The war on Afghanistan's drug trade isn't working:
Afghanistan’s counter-narcotics minister Zarar Ahmed Moqbel said that the profit from producing one hectare, or 2.5 acres, of opium rose from $4,900 last year to $10,700 this year. The area under cultivation in 2011 covered 131,000 hectares and produced 5,800 tons — up 61 percent from the 3,600 tons produced the previous year.
Montag proposes a solution: instead of trying to eliminate the drugs, buy them:
[T]he entire crop could be purchased for about $560 Million which is far less than we spend each year to stop Afghan poppy cultivation. And if we left them alone and bought all their crop each year they would be much happier and friendlier to us than they are now. And it would be much cheaper.
(Photo: Poppy plants bloom in a field May 25, 2011, in Faizabad, Badakshan, Afghanistan. Afghanistan is the greatest illicit opium producer in the entire world. Production in Afghanistan has been on the rise since U.S. occupation started in 2001 and more land is now used for opium in Afghanistan than for coca cultivation in Latin America. By Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
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