Afghan Opium and International Politics

This article begs the question: why don't they just alter the situation, and use the opium plants to make pharmaceuticals like codeine and morphine? Maybe I'm oversimplifying the issue, and the matter of just who is making the money off of these plants must be considered. But if the one crop that will consistently and profitably grow is opium, and opium has both benevolent and illicit uses, why not make it a national policy to use that opium for benevolent uses?

If the Afghans regulated their opium production and sold it to the West for the Western nations to use for pharmaceuticals, wouldn't everyone win?