cover image Opium: Uncovering the Politics of the Poppy

Opium: Uncovering the Politics of the Poppy

Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy, . . Harvard Univ., $27.95 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-674-05134-8

Chouvy, a research fellow at France's Centre National de la Recherché Scientifique and an expert on opium production, offers a timely and provocative study of “the politics and economics of the poppy in Asia.” Despite the “broad adaptability” of the poppy, Asia accounts for 96% of the world's illicit opium, with war-ravaged Afghanistan alone supplying a staggering 93%. Chouvy meticulously recounts the poppy's very political history, concluding that while illicit production tends to flourish in areas where violence restricts state control, most “Asian opium farmers grow poppies in order to combat poverty.” Moreover, America's futile 40-year war on drugs has failed (and continues to fail) because it relies on inefficient and counterproductive eradication and crop substitution efforts to reduce supply without addressing the “root causes” of production—i.e., poverty and food insecurity. Exhaustively researched and cogently argued, Chouvy's analysis of the geopolitics of narcotics should be required reading for policymakers, stakeholders, and concerned citizens. (Mar.)