War on Afghan drugs "Failing"

War on Afghan drugs "Failing"

news.bbc.co.uk

The United Nations says opium production in Afghanistan has "soared to frightening record levels" with an increase on last year of more than a third.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime report says the amount of opium produced has doubled in the last two years, and that Helmand province is now the biggest single drug producing area in the world - surpassing whole countries.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Worrying news indeed - one of the excuses for the invasion and continued presence in Afghanistan was the "war on drugs" -which now looks to be failing, with production of opium doubling.

More info:
news.bbc.co.uk...

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

and.... this is news?

Originally posted by djpaec
and.... this is news?

Well, it was on the bbc news website, as a report from the UN within the last 48 hours, thereby qualifying under ATS TAC - unlike your one line post

I don`t think the War on Drugs is failing.We are led to believe it is failing,but it is not.
Not if the aim of the war is to actually spread more drugs,dominate the market by arresting the competition,make more money,control people and keep the prisons full.
Pretty damned successful if those are the aims of the war on drugs...

I fail to see how this is bad.

Let's face it Afghanistan does'nt have much in way of an economy, and the Opium
trade will help them, that is if we in tandem with the Afghanis could set-up a system
where profits go to the government.

Of course we would have to get over our preoccupation with telling people what they
can and can't do with their bodies first.

Or we could just do what I've been saying for years-Buy the entire crop,refine what is needed for medicine...incinerate the rest.
A damn site cheaper than how we try to deal with it now,in terms of money and damage to society.

Don't tell me the west cannot afford this-we can afford trillions of dollars/pounds when we want to have a war...

Originally posted by Silcone Synapse
Or we could just do what I've been saying for years-Buy the entire crop,refine what is needed for medicine...incinerate the rest.
A damn site cheaper than how we try to deal with it now,in terms of money and damage to society.

Don't tell me the west cannot afford this-we can afford trillions of dollars/pounds when we want to have a war...

A very good point - and at least that way you'd take some of the power away from the "cartels"

If they had any intention of stopping this stuff, all they have to do is to spray the poppy fields, and there finished. So why don't they?

Andy-
I seem to remember that they did a bit of spraying a while back,Maybe it would cost too much to do on a large scale.
Also spraying probably kills all plant life,so could be a problem for food supplies.

found some links:

"The governor of Helmand province in the south of Afghanistan told the BBC that poison had certainly been sprayed, but he did not know who was responsible.

US diplomats in Kabul have said they do not know anything about the incident.

The US government had previously announced that it had suspended plans to use aerial spraying to destroy opium poppies, following opposition from the Kabul government and aid agencies. "

news.bbc.co.uk...

and

news.bbc.co.uk...

Originally posted by iori_komei
I fail to see how this is bad.

Let's face it Afghanistan does'nt have much in way of an economy, and the Opium
trade will help them, that is if we in tandem with the Afghanis could set-up a system
where profits go to the government.

Well, its bad because most of the poppy farms are owned by warlords and drug cartels. The people are generally coherced into production, working under terrible conditions, with nothing but the threat of punishment for failure to motivate them. If the people working the fields actually benefited from the enterprize, then i guess, in some twisted way, it would be a good thing. But that is not what is happenning.

Of course we would have to get over our preoccupation with telling people what they
can and can't do with their bodies first.

Your right about that one.

I'm just wondering why the government has chosen this particular time to unload this news - I'm pretty sure there's another agenda here, it's just going to take some time to find it.

On the other hand, is there a good time to announce failure?

InSpiteOf made a good point about the warlords, local cartels etc - one that's worth remembering as far as afghanistan goes.

Of course it's flourishing, what else are they supposed to grow? Crops that give them a tenth, twentieth of what opium can?

I know what one I would choose and I think we should let them do it. As iori_komei said, if people choose to use it then it's their own stupid fault, they know the risks.

Originally posted by budski
InSpiteOf made a good point about the warlords, local cartels etc - one that's worth remembering as far as afghanistan goes.

Its not even isolated to Afganistan. Bolivia, Columbia, Pakistan. Its all the same. Warlords and ruthless cartels run the business threw extortion, torture, bribery, and terrorism. A multi-billion dollar industry built upon the wholesale murder of a countless number of people, from production to distribution to users.

Mod Edit: Terms & Conditions Of Use – Please Review This Link.

[edit on 30/8/2007 by Mirthful Me]

You're right of course.
I should have clarified that I was referring to it in relation to the current occupation of afghanistan, and all the problems that entails.

