Helmet, you are missing the point.
The primary issue is that the Taliban and Warlords are buying the poppies from the farmers, turning them into drugs, and then selling them to finance their violence. Legalizing Heroin does NOT dry up the market for the Taliban. If anything it will get bigger initially, since there are so few sources for Heroin given it’s current illegality.
Think about it for a bit longer than you obviously have; It’s not like the major Pharmco’s are going to start churning out Heroin on the day the ban is lifted. Even if they want to get involved in making seriously harmful drugs like Heroin (unlikely), it would take them YEARS to get tooled-up, hooked into the supply chain and producing. Not to mention the MOUNDS of regulation that would surely come along with such a change.
No, the best thing is to reduce the poppy supply by showing the farmers how to make MORE money selling a legal crop. Whether bio-fuels is the answer is something that market forces and brave investors will have to determine.
