drop in the bucket. Considering too that there is a global shortage of medicinal opiates, the opium purchased from the farmers could be given to pharmaceutical companies and alleviate this shortage. Put the drug lords, the Taliban (but I repeat myself), all of the petty pimps, dealers, bagmen -- all of them -- out of business. Sure, they will drift to something else but it will be a shade of what heroin is now...