Anonymous wrote:
Methinks its more complex than that. I'm surprised to see reports of opium coming out ofYeah--you got it--Poppies...and now that the Warlords are back in
charge the cash crop is back.
Remember that it was the US which encouraged the Taliban to crack downon the cultivation of Afghanistan poppies. A gift of several million US dollars convinced the Taliban to ban the farming of poppies, depriving the Afghani farmers of their livlihood, while not impacting the world drug trade (the Taliban wisely retained stock-piles of processed crop, ready for price-fixing.)
Afghanistan at all.
I was there in 1974, before the 1979 Russian invasion. Hashish was eveywhere of course -- it is
part of the culture, always has been. We had offers to sell us hash from all sorts of people. Army
officers at military checkpoints, waiters, respectable pillar-of-the-community businessmen running
shops, sleazy lads who also wanted to introduce me to some local girls, customs oficers, ... We
were offerred any amount from a few grams for our pipes up to multiple kilos built into furniture
for export.
We were not offerred opium or any of its derivatives. Opium was readily available in Iran,
then under that Shah, and being smoked by both Iranians and foreigners at one party we went
to. We saw large fields of opium poppies in Turkey. In Af, we saw no poppies and no opium.
So now, when I hear reports of opium in Af, I'm inclined to assume it is a new phenomenon
created for the Western (mainly American) market in response to various crackdowns in
Turkey and Iran.
I wish I had some reason to think America's "war on drugs" apparatus might behave
sanely in Af, in particular that they wouldn't be stupid enough to attack marijuana and
hasish cultivation.
However, my guess is that they will try to ram all of their idiocy down Afghan throats.
This is likely to mean some dead Americans and perhaps retaliation for that. It could
be a real mess.
