Cheers J i did put it up with you in mind.
All that tosh about the Portuguese being tolerant is fine untill you go their and discover the corruption .
It pays to comment on something like that only if you have first hand experience i've learnt.
Thanks Brimz! It sounds analogous to mexico were the federal goverment decriminalized possession of certain amounts, depending on the drug
up to 40 mg for heroin8(, like anyway would waste their time on 40 mg of tar. Anyway, guidlines or not, if your found with any amount, even bellow the "legal" threshold, your going to jail unless you pay the "fine" arbitraily deceided on by the federale/ or whatever adjancecy the cop belongs to. Then they'll ususally send you on your way with your drugs.
But there is a war down there and our brilliant government's ATF provided cartels with arms through a program called
fast and furious ostensibly to track were the guns were going and roll up the caretel leadership. But everyone knows were and who the cartel leadership is including the corrupt mexican goverbnment that favors some like the Sinaloa Cartel and maybe the Zetas. At any rate the operation which involved thousands of fire arms bought by agaents possing as "straw buyers" us nationals that can legally sign off on the sale of like 1000 AKs or AR-15s, were ATF agents possing as such. It blew up in their face when a border patrol agent was shot by gun purchased during the op. It came to light by agency whistleblowers.
Anyway, my theory (and it isn't original) is that the US State department under Hillary Clinton is trying to destabalize Mexico which is no longer acting like our lap dog doing our bidding. At any rate the op was fucked up (plus US agents arent allowed to operate in Mexico, atleast in an armed capacity) so the goals are dubious- and they didn't inform the Mexican gov- which makes it more suspicious.
Anyway, thanks again for the link Brimz.
Kat assuming your parents would fill your wish list, the pharmacies are more likely to ask for an Rx for controlled subtances the farther you are South. Its a few pharmacies near border towns that have liberal policies. But any doc will probably Rx you anything you want in most parts of the country, the farther south you go, the more conservative, and I believe this applies to Drs, too- but it sounded like your parents weren't thrilled about the idea.
Getting stuff across borders- I was still dope sick when i came with my dad and flew into Frankfurt in 96'. I had 100 10 mg valiums in my pocket that a doc here Rxed me to help kick. 20 mg before hand made me relax and we got waved through customs.
Last piece of news that has serious bearing on the gear scene. In 2009 in a documentary a US captain in the USMC went on record saying "were leaving the opium alone, thats their livelyhood." 2 days ago I talked to a marine discharged from Afghanistan and I asked about patrols in Poppy fields. He said, " oh yea, there were lots (in Helmund), we'd walk through them and burn them down,,,Marijuana fields too.." then he was saying that they turn them into hash which he wasn't sure what that consited of excactly, and he talked about the bulbs being lanced and the fluid that turned brown, the opium latex.
He told me they made them were gas masks

, while doing their crop burning. At any rate he was moving back to his farm in Iowa. What he told me (though he didn't support the drug trade) was that opium is just a crop to them. As he put it, if someone decreed that there crop of corn in Iowa had to be burned down because it was a threat to humanity he and his dad and brothers would grab their guns and protect the farm...that crop is just food on the table...so now the US has joined other NATO (UK military had the lead) in crop elimination. What better way to alienate the population- that morphine could atleast be sold legitimately- there are 3rd world countries that have a severe shortage, its on the WHO essential meds list.
The sooner we get our boys and girls out of it the better. This sentiment is shared by even hard line conservatives I've talked too. Hit AQ with drones and SAS, SEALS, and other special forces groups...but leave the afghani's and poppies alone. I'm sure the Afghan national police will do a better job (probably very little).

And leave the Afghans alone...thats what they want- I've heard this from just about every Afghan expat I've talked too. Even the whole infrastructure program- I hear over and over "we were poor but happy before the Soviets rolled in in 79'". Now there is missery and suffering."
The US Military getting into the gear interdiction game- that aint gonna win you any hearts and minds over there- just creat more enemeies and terrorist recruits. We fucking didn't learn shit from Vietnam. As they say, "the past is prologue."
Whats relevant for Europe is that this isn't gonna help the drought situation and might be one reason prices and quality aren't comming back, maybe even bigger than the assasination of Willie Karzai, the PMs corrupt brother that was making millions off the local southern opium trade.
We gotta get the fuck out, tommorow...wonder if opium is the reason alot of our NATO partners are still maintaing a presence inspite of tight budgets and austerity measures...Germany in particular, they are known for avoiding deploying their military anywhere- though there national police took the lead in training the Afghan National police in counter narcotics. SOCA, Special Branch, DEA, probably all did their part- it wont matter- I hear the Afghan National Police is a joke, the ANA slightly better because the US and UK started making them go through the door first on a patrol- they used to run away during firefights leaving NATO forces to stand their ground and fight for themselves.
What a clusterfuck, atleast Libyia was a situation were their was a popular uprising. Atleast the US took a back seat in NATO support of that one. Let Sarkosy and Cammeron get all the credit- the time to stop sticking our nose in everyones bussiness is long overdue, and that sentiment, thankfully is increasing in this country, when you talk to the common man.
NATO OUT OF AFGHANISTAN!
sorry for the rant but what the newly discharged Marine told me was unerving. Fucking Obama. All these politicians are a bunch of fucking wankers!