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

Population: 31,056,997 (July 2006 est.)

By Executive Order of the Office of the President of the United States, all owner occupied dwellings shall be immediately converted to a 2% fixed rate mortgage for the duration of the loan term and all foreclosures of owner occupied dwellings shall cease immediately pending owner acceptance of the 2% fixed rate.

As the U. S. Congress crafts its 1 trillion dollar vindication of capitalist greed, I wonder when greed became a higher priority than common human need. It seems that the culture, of campaign contribution bought payback, seeks to prevail over common human decency. I am deeply offended that the U. S. Congress seeks to reward USA greed and corruption, instead of letting that greed work its way through the normal fire-and-brimstone cleansing lake, of the post-Armageddon salvation solution of choice–a bastion of truth and honor which is a service of humanity unto itself–USA Bankruptcy Law.

I wish the collective humans and non-human beings of USA would buy from me all of my poorly performing assets. Please give me back the hundreds of thousands lost in the crash of the stock market bubble and the housing market bubble. If I could get it all back I would retire from the workforce, today, like I planned to have done by this time. Instead, I must stay in the work force an extra ten years, assuming God wills and fortune smiles.

I now live in a house that I would be lucky to sell for two thirds of the price paid. So long as my wife’s and my current work continues, all of our monthly debts will be paid. Were one of us to take ill or be otherwise unable to work, we would soon slip into bankruptcy ourselves. I say God forbid that we should take from the many to reward the wanton greed of any human or non-human being. Clearly, it doesn’t make sense to reward the wanton greed at the human level of existence. Why, therefore, should it make sense to reward any wanton greed at the non-human being level of existence?

Let every human and non-human being, each of their own accord and means, pray for the safe continuation of their seemingly fragile existence and, should it become necessary, let them individually walk the pathway of honor, as we witness the vultures descend upon their assets removed from the corpus of their life by a bankruptcy judge. Life goes on. We will survive. Meanwhile, let us contemplate the common human needs and seek each their own particular salvation solution. Let each seek understanding by tuning out the media noise and taking a long term perspective on the deep issues of USA’s little corner of civilization. Sometimes, an indirect way of solving some problems, does a better job than a frontal assault.

Crisis Solution Ideas

Instead of simply rewarding capitalist greed, let us decide to underwrite a $1 trillion dollar earmarked Public Good loan fund to be administered by means of loans to member banks from the Federal Reserve Bank Public Good Fund (hereafter named “Fund”). In order to prevent future mischief, let us decree that ALL money flows from and into the Public Good Fund shall become public information AND be posted by the Federal Reserve, immediately, upon the Internet.

Instead of giving money to the bankers, let us craft ways of lending the member banks money to lend to humans at a low interest rate. Suddenly, a lived in house and its owner take a big step back from the precipice of bankruptcy.

Housing–the Federal Reserve Bank shall fix the retail price of owner occupied primary housing at a 2% interest rate per year. As necessary, the Fed lends money to member banks sufficient to back these loans. Housing shall qualify for the fixed 2% interest rate providing that: a) the housing is lived in by all owners at least 90% of the year, and, b) the member banks MUST repay the loan as the borrower’s principal is recovered, and, c) the home shall be brought up to energy and livability standards prior to sale, and, d) all secondary loans against the home shall be forbidden excepting home improvement loans which shall be joined into the original loan at no additional cost to the borrower.

Education — the Federal Reserve Bank shall fix the retail price of adult education at a maximum 1% interest rate per year. As necessary, the Fed lends Public Good Fund money to member banks, sufficient to back these loans. Whenever Public Good Fund backed loan principal is repaid by the borrowers, the member banks MUST repay Public Good Fund principal.

Everything Else– the Federal Reserve Bank shall operate as before regarding interest rates of money lent to member banks.

Other Solution Ideas

Energy — build a 1 billion $USD replicatable prototype construction of a closed-cycle coal to liquid fuel and polymer production facility designed to fulfill the economic needs of a fifty thousand human regional economy.

Energy Supply — procure a source of Montana lignite coal to feed the facility at the rate of seven coal cars per fifty thousand humans per day.