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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (18054)	2/5/2002 7:28:37 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Heroin is made from opium which comes from poppies which grow in Afghanistan. The opium trade is illegal, so some of the people (not all) who engage in the trade give the money to terrorist organizations. Cocaine is made from coca leaves which grow in Columbia. The cocaine trade in Latin America is run by violent thugs who do engage in domestic terrorism - not Al Qaeda types, but still very bad people. Some of the higher up people involved in the manufacture and sale of domesticly produced illegal drugs, marijuana, LSD, ecstasy, amphetamines, are nasty violent people, especially the bikers who dominate the amphetamine trade. Surprisingly, a local high school kid was just convicted of first degree murder for hiring another kid to kill a rival kid in the local marijuana trade. The jury gave him a death sentence. Blond, blue eyed kid, his dad is retired federal security, worked for Carter and Reagan. Newspaper said they were grossing hundreds of thousands of dollars, around a million. So much for marijuana dealers being peaceful types. I am curious as to why opium is mostly illegal but the drug companies make synthetic opiates. I take Tylenol #3 (with codeine) when my rheumatoid arthritis gets too painful, and I much prefer it to synthetic opiates. Legalizing it and regulating it seems like a good idea to me - give the poppy farmers a way to support their families legally. Am I being paranoid for wondering whether the drug companies make more money on the synthetic stuff? My thoughts on this were stimulated by watching the British version of Traffic - it is called Traffik, and it's probably in your video store for rental.

To: LindyBill who wrote (18054)	2/5/2002 11:28:05 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

It is obvious that the main source of money for 9/11 was oil money, especially Saudi oil money. Actually, it was "construction" money, or even "Honey" money, since Bin Laden's family made their fortune off of construction projects, while he's been heavily invested in the honey trade in Yemen (according to reports). But that construction was fueled by oil profits from selling energy to foreign nations, including Americans. But the Opium trade played a large role in fueling Al-Quaida and Taliban operations in Afghanistan which was, until recent the largest producer of Opium, and under the Taliban, warehoused the largest storehouse of the substance. And while the NA was also involved, it was the Taliban who controlled the warehoused drugs in the country. But more of a focus in the drug trade/terrorist linkage is in S. America, where the world's longest Marxist insurgency has been raging for more than 30 years, fueled primarily by the drug trade. They sell the worst product to their own poor, kill Colombian Supreme Court justices using "sicarios" (cheap assassins), and terrorise the government and population into submitting to their will. And we saw the same thing from Sendero Luminoso in Peru. All of these groups rely upon drug profits to carry out their wars and attacks against non-combatants. And that's why I think it's appropriate to put the thought in people's minds that their personal habits do fuel organized crime and terror throughout the world. And sure, the issue can be muddied by citing oil profits, or the alleged short-selling that occurred prior to 9/11, but what's the harm in trying to convince people that drugs fund terror? It's not like we're undermining or subverting a legitimate business. Potent drugs such as Cocaine and Heroin kill or harm the users and undermine the social fabric of both the suppliers and users (which are no longer clear cut since drug use is rising in S. America as well). It may be "propaganda", but it's not a lie, nor does it possess a derogatory side effect in its promotion. The worst it does is make people think about the consequences of their personal habits. And it gives people a personal means of saying they are assisting in fighting the war on terrorism. As for oil, I'm all for energy independence. I see little reason for us to be subsidizing nations which will turn around and use that money to harm US interests. Bottom line, I see only positive things that can derive from this ad campaign. I certainly don't see any downside to playing on people's sense of patriotism in achieving such a social good as demand reduction for narcotics. 9/11 sobered up this nation and has made us receptive to such messages. I think we should seize the opportunity and pursue this approach. Hawk