Young Afghani women pay the price for US drug policy

Good piece in the Boston Globe today on the plight of women whose families grow poppies in Afghanistan. One of the more destructive little aspects of the eradication policy is that when they bust some small time grower, the man of the house is already indebted to the drug lord who loaned him the money to grow the crop.

Since these folks are not the ones making the big bucks and live from harvest to harvest, they can't repay the loan and in this society, the women are still chattel. Oft times a young daughter will be given to the drug lord in order to pay the debt.

It sounds barbaric but this is a custom long entrenched among the tribes and a man must honor his debt or die. Another reason to take the Senlis proposal to simply buy the crops under consideration.