I pondered solutions and came up with the following idea.

$1.4 Billion Buys Entire Afghanistan Opium Harvest

Suppose USA bought the entire Afghanistan opium crop for $1.4B required to buy the entire harvest and fly it to Minneapolis, Minnesota for processing into medical morphine to be redistributed in service to humanity. Would such a solution make sense as a way to stem the heroin trade and maybe save a few lives?

COST ANALYSIS SUMMARY

Quantity Units Factor
6,100 tons/year Afghanistan opium production
6,900 air_miles Kabul to Minneapolis
0.10 US$/ton/mile Air freight cost
115.00 US$/pound Purchase opium
10% Percentage Morphine per opium
56 US$/kilogram Morphine production cost
2.2046224760400 pound/kilogram Units conversion
25.40 US$/pound Morphine production cost
1,220,000 Pounds/year Morphine
3,800.00 US$/kilogram
553,383 kilogram/year Morphine

1,403,000,000 US$ Purchase opium
4,209,000 US$ Shipping cost Kabul to Minneapolis
30,988,000 US$ Produce morphine
1,438,197,000 US$ Total morphine cost of Production

2,102,854,366 US$ Retail Sales Income
664,657,366 US$ Profit
46.21% Percentage ROI

ECONOMICS OF OPIUM

6,100 tons = 12.2 million pounds

22 trips of an An-225 cargo plane.

Kabul, Afghanistan 34.31 N, 69.12E
Minneapolis, Minnesota 44.59N, 91.14W
Air miles 6852.94

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-10-26-opium-afghanistan_x.htm
“Until now. Last spring, the village was visited by men from Nangarhar Province, southeast of here astride the trade route from Kabul to Islamabad, Pakistan. The men came with poppy seeds and a promise to pay 10,000 Afghanis — worth $225 to $250 — for each kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of raw, harvested opium.”

$115 per pound
12.2M pounds

$1.4B buy harvest
Assume $.10 per ton mile
Assume 6900 miles
Assume 6100 tons
$4.21M air cargo to MSP

Opium derivatives
morphine, codeine, heroin

1961 convention

world counternarcotics cost
cost “extract morphine” opium
cost “morphine extraction ” opium
Pharmaceutical cost “morphine extraction ” opium

http://www.pa-chouvy.org/Mansfield2001AnalysisLicitOpiumPoppyCultivation.pdf
The production costs for the equivalent of 1 kg of morphine in 1999 was US$56 in Australia, US$159.77 in India and US$250 in Turkey.

http://www.norchemlab.com/factsheets/opiates.pdf
Background: The milky residue collected from the opium poppy plant (opium) is the
natural material from which the opiate compounds are extracted or synthesized. Opium
contains morphine and codeine in a ratio of about 10 to 1. The semi-synthetic opiates
derived from opium include (among others): Hydrocodone, Hydromorphone, Oxycodone
and Heroin.

http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1969/jul-aug/merrell.html
“The Air Force must be prepared for this kind of evolution in air logistics. We must also be aware of the reason we should use this capability in peacetime. One of the great gains to be achieved will be reduction in airlift cost per ton-mile. Our costs have been steadily decreasing, with today’s direct operating cost of military airlift at less than 10 cents per ton-mile. The capability of the C-5A gives evidence of a direct operating cost at about 4.5 cents per ton-mile. When this rate is reached, many more items will be eligible for airlift from the economic point of view. We are now studying with the Army and the Navy to determine the additional items that will be airlifted.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225
Payload: 250,000 kg (551,000 lb)

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/design/q0188.shtml
“the world’s largest plane is the Antonov An-225 built in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union. … The An-225 is quoted as having a maximum takeoff weight of over 1.3 million pounds (600,000 kg). The FAI gives credit for a slightly lower weight of 1.12 million pounds (508,200 kg), the record set by an An-225 in 1989 for the largest mass ever lifted by an airplane to an altitude of 6,500 ft (2,000 m). The An-225 was originally built to ferry the Soviet Buran space shuttle but it is now used to transport various outsize cargos. Only one example was ever completed, and it is currently available for charter flights through the British company Air Foyle. The An-225 is a cargo transport only and has never been used as an airliner.”

https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/af.html#Econ

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