Tajiks suggest EU buy Afghan opium to fight drug trafficking

DUSHANBE – Tajik Interior Minister Ramazon Rakhimov May 4 suggested the EU buy up Afghan raw opium at wholesale prices to keep it off the market, Regnum.ru reported May 7.

“It’s necessary to consider the possibility of buying harvested raw opium from Afghan farmers on the spot and without middlemen, so that it can be destroyed ... or used in pharmacology, medicine or industry,” he told an EU delegation during the second session of the Tajik-EU committee on inter-parliamentary co-operation, according to Regnum.ru.

The sale of Afghan drugs earns US $65 billion (309.4 billion TJS) yearly, of which Afghan farmers see only US $1 billion (4.8 billion TJS), with the rest going abroad to finance terrorism, he said.