Hello,

Not being from the US or middle east I never really expected the crimes of the US government, or the puppets pulling the strings (so incredibly irrefutably a false flag operation) to directly affect me this way as it has so many countless innocent word citizens. That's not to say I never really thought the crimes of the US could affect me, just that I didn't see it coming from this angle I guess. So, my story starts here...
I am a citizen from a country very close to the US and at this point I am unable to sit idley without trying to do something. If nothing else I would like to voice my opinion about a very troubling matter concerning the link between the flood of prescription opiates in North America (since 2001) and the attacks on 911 and what I have personally seen and experienced first hand.
Since around 2002 almost half the people I know are legally or illegally, using, or know someone who uses Oxy Contin or it's many other derivatives. Prior to this the only people I had met who were prescribed such life altering drugs, in my country at least, were terminal cancer patients or people nearing the end of their lives. I'm not the only one who sees this. I have felt this pain personally as I have seen family members fall prey to an addiction they never asked for. An addiction that, if labelled appropriately by the physicians who peddle these drugs would be widely seen as opiate/heroin addiction and thus may never have taken root. What middle class straight edge mother/father/grandmother with no drug history asks to become a junkie, or would be caught dealing with such people?
The majority of people I have ever met who uses this drug, when they think back, link their use to about the same time line. So the bottom line... Why now? Why was the prescription of opiates to anyone who felt like they had a sore back or a stubbed toe illegal pre-911 but so common place now? If the attack on 911 was a false flag mission (again unquestionable in my opinion and I'm not alone here), why blame the Taliban? What made that extremist group so attractive other than the fact that they had a common goal in mind and were family friends and business partners of high up government officials who would keep their mouth shut? If there's no oil there to murder countless people for like was the case in Iraq why them specifically? Why that dry dusty place? It all came to me after watching a documentary about the heroin trade (documentaries> the only form of media that occasionally tells the truth other than The Daily Show, a political satire show). The Taliban had all but extinguished the heroin trade in that area under their reign under the threat of death until the "war on terror" and the ensuing occupation of Afghanistan had apparently allowed the drug trade there to flourish. Under the nose of the CIA and an overwhelming military force? It all makes sense if you consider the fact that drug companies are suddenly making billions off of the poison they are feeding the general public. Doctors are feeding this stuff to kids, barely out of their teens for broken arms. Anybody can get it, or buy it on the street, which is demonized on every episode of COPS. An amazing new opiate that can give a user energy rather than the nod. It's clear as day what the problem is and how it started... The powers that be have murdered 3000+ of their own citizens as an excuse to wage a never-ending war of fear and control which involves the occupation of two countries for the sole purpose of feeding their own need for power, money and control. To sell oil, drugs and develop a foothold in the middle east which from the looks of things is just a start. Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and then... and then... Where does it stop? When does the entirety of a nation wake up and take a stand against the people who are supposed to be protecting them against war, drugs and tyranny but who choose to use their power to make money from drug and defense company lobbyists who poison their own brothers and sisters and murder their countrymen? Is this patriotic? Did the founders of the bill of rights roll over and take it in the rear, because it was easier and much more lucrative, than doing what was right?
What kind of medical establishment condones the use of hard narcotics as a cure all for a sore back or any other relatively trivial injury? Not any medical system I would ever thought to have existed ten years ago?! So... Fast forward to 10 years later... Picture an economy that threatens to take the pension check of an elderly war veteran rather than cut a mere sliver off of a monster security budget and reduce the murder of innocent civilians in the middle east. Put your shoes in the place of any poor person falling prey to this forced addiction that might, just might, manage to rid themselves of their disease, but be left with a life they can not afford and a home that is about to get foreclosed on..Continuedlookfornextfromme

