U.S. Kicks Drug-War Habit, Makes Peace With Afghan Poppies

U.S. Kicks Drug-War Habit, Makes Peace With Afghan Poppies
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN - APRIL 5: A soldier in the Afghan National Army's 6th Kandak (battalion), 3rd company walks through a poppy field during a joint patrol with the U.S. Army's 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment near Command Outpost Pa'in Kalay on April 5, 2013 in Kandahar Province, Maiwand District, Afghanistan. The United States military and its allies are in the midst of training and transitioning power to the Afghan National Security Forces in order to withdraw from the country by 2014. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN - APRIL 5: A soldier in the Afghan National Army's 6th Kandak (battalion), 3rd company walks through a poppy field during a joint patrol with the U.S. Army's 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment near Command Outpost Pa'in Kalay on April 5, 2013 in Kandahar Province, Maiwand District, Afghanistan. The United States military and its allies are in the midst of training and transitioning power to the Afghan National Security Forces in order to withdraw from the country by 2014. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

ZARI, Afghanistan — Because of the poppies, the raw material for most of the world’s heroin, the list of things 1st Lt. Christopher Gackstatter and his 2nd Platoon can’t do in Sartok is far longer than the list of things they can.

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