[Peace-discuss] Poppy production in Afghanistan

[n.dahlheim at mchsi.com]

Two great books on the history of the opium trade and poppy in particular:

Drugs, Oil, and War by Peter Dale Scott

Opium: A History by Martin A. Booth


----------------------  Original Message:  ---------------------
From:    David Green <davegreen84 at yahoo.com>
To:      Peace Discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
Subject: [Peace-discuss] Poppy production in Afghanistan
Date:    Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:01:36 +0000

> I just wanted to correct one possible problem in Roger Epperson's recent post 
> regarding poppy production in Afghanistan:
>    
>   Epperson wrote:
>    
>   "The prisons of Afghanistan, like those in Colombia, Lebanon, Pakistan, and 
> even the United States itself, will soon be filled with lower level “mules” and 
> other bit part players, as such U.S. “drug war” assistance is unlikely to have 
> much effect on the level of drug trafficking or on the major players involved. 
> In fact, such work in Afghanistan has been disrupted by the ongoing war (that 
> Blackwater also profits from), which has actually led to a vast expansion of 
> opium production, even though the country was already the source of 90% of the 
> world’s opium prior to the 2001 U.S. invasion. Once again, the “drug war” has 
> proven to be a great jobs program for white males looking for a lucrative 
> position, but a total failure as public policy. In fact, until Iraq came along, 
> the “drug war” was the most costly lost U.S. war since Vietnam. Is it any wonder 
> that the foremost advocates of the “drug war” are the mostly white police and 
> prison guards who benefit from the job security
>  it provides them, even as it fosters the violence of blackmarkets and acts as a 
> price support mechanism for organized crime?"
>    
>   This chart is posted at http://icga.blogspot.com/. Obviously, it reflects the 
> Taliban's suppression of poppy production prior to their removal.
>    
>    
>   
> 
>        
> ---------------------------------
Need a vacation? Get great deals to amazing places on Yahoo! Travel. > _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss