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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (241271)	7/13/2005 5:02:23 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 1571806

Footnote to my post #240532: Transportation The smuggling of MDMA [XTC pills] into the United States occurs via several transportation methods and routes. From Europe, MDMA most often is smuggled into the United States by couriers on commercial flights either directly from European source countries or via transit countries, including France, Germany, Spain, Canada, Mexico, Panama, and various Caribbean island nations. MDMA also is transported from and through the same source and transit countries by mail services, although use of this method appears to have decreased greatly over the past year. MDMA is increasingly smuggled into the United States overland via couriers on foot and in private vehicles crossing the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada. Israeli and Russian criminal groups control most MDMA transportation to the United States; however, Colombian, Dominican, and U.S. independent distributors have become increasingly prominent in the transportation of MDMA to the United States. MDMA couriers on commercial flights from Europe often tape between 2.5 and 5.0 kilograms of MDMA tablets to their bodies and smuggle additional amounts (up to 10 kg) in hidden compartments within their luggage. Couriers on commercial flights depart from nearly every major European city en route to the United States. Typical arrival airports in the United States are John F. Kennedy, Miami, and Newark International Airports. usdoj.gov What began here in the early 1990s as an underground drug for the artsy Tel Aviv fringe is fast going mainstream. When the rave scene hit Israel in the mid-1990s, ecstasy, a mildly psychedelic drug that produces feelings of euphoria, took off with a vengeance. Though marijuana is still the most popular drug in the country, ecstasy is catching up, especially among the younger set. Police seizures of ecstasy have skyrocketed; in 1998 Israeli authorities seized 118,000 tablets of the drug, most of it coming into Ben-Gurion Airport from Belgium and the Netherlands, where it is produced. Last year police confiscated 465,000 hits—a 400 percent increase. The drug's growing popularity at home has inspired Israeli dealers to go global. In recent months, U.S. drug authorities have cracked at least three major ecstasy rings run by Israelis. In February, six Israeli nationals were arrested in the United States and accused of running a multimillion-dollar ecstasy network. Federal drug authorities will soon make arrests in several other ecstasy-trafficking cases involving Israelis, a senior law-enforcement official tells NEWSWEEK. In one case, the Feds have gathered evidence that the Israelis have been laundering millions of dollars in drug profits through rabbinical schools in the New York area. According to U.S. Customs Commissioner Ray Kelly, Israeli syndicates now dominate the worldwide ecstasy trade. Ecstasy's global appeal is easy to understand. It's relatively cheap (about $15 a hit for a high that can last three to six hours). A synthetic hybrid of the hallucinogen mescaline and the stimulant amphetamine, ecstasy is not a "dropout" drug like heroin; kids can pop the little breath-mint-size pills on the weekend and return to work or school during the week, largely unaffected. Though research indicates that ecstasy—or MDMA, as it's known to chemists—may cause long-term harm, including heart and kidney problems or memory loss, it is rarely fatal. [...] cannabisnews.com "...rarely fatal", indeed --unless the pills are replaced by military-grade explosives!

To: tejek who wrote (241271)	7/21/2005 8:04:42 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1571806

Of course capitalism is imperfect. An human system or institution will be imperfect. Capitalism is just a better system than all the other economic systems, but it isn't perfect, at least not in any real world implementation. Its similar to democracy which is better than the other political systems but isn't perfect (again at least not once you move it from paper to the real world). The best of an imperfect bunch. OTOH without investment based on the profit motive, without applied capitalism, Afghanistan is going to remain in its current squalor. Aschiana pays $1,500 a month in rent — provided by donors, including the European Union and World Bank — but Kabul's race for prime real estate has pushed rents for alternative downtown sites to $9,000 a month. Then you would think they would move out of prime real estate. It may be a less then perfect solution for the school, but life is a series of trade offs. The organization is "doing the work our country needs after 20 some years of war," he said, and it "should be helped to move" to a new location. Good idea. The $1500 a month is spends now would probably be enough for another location. Also from your article "Aschiana has been offered land in northern Kabul". "Why all the secrecy, and why the rush to force the school out?" The article answered those questions. The rush is because the land cost millions and the new owner is losing money each day, taking under market rents and sometimes letting missed or late payments slide. The secrecy is to avoid being the target or extortion or terrorism. What is potentially troubling is that the lease was supposed to be a 10 year lease signed in 1997, so it shouldn't run out for a couple of years. I guess the new owner can break it because of the missed or late payments. Tim