A B.C. lawyer who needs bodyguards

Have I got a treat for you! The tale of a brave and wise female lawyer doing humanitarian works in Afghanistan. Why is she brave and wise do you ask? She is in Afghanistan doing humanitarian work while under the protection of armed bodyguards. She also has the good sense to agree with me about the futile efforts made by the Afghani government to eradicate the opium fields. It's a complete waste of time and money. It's like trying to bail out the ocean with a teaspoon. Her sensible suggestion is to legalize the opium crops and find legitimite medical uses for the crops. Since Africa is being crushed by the AIDS epidemic, finding uses for the opium crop shouldn't be too difficult. This seems to be a very reasonable solution to the bumper crop of opium in Afghanistan.

Ms. MacDonald is founder and president of the Senlis Council, a controversial think-tank. For the past two years, Ms. MacDonald has lived in Kandahar and in neighbouring Helmand province, conducting drug-policy research and writing lengthy, contentious reports that advocate the legalization and regulation of poppy farming in Afghanistan.

Her reports also condemn American-led efforts to eradicate poppy crops, claiming this merely drives desperate farmers into the arms --and control--of Taliban extremists. (Afghanistan is among the world's largest poppy-growing countries, and produces up to 90% of its opium, much of which is refined into heroin and then peddled in Europe, Russia, and North America.)

In the process, Ms. MacDonald has annoyed Afghanistan's Interior Minister. In October, his department wrote the Senlis Council a letter, demanding it not engage in activities deemed "contrary to the constitution of Afghanistan."

She has also infuriated members of the Canadian military, especially those stationed here. Ms. MacDonald is sharply critical of how the Canadian military mission in Afghanistan is being conducted.

"I'm all for the military going after the bad guys," she told CanWest News Service. "I'm not for what we're doing to ordinary Afghans. Canadian troops are calling in [American] bombers, and villages are being destroyed. Civilians are buried in rubble. When did we have the conversation in Canada that this is an acceptable strategy?"

One high-ranking Canadian officer, posted at Kandahar Air Field, dismisses Ms. MacDonald as "a nutty dilettante" who "should just get out of here."

She is learning that you can't question the military or the killing of civilians. Having an aversion to unnecessary death and destruction makes you nutty. Maybe they should call her a man-hater too.

Unfortunately, when she brought her concerns to the Standing Committee on National Defence back home in Canada, her motives are questioned by Conservative MPs.

In October, following a presentation she gave to the Standing Committee on National Defence, Ms. MacDonald was grilled by Tory members. Her sincerity and the source of her funding were called into question.

In one remarkable exchange, Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant quizzed how the Senlis Council is funded, and then asked Ms. Mac- Donald whether she was familiar with current "anti-money laundering rules" and potential exemptions for lawyers. Ms. Gallant was promptly cut off by the committee chairman; her curious line of questioning was never explained.

But it upset Ms. MacDonald. "There was an insinuation that I was involved in something inappropriate, involved in illegal activities," she told CanWest News Service during an interview here. "I was attacked and so was my organization. It was unacceptable. It was mudslinging."

Even Conservative MPs aren't immune from reefer madness. Everybody knows that the only people that would benefit from the legalization of drugs are junkies and drug dealers. They question her motives despite the fact that common sense and economics dictate that a black market drives up the price of a commodity. If you are a drug dealer, you benefit from the black market. Didn't you people bother to read the Senate Report? I guess conservative MPs have better things to do than read and learn anything useful. It is obvious that a woman who risks her life to learn about drug policy first-hand in a bloody war zone must have something to gain monetarily from the legalization of opium. This is so mind-bogglingly stupid I don't have strong enough language to disparage these people. This is who represents us in government. First they try to take away the civil rights of gays, now this.

Go and read the rest of the article. Ms. McDonald rocks and I hope she doesn't let stupid and narrow-minded Conservative MPs from deterring her mission. The Afghani people need more people like her.