A friend in Helmand tells me the Senlis Council (I dislike their new name) is operating in Helmand again, and they have funds to begin a medical opium program. This friend tells me Senlis is hiring “outside contractors” (not my term) to administer the project, because of safety and a need for plausible deniability.
I’m curious: if this is actually true, how will Senlis grow medial opium and avoid the ire of poppy-bombing Marines? I really hope they’re not this stupid. But, judging from their previous work—like fanning AK-47-toting surveyors and expecting to get good data—I really can’t rule it out.
This post was written by...
Joshua Foust – author of 1801 posts on Registan.net.
Joshua Foust is a Fellow at the American Security Project and the author of Afghanistan Journal: Selections from Registan.net. His research focuses primarily on Central and South Asia. Joshua is a correspondent for The Atlantic and a columnist for PBS Need to Know. Joshua appears regularly on the BBC World News, Aljazeera, and international public radio. Joshua is also a regular contributor to Foreign Policy’s AfPak Channel, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Reuters, and the Christian Science Monitor. Follow him on twitter: @joshuafoust
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