179. Memorandum of Conversation1 2
PARTICIPANTS:
- Turkey
- Prime Minister Demirel
- Foreign Minister Caglayangil
- Secretary General Elekdag (Foreign Office)
- Mr. Guvendiren, Deputy Director, Cyprus Department, Foreign Office
- U.S.
- The President
- The Secretary of State
- Lt. General Scowcroft
- Mr. Arthur Hartman, Assistant Secretary for European Affairs
[Omitted here is material not related to drug policy.]
[Page 2]The President: I have a report in this morning that the Senate will try to attach a lifting of the embargo to another bill. If this happens we might be able to get the same bill over to the House tomorrow. We are working on this very hard today and we are trying to make sure that we have the additional necessary votes. Henry, why don’t you explain the problem with Rangel?
The Secretary: Charlie Rangel is a black Congressman who is very interested in seeing that progress is made on the opium problem. We understand that you might be thinking of setting up a unit to coordinate your drug control problem. If we could write a letter that sets out what you intend to do it would help us with Rangel and he says that he could probably get another ten votes for us. I want you to understand, however, that we appreciate very much what you have already done on this problem.
Demirel: Yes. This year we took very strict measures which I think will be effective. [Page 3] Last year we decided to allow the growing of poppies in seven provinces on about 100,000 hectares. Only about 80,000 were actually planted. We have very heavy control by police in the area. Every field has been checked. If more was planted than we had licensed them, we destroyed that part of the field and withdrew the license. Actually in Anatolia they do not measure their land in hectares but in a local measure which is the equivalent of a thousand square meters and, therefore, we had to measure every field and there were many complaints. We have also checked every poppy head to be sure that no incisions were made before the plant was harvested. The Government buys all the plants and we paid 20 Lira which is a very attractive price. It amounts to about 1,000 Lira per hectare to the farmer and we think the program will be very successful. We don’t like to be charged with poisoning your youth like many people have been saying. We only produce 200 tons while India produces a thousand tons. We will take the harvest of the whole plants and ship them abroad because we have no factory yet to extract the opium. Next year we hope to have such a factory.
The Secretary: We could write a letter saying this and that you promise to continue your efforts. What about this coordinating unit?
Demirel: There is a unit already in the Government.
The President: Could we say something positive about it?
[Page 4]Demirel: I have taken this matter up three or four times in my Cabinet to make sure that the Ministers understood the policy. This is something very important for us.
The President: We could say that your Cabinet Committee has been working on this problem and that it has been very helpful.
Demirel: All of the plants used to be bought by the Department of Commerce but I have now put all of this problem in the hands of the Minister of Agriculture and this has been announced. He controls and purchases all of the harvest and I can assure you that we will do everything that is necessary—just the best we can—as we had promised.
The Secretary: We could say that we talked about this problem and sending a letter to Rangel about it.
Demirel: I feel that this is a very strong duty that I have.
The President: Isn’t there a UN group that has approved his plan? We could say that to Rangel and, in fact, I could call him on the telephone today. I could also tell him that you have put this in the hands of your Minister of Agriculture.
Demirel: We have been advised by the UN and helped by them to pay a good price to the farmers. Many people suggested ten years ago that it was not a good idea to pressure one country but that we should use international controls.
[Page 5]The President: After all, India is allowed to grow poppies.
Demirel: The area where poppies are grown is in the central part of our country. It used to include 20 provinces, four of them are around one place. We do not want to poison your youth and I can tell you that the action I took lost votes for me. I felt that prohibition is wrong because it cannot be controlled and it will not work but I think our system will work.
The President: I think you are right about control rather than prohibition.
The Secretary: We actually need more opiates for medicinal purposes.
Demirel: We have more than a thousand people who are controlling this system.
The Secretary: We should put that effort in our letter. They have now shifted to the process which involves cutting the whole plant and shipping it off to be processed rather than allowing the farmers to draw the opium gum out of the poppy head in the field. It was that opium gum that used to find its way into illicit traffic that went through Marseilles on its way to New York and other centers in the States. We think this new process should control that traffic.
Demirel: The farmers used to cut a line around the poppy heads while it was still green and they allowed the milk to run and they would collect it. Now we allow no cutting by the farmers [Page 6] but the farmers are permitted to keep the poppy seeds while we take the rest of the plant which contains raw opium. This must be processed in a factory and then made into medicine. Next year we will keep it because we will have a factory but this year we will probably sell the straw to Holland where the only plant exists in Europe.
The President: You will be building a plant over the next year.
The Secretary: You could call Rangel at lunch time.
[Omitted here is material not related to drug policy.]