about to get foreclosed on... A poor person with a relatively cheap supply of medical grade heroin... With no options left... Would you consider passing these drugs to another person, dope sick from the dirt the government was shoveling at them? Maybe they are unable to get their prescription that month for whatever reason or maybe they are a dope fiend, who are you to judge? With the looming thought of foreclosure and homelessness you would do what it takes to take care of you and your own. I would be willing to bet (not that winning this bet would ever be possible; the results would most definitely be rigged) that 30% of the officials in the US government would kill a small country of "terrorists" (innocent people) before they see a member of their family go without their luxury car. Another 65% would do it because they had no choice as they would never be able to voice their opinion anyways due to the corporate owned media that would bury it beneath the water-skiing squirrel or whatever useless story will role out in place of an ounce of fact. The other 5% (or less) would try to find a way to add another country to the hit list while siting that a new war is "necessary to maintain and protect their way of life" and ultimately to achieve the goal they set in place. People that fit in this 5%, the ones who profit from these wars the most could care less what any one of your family members has to go through to survive and won't stop at anything short of world domination over a crumbling civilization. Don't fool yourself and think the US will come out on top and that you are above the pain of others. Are you part of the "club"?. Take a look around you. Take a drive through any lower to middle class neighborhood and see how much these people care about YOU. Watch an episode of the television show C.O.P.S. A propaganda tool that used to show primarily crack addicts and coc aine dealers as the scourge of the US inner city now chooses to show police from every state, city, town and shopping mall parking lot arresting your mother, your aunt or your grandmother for trying to survive any way possible in an economy that has forgotten they exist. If the afghan opium trade was a part of the "war on drugs" the "elected government" (right), would launch a campaign to attack the suppliers (in this case themselves) , not only the users, their own citizens. And why must their always be a war for the government to have a purpose? Why not an intelligent solution, an attempt to make things better?
When and how does the inevitable uprising begin? I have watched this war and learned enough about what is really going on to ask... Who will take the first step to take back a democracy? What faceless entity do we have to crush to take OUR WORLD, the Earth, back? How many innocent children and innocent people need to be bombed, crushed racially profiled, monetarily profiled or subjected to mass drug addiction and death before we get together and say THIS IS ENOUGH?! I for one am done with the "Occupation" of my world. I'm open to feedback, opinions and ideas, but most of all I want to help spread the word and awaken the people who are still in a waking sleep. Anybody convinced that this is all ok and that society today is just "business as usual" deserves to know that there could be a better world for all of us, if we band together and take it back. I'm not talking about bombing people or trying to take back our world by force. Although I could think of a few politicians that if I ever met in a dark alley I would find the closest sharp object (or blunt, it really wouldn't matter) and turn them into Swiss cheese. I'm not talking about any violence whatsoever. I think we've all had enough of that. I'm talking about everyone getting together and saying "This is enough!" Egypt should be a prime example to anyone who thinks the taking back our world from a dictatorship isn't possible.
In short, I would like to awaken as many others as I can of this atrocity. I have not been able to find any discussion groups that touch this issue directly and thus would appreciate any feedback from anyone who may recognize the shift of illicit narcotics to chemically altered wonder drugs. I think my topic, although just another piece of the puzzle, could add to the overwhelming evidence against the largest war crime in recorded history. This concept is not directed at any of you paid trolls (bitches) or misinformed individuals who want to throw insults at me, my grammar, spelling or run-on sentences, sentences, sentences, sentences or tell me anything contrary to truth that I already know first hand all the while sitting back in your armchair or corner office. Any negative comments directed at me will fall on deaf ears and will not be read by myself. I believe it is everyone's responsibility to step back, take an objective point of view and learn the facts for themselves rather than take my word, or any one persons word for that

rather than take my word, or any one persons word for that matter (especially the word of the corporate owned media). If you to disagree with my point of view, that is your own choice and you are entitled your opinion... for now...


"A concerned world citizen"

PS. If you want to see something interesting, Google "911 flight 157 bulge" or "911 flight 157 military 767 bulge" (not sure of the exact keywords as my browser crashed) or anything to that effect (just kidding, don't do it). If you are not worried about ending up on some list and facing god knows what kind of future repercussions you may get a kick out of the images you find that have nothing to do with the keywords whatsoever. Images of war propaganda, Arab dressed people family photos containing naked children. I also found the heavy load of very strange processes with very interesting descriptions that locked up my computer until I did a full re-boot. Why are we not allowed to search for a high resolution image of what is so obviously a military plane "flight 157" All in all feels really shady to me. They are definitely trying to discourage free thinking in a "free" country...

What a narrow minded, uninformed, inconsiderate statement. Yeah, if it's out there we may as well give it to the low lives... What does that make you? A bleeding humanitarian? Lets see what you have to say when the drugs the CIA brings on to your continent provides your family member, your daughter, with some dope (that she needs to use to get up and go to work every morning / yes these low life scumbags work too) is combined with pneumonia she didn't know was more than a cold and stops her heart in her sleep. Carry that casket and tell me she deserved it.