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Afghan opium production 'soars'
BBC World News ^ | Monday, 25 June 2007 | BBC News

Posted on 06/26/2007 1:11:49 AM PDT by LeoWindhorse

Opium production in Afghanistan is soaring out of control, the annual UN report on illegal drugs says.

The World Drug Report says more than 90% of illegal opium, which is used to make heroin, comes from Afghanistan.

It says cultivation of opium poppies increased dramatically in the country, despite the presence of more than 30,000 international troops there.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; opium; wodlist
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One word : ROUND-UP
1 posted on 06/26/2007 1:11:50 AM PDT by LeoWindhorse
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To: LeoWindhorse
Better Word: Legalize


2 posted on 06/26/2007 1:15:41 AM PDT by nathanbedford ("I like to legislate. I feel I've done a lot of good." Sen. Robert Byrd)
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To: LeoWindhorse

Doesn’t the U.S. use agent orange anymore?


3 posted on 06/26/2007 1:17:36 AM PDT by cavador
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To: nathanbedford

Even better word: Eradicate.


4 posted on 06/26/2007 1:18:08 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~~~Jihad Fever -- Catch It !~~~ (Backup tag: "Live Fred or Die"))
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To: cavador
agent orange a 2-4D 2-4-5T based herbicide had a lot of dioxins and we all know what that did to people and the environment . Roundup however is a simple glyphosate herbicide and has been used ,harmlessly, all over the US for over 30 yrs . It would kill them poppies deader than doormats without contaminating the soils .
5 posted on 06/26/2007 1:22:08 AM PDT by LeoWindhorse
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To: nathanbedford
"Better Word: Legalize"

No, that wold be a stupid word.

6 posted on 06/26/2007 1:31:20 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: nathanbedford

Of course! Let’s legalize an extremely addictive and hazardous drug. Heck, herion has done nothing in the world but spread sunshine and lollypops.

/sarc


7 posted on 06/26/2007 1:36:48 AM PDT by SoldierMedic (Rowan Walter, 23 Feb 2007)
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To: LeoWindhorse

YEP.


8 posted on 06/26/2007 1:41:15 AM PDT by Cindy
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To: LeoWindhorse
a well paid ‘mercenary’ air force of Air America type crop dusters , equipped with fast hi tech Pilatus Porter style aircraft could put a serious crimp in the poppy fields in that whole rat ass little country in less than a month .
Supply them with radios tuned to call in air support in the form of Apaches or what have you , if they take any fire.

There is no will to do this because so many Afghans in good old ‘lecture the Americans’ Karzai’s government are on the take , if not the drug lords themselves.

9 posted on 06/26/2007 1:42:46 AM PDT by LeoWindhorse
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To: Nathan Zachary; fieldmarshaldj; SoldierMedic
I guess you guys are right we should stick with what we know works. Just like it has worked in Colombia, California, and the whole of America during Prohibition. Yes, criminalization has worked everywhere it's been tried. I think we should keep doing what works so well. Subsidizing terrorists, incentivizing drug use, generating a market for a drug which might not otherwise be there, are all trivial prices to pay for the successes we gain.


10 posted on 06/26/2007 1:52:05 AM PDT by nathanbedford ("I like to legislate. I feel I've done a lot of good." Sen. Robert Byrd)
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To: LeoWindhorse
2,4d is a common herbicide widely used today. It does not do anything to the enviroment except help kill weeds, like dandelions and other broad leaf strains. It's a very safe herbicide, just use it properly. It's not for drinking.

It doesn't contain 'dioxins' either. It's a member of the chlorophenoxy family of selective herbicides. (kills a target weed without damaging the crop)

Its major uses in agriculture are on wheat and small grains, sorghum, corn, rice, sugar cane, low-till soybeans, rangeland, and pasture. It is also used on rights-of-way, roadsides, non-crop areas, forestry, lawn and turf care, and on aquatic weeds. It is the third most widely used herbicide in the world today.

After 60 years of use and many studies, it was concluded (in 1996) that: “The phenoxy herbicides are low in toxicity to humans and animals (1,9). No scientifically documented health risks, either acute or chronic, exist from the approved uses of the phenoxy herbicides.”

If 2,4-D, MCPA and mecoprop - were not available to farmers, crop costs would increase by 2.9%. In terms of increased food production and lower food prices, it's benefits are known to be enormous. 2,4-D has for the past sixty years, been a major tool in the continuing fight to reduce world hunger.

(Dost 2003), “2,4-D is possibly the most extensively researched of all pesticides, and the data have been examined by an unusual number of advisory committees and work groups.”

It has nothing in common with “agent orange” which is gelled petroleum based defoliant. Nice bit of moonbat propaganda however. Just goes to show that one of the safest herbicides known isn't immune to the moonbat propaganda these idiots who haven't a clue about farming spread around.

Sure, roundup will kill poppies too, along with everything else it touches, including food crops.

11 posted on 06/26/2007 1:53:26 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: nathanbedford

Like I said... eradicate.


