Despite the challenges involved, if that 30% could be taken from the hands of the outlaws and given back to the government and people, Afghanistan could finally have the resources it needs to begin rebuilding and bettering the lives of its citizens.

Granted, it would be a massive undertaking -- one that would require purging the corrupt officials that facilitate the black market opium trade. It would be grand in scope, difficult to execute, and most definately long-term; but far from impossible as many officials claim. More than anything, such a project requires resolve. Resolve that unfortunately does not seem to be present in the current Afgan administration. Sadly, Afghan president Harmed Karzai has chosen not to declare holy war on corruption, but on the poppy. Such a move can have no possible positive outcome -- not for the farmers left with no viable alternative crops, and not on the suppression of the highly-mobile international narcotic trade. Mr Karzai would far better serve his people by declaring jihad on the pervasive corruption within his government. It is that very corruption that allows the illicit trade to flourish so openly in the first place.

In one of the most compelling arguments I have seen in some time, the executive director of the Senlis Council (a Paris-based drug policy forum) makes this very same point: Afghanistan needs to legitimize its poppy crop and move from being an illicit producer of street drugs to a legitimate supplier of medicinal alkaloids.

“More than two million people, or nine per cent of the population, rely on poppies for their livelihood,” said Emmanuel Reinert, executive director of the Senlis Council, a Paris-based drug policy advisory forum. “Without adequate measures to prevent illegal usage, eradication efforts will be useless.”

Instead of putting mammoth amounts of time and money into destroying the crop, argues Reinert, the international community should help Afghanistan become a legal opiate producer.

“Afghanistan and neighbouring countries need pain relief medication,” he said. “At present the country has to import such medications from abroad.” -- from IWPR

Sadly, the group has had little success so far -- Afghan officials argue the country does not have the resources to ensure the poppy crop would be properly regulated and prevent diversion.

Yet with both lives and economy at stake, it seems worth the effort to me. Market legitimization could funnel over $7.1 billion out of the black market and back in to the Afghan economy. That's a lot of money -- money that could be put to good use in a country that sorely needs every penny it can get.