----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Note on the idea that African are too poor to buy drugs. Might I remind
us
> all inner city dwellers are too poor to buy drugs....?
No they aren't
.
Drug addicts in Western countries spend astounding amounts on drugs. Your
inner city dweller is quite capable of spending $10,000 to $50,000 yearly on
drugs: from dole, charity, theft, begging, borrowing, or obtained from the
sale of personal possesions. The fact that they spend 95% of that money on
drugs and nothing else, or that that money often wasn't "theirs" to begin
with, does not invalidate the fact that they do have the means to do so.
This is one reason why the street prices of hard drugs are so high: addicts
*are* able to pay them.
In poor countries consumption of hard drugs is often much less than in the
West for the simple reason that the local populace cannot afford them. There
is no dole, little charity, and stealing from someone only slightly less
poor than yourself does not help much. The exception being drug consumption
in lands that are also drug producers or involved in drug transport; the
street price of drugs is correspondingly lower.
Elite African athletes living in the West have ample means, access and
motive to use drugs. No doubt about that. The average African athlete in
Africa has none. EPO, nandrolon and the like are not produced in any African
country, they have to be imported. They cost a fortune, and require basic
medical knowledge, skills, and facilities. In a country with overwhelming
illiteracy, sporadic electricity, where refrigerators are luxury goods, how
likely is it that teenage athletes are aware of the existence and
pharmacological effects of these drugs, let alone able to purchase, store,
and administer the drugs?
Don't overestimate the importance of athletics in most African countries:
almost every African nation has a professional soccer league, and the dream
of almost every African kid is to play pro soccer some day. Stealing,
begging or borrowing several years' income in order to import EPO in order
to run sub 27" 10K races is not very high on the priority list. A good pair
of Nikes cost a half years income. These come first.
Cheers,
Elliott
