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UK doctors eye opium
23/01/2007 22:40 - (SA)
London - Britain's state-run hospitals could benefit from opium produced in Afghanistan to make up for shortfalls of painkillers, doctors reportedly said on Tuesday.
Afghanistan is producing massive poppy crops even though United States and Nato forces have been trying to eradicate them amid fears that Taliban militia use proceeds from opium sales to buy weapons and attract new recruits.
However, the British Medical Association (BMA) told the BBC that the state-run national health service could overcome part of its own shortage of painkillers by turning to Afghan farmers.
Diamorphine - which is used to relieve pain and for the terminally ill - is currently in short supply in Britain. 'Illegal sources'
Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the BMA, said a lack of manufacturers as well as a move led by the US not to use the drugs from Afghanistan had contributed to the shortage.
"The Americans are not using it, they worry about it leaking out to illegal sources," Nathanson said.
"Using the poppy fields is just one idea of how it could be done, and even that wouldn't be adequate to solve the current problem," Nathanson said.
"Diamorphine is a particularly good drug. It can be used for chronic pain, around the time of operations and for things like heart attacks. "It's so much a part of everything we do," she added.
The White House released figures last month showing that opium poppy cultivation shot up 61% in Afghanistan in 2006.
- AFP
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