Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-02-12-Speech-4-027"
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"en.20040212.1.4-027"2
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"Mr President, I would like to congratulate Mr Brie on an excellent report. I also had the honour of being on the delegation to Afghanistan. I know that some people have congratulated me on being a first in a number of things. Another first that I now count is the fact that I was sitting having tea with some of the biggest drug dealers and drug producers in the world.
I am particularly addressing my remarks to the honourable Member who, I know, is going to disappear into the sunset before too long, but maybe he can make a great contribution to European safety if in his few months remaining he takes on board some of the issues I was talking about. The total value of the poppy crop at the farm gate in Afghanistan is estimated at EUR 700 million. Its heroin street value is estimated at EUR 12.5 billion.
The amount of revenue spent by Member State police forces, customs services and anti-drug squads to control heroin imports and use alone adds up to EUR 4 billion per year. The number of arrests for drug offences throughout the EU is around 700 000 people per year. 60 000 people are imprisoned every year for drug offences, leading to annual custodial costs of EUR 1.5 billion.
We need an alternative development approach for Afghanistan which integrates EU drug policy into its development policy. We have to offer the rural population economically viable and steady means of earning an income. Therefore is it not far better to stop this trade at the point of growing, rather than the point of consumption or distribution? If we do this, we will save EUR 4 billion in policing costs alone, and EUR 1.5 billion in custodial costs.
I propose to the honourable Member that we manage this transition, from poppy growing to fruit growing, as we now do for Greek tobacco, which we buy and burn. A similar exercise could be done for the poppy crop in Afghanistan, and I would like the honourable Member to take this on board seriously."@en1
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