Many intoxicating products made from poppy seed possess important medical qualities. Eastern medicine has used them for several centuries to curing many dangerous diseases. The use of morphine and pathadene is very common in Western medical organizations. Foreign multinational chemical companies prepare medicines containing narcotics, market them in Pakistan and repatriate the profits to their countries.
In recent years, narcotics have become an industry in many countries. All over the world, they are being smuggled, as are the raw materials required to manufacture them. No stone should be left unturned to stop this. Nevertheless, it is unreasonable to pressure a country like Pakistan to allow its own medical industry to be destroyed while the multinational companies take over the market.
The multinational companies should be forbidden to import the medicines concerned. They should be compelled to buy the illegally produced confiscated drugs from the Anti-Narcotics Force in public and manufacture inexpensive medicines that would benefit the people. Pakistani pharmaceutical companies should also be allowed to buy narcotics in this manner. If the US wants to discourage the use of narcotics, it should pay for alternative facilities for our farmers and for the confiscated narcotics so that we can improve our economy.
Here, it is also important to mention the double standard of the United States. The Taleban have forbidden the cultivation of poppy, declaring it non-Islamic and according to a UN report its cultivation has decreased in the territory under Taleban control. Yet Afghanistan still tops the US list of narcotics-exporting states and the Americans claim that the Taleban is responsible for 72% of the total narcotics traffic in the world. They have imposed sanctions on Afghanistan, but disregard Haiti and Cambodia, which are famous for trafficking in drugs. The United States should try to do justice instead of closing its eyes to the reality. It should not punish Afghanistan for being a Muslim country.
