> From: Terry Blanton > > From: thomas malloy > > > Did you hear the NewsMax story about Al Quieda having > > 20 nukes in America? > > World Net Daily elaborates: > > http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45246 >
An extremely OT essay follows. You have been warned! ;-) Pertaining to the WorldNetDaily.com article and of particular interest to me: "Bin Laden, according to Williams, has nearly unlimited funds to spend on his nuclear terrorism plan because he has remained in control of the Afghanistan-produced heroin industry. Poppy production has greatly increased even while U.S. troops are occupying the country, he writes. Al-Qaida has developed close relations with the Albanian Mafia, which assists in the smuggling and sale of heroin throughout Europe and the U.S. " * * * * * I realize many are likely to consider what I'm about to suggest to be an extremely unpopular and morally bankrupt suggestion but I'll mention it anyway: Legitimate governments, including ours, should grow their own poppy crops. This might include going over to Afghanistan and making deals with the local farmers growing the crops. Government could probably easily outbid the drug cartel's asking prices. The governments could offer the farmers protection as well. In the meantime governments could also offer incentives to these farmers to switch to other crops, though that might prove to be a challenge assuming growing poppy seeds tends to bring in far more profits that other "legitimate" crops. The "product" purchased at fair-market value by governments should eventually be sold by governments at substantially reduced prices on the streets, so to speak - and by doing so undercut the artificially pumped up profits of the huge international drug cartels and the distribution chain that propagates all the way down to small-time pushers desperately eking out meager profits in back alleys of our ghettos. Meanwhile, use the government sanctioned collected profits to finance rehabilitation and drug awareness programs. CLEARLY make it obvious to all who buy the highly dangerous and addictive drugs that their purchase of the product is funding the rehabilitation centers and programs they should avail themselves to. CLEARLY show what happens to all who end up getting hooked. Pull no punches. Graphically show the devastation and ruined lives. The point being: you can continue to buy these highly dangerous and addictive drugs and probably eventually die from an overdose, or you can go get treatment. The choice is yours. Such "morally bankrupt" policies are likely, IMHO, to quickly put most of the drug cartels out of business faster than continued multi-million dollar funded drug raids and expensive paramilitary expenditures assembled with great fan fare to wage our morally righteous wars against the evil drug cartels. Unfortunately, it seems to me that most of these government sanctioned crusades have turned into Big Business with their own self-interests at heart. I suspect many of these operations have a steak in keeping the status quo as is. They are not really all that interested in truly defeating the enemy, as it would eventually put them out of business as well. I realize one of the major arguments against implementing such a morally bankrupt choice is predicated on the premise that to do so would essentially mean governments are legitimizing the use of dangerous drugs, that it's a recipe to hook impressionable youth on deadly addictive drugs. Personally, I don't believe so. The drug education programs should make that devastatingly obvious. I'd view it as simply a pragmatic decision by governments to efficiently put all drug cartels permanently out of business, and by doing so recycling a large chunk of discretionary income back into the economy where it can be taxed while simultaneously funding useful programs. Actually...come to think of it, I suspect a number of unlisted government operations are probably being funded in exactly this way now, all under the table of course. "Blood Money!" some might protest. Perhaps so... Never the less, tell that to hoards of radiation victims streaming into over taxed hospitals as well as victims dieing horribly on the streets when the next "Holy Cleansing" goes off in the middle of New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles. It is, after all, your tax dollars at work. Regards, Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com
