More people thinking about Afghanistan solutions

Daily Times, Pakistan:

As international efforts to eradicate Afghanistan’s opium production have proven fruitless and the problem keeps getting worse, some European governments are weighing legalisation of the drug trade, a German magazine, Spiegel Online, reported on Tuesday.
“Governments in Berlin, Paris and Rome, along with NATO leadership are discussing a potentially explosive new idea: the legalisation of Afghanistan’s opium production. The plan envisages farmers being able to sell their poppies to officially licensed buyers for the same price they currently get from the drug barons. The product could then be sold to the pharmaceutical industry for pain medication and other products,” says the report.

“explosive new idea” It’s nice to know that more people are finally reading the Senlis Council’s proposals, which have been out there for ages already.
The best thing is the realization that actually discussing and analyzing options (instead of blindly pursuing a path that has been shown to be counterproductive) might be… useful. Something the U.S. doesn’t get.