Iran's War On Drugs

A little known part of the current tea party in the M.E. is Irans losing fight with...the Taliban. Iran has one of the highest addiction rates in the world, mostly for Heroin which is flooded into the country by the Taliban. This incidentally is one of the big problems their dear old leader has completely ignored whilst he built nuke plants.

Now when we said fight, we goddam meant it. According to orbat.com they've lost 1,500+ border guards (armed with Austrian kit) since the 2001 invasion. Thats a lot of blokes, more than the whole of NATO's casulaties, and the Iranians aren't even operating in a real warzone. We're just talking smugglers and their mates.

Drugs have in general been one of the biggest problems in Afghanistan so far. Not only do they fund the Taliban but they are also exported all round the world. Furthermore they provide fantastic propaganda for the Taliban who can portray NATO as wanting to stop the crops.

But to all this there is a fairly simple solution: Morphine. Opium not only makes the exceedingly dangerous heroin but also the medicinal Morphine. An' right now there is a morphine shortage in the world. Should the MoD or NATO choose they could buy the Opium from the farmers, gaining their support, process it and flog it to medical companies where it would serve a useful purpose. Whilst profits would be less than if they sold it as heroin (which is why there is a morphine shortage) you'd still make money. Furthermore you could offer to buy it up with Iran who would hopefully be glad to help and therefore make money as well as help their own country.

Now even if this could be pulled off, providing black economy demand isn't enough to outprice the MoD, it won't solve the Taliban. But it will go a major way towards helping, not to mention being of enormous social benefit to the world as a whole.