Hey HMitch: This link was posted a while back by Pinky ,I believe, (Pink Papaver), if your new to this thread. I'm the seppo that tortures people with his arm chair predictions. But the conclusions substatiated one of my conclusions- and that was that the UK was working with Turkey and that was disrupting the networks. I wrote in a psot way back for people to write their MP to put presssure on the government through the EU parliament not to allow the Turks in the EU. See, in Turkey, like mexico, corruption is systemic. The UK probably came to the Turks with alot of pounds and promisses of being let in the EU in exchange of cracking down on decades of corruption.
The healthy supply in Sweden is puzzuling but makes sense when you see that the demand is low. My question would be how is the scene in nearby Norway. Oslo has a thriving scene per Nat Geo.
What they didn't mention was that part of the decrease of opium/heroin getting through the Northern boarder was the Russian National Border Patrol being posted in Tjakistan. Not the ethnic Russians left over from Soviet rule but the actual Russian Boarder Patrol. They did this apparently with Tajick approval and a UNODCP program payys them 10 times the average price of a Russian border patrol to dissuade corruption.
One thing I don't understand is why the flood in Pakistan had an effect. I thought most of the European Bound gear goes through Iran were roughly 1/2 is intercepted in a typical year or stays behing (lots of dope fiends in repressive Iran). Is there an alternate smuggling route out of Karachi on freighter ships?
Also they didn't mention the taking down of the Kosovo gang- an article I included way back- they ran dope through europe for years- were probably assosciated with Turkish players.
Now as for the Balakan Route, A Greek, who lived for some time in South Africa- doesn't use himself but says that he knows people who use and that there is a healthy supply- see people knodding out in the bad parts of town and its sold in front of supermarkets by Afghans and Pakis. The only way this would make sense is because Greece like Sweden doesn't have much demand for the product- it is on the low end of anual prevalence studies- coke is supposedly the big thing. Tried to get info by watching Greek TV when visiting my parents but A.) they don't like me bringing up the subject of drugs given my past history, and B.) Greece has so many other problems (dumping the Euro, new rounds of austerity measures, teetering on the brink of fasiscm or narch-communist revolt), that the heroin situ isn't knews any more. But anyway, given the classic enmity between the Greeks and Turks, the Balkan route might go through Bulgaria when it enters the EU and the Hellenic markets might be suppiled by another organization.
Anyway, before WWII, in the US the dope was really good. If you read addicts who survived they go into it. Then WWII decimated the heroin trade, traditional routes were disrupted and dope fiends would usually go to doctors "crockers"= this is documeted in William Burghows book junky. The US encouraged mexican farmers to grow opium for the war, and they continued to do that after the war was over illigally but they weren't saophisticated enough to make anything better than tar to this day (which now a days aint bad). But as the 50s resumed the dope remained shit like 2-10% averaging 3-4%. People in time adapted (it wasn't hard after a decade of war and disrupted supplies) and most people just took up slaming dope. It wasn't until the last 20 or so years that smoking dope or snorting it were the ROA of choice among US addicts.
My recomendation for resuming supplies is get her majesty's troops out of Afghanistan- we should be focusing on Pakistan from a security standpoint. Don't let your MPs make dela with Turkey- they are increasingly becoming radicalized, aligned with Iran, less pounds- more corruption.
Ulitmately, I will repeat, legalization, decriminalization, or medicalization won/t cause the need to deal with these unsavory, expensive regiemes, Its like the same principle as finding new sources. alternatives to petroleum for political reasons.
So can someone answer=- what does flooding in Pakistan have to do with the supply of gear in Europe?