12 posted on 06/26/2007 1:56:48 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~~~Jihad Fever -- Catch It !~~~ (Backup tag: "Live Fred or Die"))
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To: nathanbedford
Blah blah blah blah blah. Same old tired pot-head dribble.

It would work a lot better if we didn't have liberals letting drug dealers out of prison all the time, or not even putting them in there in the first place.

But hey, lets legalize it, turn kids into zombies at an even earlier age, and kill them off. It's not enough illegal drug abuse costs society enormous amounts of money for methadone clinics, welfare for the braindamaged, mental institutions, crime, etc etc etc. Lets LEGALIZE it and multiply those problems 10 fold. That will smarten the nation up, and make it a better place....

13 posted on 06/26/2007 2:01:00 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: Nathan Zachary
excuse me , I AM a farmer :^)
and I use Roundup routinely and 24D rarely.

Interesting remarks about 24D however .
Could it be that the combo of 24D and 2-4-5T was especially
toxic ? And the dioxins? Is it not common knowledge that
Agent Orange was a 2-4D based compound?

I will need to research this more . I have taken the word
of a number of Viet Vet friends that had looked into it
as a result of their own exposures , quite extensively.

14 posted on 06/26/2007 2:01:56 AM PDT by LeoWindhorse
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To: LeoWindhorse
I imagine that the governments and the armies are looking the other way because they need the local growers/leaders to help fight the Taliban and stabilize the government. Once the government is stabilized, then they go after the growers. I imagine that’s the plan anyway.
15 posted on 06/26/2007 2:05:43 AM PDT by NurdlyPeon (Thompson / Hunter in 2008)
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To: NurdlyPeon

there was also a certain Baccillus (bacteria) that they were looking at that appeared to affect only Papaver sp.
It was supposedly testing in Khazakstan or somewhere?
Wonder what happened to that ?


16 posted on 06/26/2007 2:08:20 AM PDT by LeoWindhorse
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To: nathanbedford

” in one corner we have Nathan Bedford! and in the other corner Nathan Zachary ! and here’s the Bell! “
*ding*

;^)


17 posted on 06/26/2007 2:10:48 AM PDT by LeoWindhorse
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To: nathanbedford
"Subsidizing terrorists, incentivizing drug use, generating a market for a drug which might not otherwise be there, are all trivial prices to pay for the successes we gain."

That's exactly what people who deal drugs, smuggle drugs, and TAKE those drugs do, provide income for Islamic terrorists. Considering that a lot of that stuff is destined for the AMERICAN market, recreational drug use is a pretty UN-patriotic thing to do.

It wouldn't be a business if people didn't take them. And don't think that dealing, smuggling, and all the other crime associated with recreational drug use would go away. It would just get WORSE. The addicted would still be unemployable, they would still need their daily fixes, and they would still need "the good (and cheaper) stuff".

All legalization would do is add tax and regulations. You'd STILL go to jail (supposedly) for breaking possession limit laws, dealing unregulated product laws, production laws, All the laws you see on tobacco and alcohol.

The "legalize it" lobby never thinks about the reality of what legalization would mean,- probably because they are too stoned and don't have enough brain cells left to think.

18 posted on 06/26/2007 2:16:55 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: LeoWindhorse
"” in one corner we have Nathan Bedford! and in the other corner Nathan Zachary ! and here’s the Bell! “ *ding* ;^) Bedford hit the canvass after a quick one-two combination and an uppercut before the bell even stopped making noise... Wasn't a good matchup. :o)
19 posted on 06/26/2007 2:24:23 AM PDT by Nathan Zachary
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To: SoldierMedic; Nathan Zachary; fieldmarshaldj
I forgot to mention one more benefit which comes out of criminalizing drugs: corruption. One thing we have learned out of or bitter experience in Iraq is that elections alone do not a democracy make, we also need a rule of law, or, put another way, the absence of corruption to a degree that everyman has faith in the essential rectitude of his government.

I don't know how you can do that when the principal source of income in Afghanistan is to engage in illegal activity which succeeds because it corrupts the system from the farmer to the very top. Can you imagine a surer way to breed cynicism and confound a struggling, emerging democracy? As our boys fight and die to nurture a democracy, these cynical Afghans must be laughing at our naïveté.

To a Muslim, distilling spirits and the consumption of them is sinful. Walk a ways in the Afghan' s moccasins and consider how you would feel if Islamo-terrorists succeed in imposing sharia law in America and made it a capital offense to possess or consume alcoholic beverages?

There are many instrumentalities in this world that are dangerous and self-defeating such as alcohol, tobacco, possession of firearms, trans fats, etc. Our society makes a judgment about whether we want the state to make this decision for the individual, in which case we vote for Hillary Clinton, or whether we leave it to the individual to make his choice and take his consequences, in which case we line up with William F. Buckley.


20 posted on 06/26/2007 2:25:56 AM PDT by nathanbedford ("I like to legislate. I feel I've done a lot of good." Sen. Robert Byrd)
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