Canada stays out of Afghan opium poppy harvest

This barely qualifies as a Canadian pharmacy story, but I thought I'd include it anyway. Why aren't coalition forces governments working with pharmaceutical companies to buy the opium produced in Afganistan? I would think that this would be really helpful to get the average farmer behind the coalition and against the Taliban. The drug companies need raw material to produce narcotics anyway. I'd even be in favour of giving them a tax break or some kind of incentive to buy these poppies.

From CTV News:
Afghanistan is on the verge of harvesting its latest record opium crop, and Canadian troops are staying out of the way.

"We have nothing to do with poppy eradication. We stay away from it as far as we can," Maj. Steve Graham of the Royal Canadian Dragoons told CTV News.

The plan is to attack the insurgency first and leave the battle against drugs for another day. ...more