gaoxiaen said this in post #14 : The Taliban stockpiled heroin and then banned production to drive up the price of their own holdings. The US and UN funded the Taliban's eradication of opium, unwittingly helping their market ploy. This caused the price of raw opium to go from $35 to $750, spurring a major production increase after the Taliban departed.
The Taliban also cut the production to "win UN recognition and with it the lifting of sanctions and the restoration of foreign aid."
Poppies are not only used in the creation of heroine. They are also used in morphine and other opiates. Just as they used to be used 100 years ago as medicines here, there are many parts of the world that cannot afford western medicines and continue to use drugs that we call illegal. We would still be using many illegal drugs for medicine if we had not patented something else that we could charge more money for, call the natural drug illegal, and make a killing from annually increasing the cost of the drugs. Of course we have corporations that want to destroy the poppy crops so that the pharmaceutical corporations are the only game in town. The problem is that some countries still cannot afford what the drug companies charge. They will never be able to stock sufficient quantities of Western drugs. The black markets are illegal, but in some parts of the world they help people survive, save lives, reduce pain. Just because there are weak minded and weak willed people in America who become addicted, that is no reason the rest of the world should suffer. Not everyone gets addicted to medicines like Rush Limbaugh. Some are smart enough to stop taking drugs when their purpose has been served.
With the Taliban still in power even with a war against Aghanistan....
all kinds of crimes can and are being committed.
Like treating your women like dogs...
murdering Christians...
and selling opiates.
But hey, the CIA started the drug war (read 'drug supplying and pushing') so this makes it even easier for the "Say 'yes' to drugs" campaign.
A friend burned a music CD for me...the first two tracks are Ronald and Nancy Reagan admitting they do heroine, pot etc and that drugs are a constant temptation in their house. Unbelievable but true.
12-07-2004 11:25 PM
