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You should consider that the people who are currently profiting from the drug trade may not wish their suppliers to change crops. |
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Written By:
Mark A. Flacy
URL:
http://
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Real libertarian. |
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Written By:
william
URL:
http://
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The question I have is wouldn’t the reduction in supply of poppies then raise the market price for opium, once again making poppie production more valuable?
Of course, our farmers who are producing ethanol (e.g., ADM) are never going to let this happen: "Competition? Never heard of it." |
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Written By:
MichaelW
URL:
http://asecondhandconjecture.com
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I saw that too Jon. Personally I like the idea. Is it libertarian? In an imperfect world it is probably better than other alternatives, assuming the crops would grow and other factors, but I am in favor of outside the box thinking. I say look into it. Maybe your pull with a certain senator might help? |
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Written By:
Lance
URL:
http://www.asecondhandconjecture.com
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I would think an unintended consequence would be the sudden unemployment of those farmers, once multi-nationals, or very wealthy smaller coporations who can afford the machinery and automation that would make the crop even more proffitable. I don’t think there are a bunch of opium farmers who can compete with against high priced machinery, and high efficiency agricultural methods. |
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Written By:
wickedpinto
URL:
http://
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I love the idea and wish we could try a few of the ’outside the box’ ideas.Is it Libertarian? Possibly. It wouldn’t be long before someone over there thought of an idea to use the crops or products of the crops to make some legit money in thier country. Possibly jump starting a whole knew job source. |
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Written By:
SkyWtach
URL:
http://
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How about, ending the War on Drugs, Ending all agricultural subsidies, and getting the hell out of Afghanistan as soon as it is feasible?
NAWWW that would never work. |
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Written By:
kyle N
URL:
http://impudent.blognation.us/blog
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Logistics kills this idea.
Afghanistan has no ports, and there’s no way an ethanol pipeline could be cost-effective (and you can’t use any existing oil or gas ones, since ethanol is corrosive), compared to domestic production.
Better off doing what someone else suggested somewhere I read today and promptly forgot where - just buy their opium crop, and either destroy it or make legitimate opiate pharmaceuticals for the world market. |
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Written By:
Sigivald
URL:
http://
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Real libertarian. I knew William would have a comment in this thread...please don’t use his money to subsidize a crop switch which might restrict his access to drugs. You bastards! |
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Written By:
JWG
URL:
http://
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Sigivald has a serious concern. The story of Afghanistan is that even if they had a product to export, they have no good way to export it. Drugs work because they’re not really grown or imported on an industrial scale.
The land itself is probably ill suited for for that sort of agriculture. The altitudes are high, the growing season is screwy, and the land is rocky. Switch grass might work in the spring and summer months. I’d be willing to bet mining and other low level industry would make for better industry development in the short term though. All the problems of getting products out operate in reverse getting products in. Afghanistans metal deposits could be used to yield cheap feeder materials for the nation’s infrastructure and modernization efforts while improving the local economy. |
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Written By:
Jeff the Baptist
URL:
http://jeffthebaptist.blogspot.com
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Must see TV |
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Written By:
Macaca Boy
URL:
http://
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