heroin use increasing in australia

Lateline on ABC carried a story on the increased use of heroin in Australia, after many years of starvation for users.

It pointed to the increased production and importation from the area we all know is the major producer of the poppy plant: Afghanistan.

It would be quite simple to say bomb the whole area and destroy the poppy farms.

And no clear thinking person in the world would disagree.

Yet here's where it gets complex.

Around 1.7 million people, 7 per cent of the Afghan population, are directly involved in poppy production.

Bombing the crops would send the region into further poverty and unemployment. So the rest of the world - including OZ, who yes are fighting there for freedom, of a sort - would have to bail the place out.

See the problem?

Let's make it simple for the UN and US and every other country which is dithering on the subject.

Do we continue turning a blind eye to a country which provides the base product for the world's heroin and one which we know supports terrorism?

Or do we rescue the world from the grip of heroin and napalm the place?

Larry