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 Â鶹´«Ã½.
The plan is to attack the insurgency first and leave the battle against drugs for another day.
This approach may have bought Canadian soldiers in Kandahar province -- the second-biggest opium-producing province; neighbouring Helmand is the biggest -- some peace.
"If NATO and the Canadians don't attack our fields, then we won't fight them," said farmer Saddique Mohammad.
However, the peace came with some controversy. In April, NATO ran radio ads in Helmand that appeared to approve of opium cultivation -- much to the annoyance of the Afghan government. The ads were pulled.
Mohammad also said this: "We're not afraid of being arrested. If anybody tries to stop us, we will join the Taliban or Al Qaeda and fight."
The battle against opium poppies, which provide the key ingredient for heroin, is being mainly waged by Afghan government eradication teams.
They have destroyed thousands of hectares, but their reach is limited by the Taliban, who protect poppy fields in exchange for cash.
There is some debate on how best to control poppy production.
U.S. officials had pressured President Hamid Karzai to spray this year's crops with a herbicide, because of a record-breaking harvest in 2006. But Karzai decided against the tactic.
Instead, his cabinet argued poppy fields should be eradicated using non-chemical techniques, such as plowing the fields before they could be harvested.
Herbicides could destroy legal crops, contaminate water and harm residents, Karzai has said.
But he has also said that if the country's poppy production does not show a decline, he will allow spraying in 2008, a western official told The Canadian Press earlier this year.
Poppies are a tough plant that can survive droughts. Poppy resin, the main ingredient in heroin, can keep for years.
Opium also an extremely profitable crop. More than 90 per cent of the world's illegal opium supply comes from Afghanistan, according to a United Nations estimate.
Last year, that amounted to 6,700 tons of poppies, producing about 670 tons of heroin.
Critics say that Canada's hands-off approach to poppy cultivation ignores the reality that the drug trade helps the Taliban pay for weapons and the recruiting of fighters.
"In the south, the vicious circle of drugs funding terrorism and terrorists supporting drug traffickers is stronger than ever," UN Office on Drugs and Crime Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said in a March press release.
"In other words, opium cultivation in the south of the country is less a narcotic issue and more a matter of insurgency, so it is vital to fight them both together."
And with the harvest now complete, there will be farmers with time on their hands -- and the Taliban who have money to offer them.
With a report from CTV's Steve Chao
