TABula rasa
Bluelighter
there is an article on the front page of the houston chronicle today about opium production in afghanistan. knowing very little about the subject myself, i will report what it says, and allow you to form your own opinions:
afghanistan has an annual opium crop of around $90 million, or about 3,700 metric tons in the year 2000. more than a ton of this was consumed in the US alone. since the taliban has taken control, they have taxed and otherwised skimmed from this amount somewhere in the range of 15-27 million. on the surface the taliban claims to oppose heroin production, but in relaity this is simply not the case. their pledge, and accomplishment, in 2000 of an almost total halt in the growth of poppies may have seem honorable at the time, but it was more a matter of economics then morals. the truth was that the market had been glutted, and the taliban was suspending production to raise the prices of their existing surpluses. heroin exportation did not decrease in 2000, and the importation of chemicals used to produce heroin continued in afghanistan unabated. since september 11, the taliban has threatened to legalize the growth of opium and production of heroin, but this is in effect what they have been doing all along. the article also claims that heroin prices in the US have declined by as much as 50% since the 11th. no one is exactly sure why this is, perhaps dealers are trying to unload their supplies in anticipation of hard times to come. perhaps the taliban is encouraging sales in order to raise funds, for obvious reasons. or perhaps the market is about to explode with unregulated production. the US claims that the war on terrorism may easily and necessarily be extended into a war on heroin production as well, in order to limit the taliban's funds, and to continue to be the anti-drug pricks the US have always been.
that was the gist of it, interpret it as you will. one thing seems ceratin to me though, times they are a changin'!
-ade
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A feeble brook will oft assume
In the wild woods, among the mountains lone,
Where waterfalls around it leap forever
Where woods and winds contend, and a vast river
Over its rocks ceaslessly bursts and raves.
--Percy Bysshe Shelley
Il buon tempo verra
afghanistan has an annual opium crop of around $90 million, or about 3,700 metric tons in the year 2000. more than a ton of this was consumed in the US alone. since the taliban has taken control, they have taxed and otherwised skimmed from this amount somewhere in the range of 15-27 million. on the surface the taliban claims to oppose heroin production, but in relaity this is simply not the case. their pledge, and accomplishment, in 2000 of an almost total halt in the growth of poppies may have seem honorable at the time, but it was more a matter of economics then morals. the truth was that the market had been glutted, and the taliban was suspending production to raise the prices of their existing surpluses. heroin exportation did not decrease in 2000, and the importation of chemicals used to produce heroin continued in afghanistan unabated. since september 11, the taliban has threatened to legalize the growth of opium and production of heroin, but this is in effect what they have been doing all along. the article also claims that heroin prices in the US have declined by as much as 50% since the 11th. no one is exactly sure why this is, perhaps dealers are trying to unload their supplies in anticipation of hard times to come. perhaps the taliban is encouraging sales in order to raise funds, for obvious reasons. or perhaps the market is about to explode with unregulated production. the US claims that the war on terrorism may easily and necessarily be extended into a war on heroin production as well, in order to limit the taliban's funds, and to continue to be the anti-drug pricks the US have always been.
that was the gist of it, interpret it as you will. one thing seems ceratin to me though, times they are a changin'!
-ade
------------------
A feeble brook will oft assume
In the wild woods, among the mountains lone,
Where waterfalls around it leap forever
Where woods and winds contend, and a vast river
Over its rocks ceaslessly bursts and raves.
--Percy Bysshe Shelley
Il buon tempo verra
