Ending an Opium War: Poppies and Afghan Recovery Can Both Bloom

Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum argues for the U.S. to start purchasing opium poppies from Afghanistan. She frames it through a lens of Afghan national stability and U.S. foreign policy interests. Her arguments are persuasive, unfortunately a couple toss away lines suggest a bias:

Of course it isn't fashionable right now to argue for any legal form of opiate cultivation.

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The only good arguments against doing so -- as opposed to the silly, politically correct "just say no" arguments --...

What are the "just say no" arguments anyway? Am I silly for feeling queasy about the idea of further institutionalizing poppy farming and wondering if has the potential to increase international production?

I'd also challenge the "politically correct" and "unfashionable" feels spurious., she's hardly in the wilderness. Certainly, the White House is staunchly pro-war-on-drugs, but the media, academics, public health activists, and growing numbers of politicians and political thinkers on both ends of the spectrum are increasingly calling for radical changes in drug policy--including legalization