Integrated Control System provides total security of Poppy for Medicine projects in all circumstances

Premised on the linking and maximising of Afghanistan’s existing security and control resources to rein-in illegal poppy cultivation, village-based Poppy for Medicine projects would be a comprehensive, secure and pragmatic counter-narcotics response to the country’s illegal opium crisis. The existing strong social control systems in Afghan villages are a vital institutional resource for the containment and reduction of illegal poppy cultivation. In the control of a Poppy for Medicine project, the integration of external controls with village-based controls would maximise the efficacy of this vital institutional resource.

Integration of local controls with external security support would build collaborative relationships between rural communities and the ANA

The key benefit of locating Poppy for Medicine projects in Afghan villages is that local and external control and monitoring resources would be concentrated and targeted during the project’s most critical phases, allowing for complete and total security at all times. Further, by facilitating the construction of working relationships between rural farming communities and the Afghan National Army, the integrated control of Poppy for Medicine projects would complement and enhance current efforts to secure and stabilise Afghanistan, by vividly demonstrating the willingness of international security actors working in Afghanistan to win the hearts and minds of Afghan farming communities.

Poppy for Medicine projects would entrench and enrich the rule of law in Afghanistan

The Integrated Control System used to secure Poppy for Medicine projects would entrench and enrich the rule of law in rural Afghan communities, by enmeshing existing local principles and measures of social control with the formal rules and regulations administered by Afghan government representatives for the control of the licensed cultivation of poppy and local transformation of medicine.

Afghan government’s capacity to control and secure the country enhanced through Poppy for Medicine projects

Field research in Afghanistan indicates that the country’s rural farming communities strongly agree with the Afghan government and the international community on the need to bring illegal poppy cultivation under control. However, the current counternarcotics policies being pursued in Afghanistan do not necessarily take into account or reflect the needs of the country’s farming communities. In comparison, Poppy for Medicine projects would have a stabilising ‘inkblot’ effect on relations between the Afghan government and rural communities. The integrated ways in which Poppy for Medicine projects would be secured and controlled, would provide the opportunity for Afghanistan’s rural farming communities to forge positive, collaborative relationships with the formal institutions of the Afghan central government, as well as with the representatives of the international community currently working to bring sustainable security to Afghanistan.

Poppy for Medicine projects would increase rural communities’ loyalty to the Afghan government

Supported and overseen by the Afghan government, Poppy for Medicine projects would allow rural farming communities to switch their ‘loyalties’ from drug traffickers to the Afghan government, without having to effectively choose to let their families starve. The administrative oversight of Poppy for Medicine projects by representatives of the Afghan central government would promote local confidence in formal institutions of governance, by providing a positive reason for the Afghan government’s interaction with and presence within rural communities. Those villages running Poppy for Medicine projects would serve as examples of positive interaction between the central government and rural Afghanistan.

Given their strong ties to the local communities over which they hold power, the inclusion of local power-holders in the Poppy for Medicine projects would not only help secure the projects, but would also help to open a positive dialogue between local power-holders and the central Afghan government, necessary to extend state support in, and control of rural Afghanistan.