This Council of the European Green Party
Recognising that Afghanistan supplies more than 90% of the world's opium, generating about €2.1 billion in revenues a year for that country, which amounts to about 40% of Afghanistan's economic activity,
Recognising that NATO soldiers are unlikely to win the battle for “hearts and minds” while they are trying to destroy the opium trade which underpins the local economy, and
Recognising that the military effort is immensely costly,
Recognising that the illegal opium trade sustains the Taleban, and various terrorists and criminals
Recognising that illegal opium, morphine and heroin cause terrible medical, social and criminal problems in many nations due to addiction to opium products
Recognising that the incidence of cancer in Africa is rising, and that patients are dying in terrible pain due to the lack of morphine and heroin,
Recognising that, viewed holistically, it will be far cheaper for concerned nations to purchase the opium crop from Afghan farmers, to process it into morphine and heroin preferably in licensed laboratories in Afghanistan and to distribute it free or at low cost to medical services in developing countries for use in relief of terminal pain.
Recognising that the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee, the Senlis Council, the Italian Red Cross and the Afghan Red Crescent already back this course of action,
This Council of the European Green Party resolves to ask its elected members in the European Parliament, our parliamentary representatives, and the Governments of our countries to develop and roll out a plan for the licensing and purchase of the Afghan opium crop as a matter of urgency in order to use it for medical services in development countries for use in relief of terminal pain.
