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The New Opium War: How U.S. Lost the War on Drugs
newsmax ^ | Sept. 26, 2002 | Charles R. Smith

Posted on 09/30/2002 9:54:11 AM PDT by bat-boy

The ancient poet Homer once wrote the sad tale of Ulysses, the hero of the Trojan War. Ulysses expected a short and victorious trip home, after having defeated the Trojans with his innovative ruse of the wooden horse. However, his voyage was a black adventure cursed by the gods. One such curse occurred on the island of the Lotus Eaters. "On the tenth day we reached the land of the Lotus-eaters, who live on a food that comes from a kind of flower. Here we landed to take in fresh water, and our crews got their mid-day meal on the shore near the ships. When they had eaten and drunk I sent two of my company to see what manner of men the people of the place might be, and they had a third man under them.

"They started at once, and went about among the Lotus-eaters, who did them no hurt, but gave them to eat of the lotus, which was so delicious that those who ate of it left off caring about home, and did not even want to go back and say what had happened to them, but were for staying and munching lotus with the Lotus-eaters without thinking further of their return.

"Nevertheless, though they wept bitterly I forced them back to the ships and made them fast under the benches. Then I told the rest to go on board at once, lest any of them should taste of the lotus and leave off wanting to get home, so they took their places and smote the grey sea with their oars."

Opium Today

More than 2,000 years ago Homer described the curse of drug addiction. Today, the ancient curse is carried on in the form of the opium poppy. The poppy itself has zero value except for the narcotic drugs it produces.

Most of the world's opium is grown in two areas of the world, Southeast Asia and Southwest Asia. After it is harvested the vast majority is sold locally as pure opium, addicting millions inside China, Burma, Thailand, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Iran and other nations along the Asian trading routes.

The remainder is reprocessed into heroin for resale in Europe and America.

It is estimated that more than 20 million people are addicted to heroin worldwide. In 2001, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency concluded that America has more than 100,000 heroin addicts.

Heroin is known to produce more than $20 billion in profits for criminal organizations and terrorist factions around the world, including the Taliban and al-Qaeda factions in Afghanistan, which provided protection to opium producers for a large fee.

Dominated by Chinese Gangs

Southeast Asia heroin trafficking links run from independent brokers and shippers in Asia through overseas Chinese criminal populations to ethnic Chinese criminal wholesale distributors in the United States. In the United States, ethnic Chinese criminals rely upon local criminal organizations for the distribution of heroin.

According to the U.S. Justice Department, "despite the recent decline in the trafficking of Southeast Asian heroin in the United States, Chinese criminal groups remain the most sophisticated heroin trafficking organizations in the world."

Asian heroin shipments destined for U.S. markets often travel through China, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan or South Korea. U.S.-based ethnic Chinese heroin traffickers control distribution within the United States, principally in the Northeast and along the East Coast.

During the late 1990s, Vancouver, British Columbia, emerged as a key operational headquarters for ethnic Chinese criminal elements. These criminal groups established close connections with North American gangs of Asian descent and began to transport heroin to the United States, mainly to the East Coast.

Afghanistan's Role

In comparison, a large portion of Southwest Asian heroin is consumed in Europe, Pakistan and Iran. However, traffickers operating from Middle Eastern locations smuggle heroin to ethnic enclaves in the United States.

Criminal groups composed of ethnic Lebanese, Pakistanis, Turks and Afghans are all involved in supplying the drug to U.S. groups for retail distribution.

Heroin traffickers and wholesale distributors rarely conduct heroin business with persons not of Southwest Asian or Middle Eastern backgrounds. The ethnic aspect of Southwest Asian heroin has made it prevalent in areas with large Southwest Asian populations.

The trends are not good. U.S. Department of Justice statistics indicate that U.S. federal law enforcement authorities seized 1,575 kilograms of heroin in 2000, compared to 1,149 kilograms in 1999. The United States reflects only a portion of the global statistics for opium and heroin production, which by even the most conservative estimates are up more than 10 percent in 2002.

Code Name 'Lotus Eater'

Yet, there is another story about the Lotus Eaters. In the 1990s, a major U.S. university, working closely with an U.S. Army biological warfare lab, developed a genetically altered fungus code-named "Lotus Eater." The Lotus Eater fungus is specifically designed to attack the opium poppy plant and nothing else.

The Lotus Eater fungus is reported to be so effective that one potent strain could eliminate almost all the global opium crop within five years of its release. A second, less potent strain was also developed which could wipe out a single season of poppy crop exposed to the fungus, but it could not reproduce itself beyond a short lifetime.

It is here, after the two strains were developed, that the story of the Lotus Eater turns upside down. The Clinton administration suddenly withdrew all research monies, closed the university site and took the fungus strains away. No further research, or development has ever been recorded.

In 2002, the U.S. military reportedly offered to use the Lotus Eater fungus on Afghan opium crops. The plan was to use U.S. control of Afghan airspace to seed the fungus from highflying C-130 Hercules transports.

Yet the Bush administration reportedly turned down the idea. According to high-level intelligence sources, the plan to end opium production inside Afghanistan was nixed by the CIA. The reason given was quite simple.

Apparently, there are several large factions inside Afghanistan and Pakistan, friendly to the U.S., that directly depend on funding from opium. These factions threatened to overthrow the Afghan and Pakistani governments if they were not allowed to continue trafficking heroin and opium.

The specter of a nuclear-armed Pakistan being run by radical opium gangs put the Lotus Eater plan on hold. The CIA reportedly noted that if Lotus Eater was released into the poppy fields that several Southeast and Southwest Asian governments would fall.

The consequences of a Lotus Eater attack directly effected corrupt elements inside the Russian and Chinese armies as well as the intelligence service inside Pakistan. The disruption of trade could even start a world war in Asia.

It is here that our dark tale ends. The opium and heroin trade continue to flourish. The poppy fields continue to fuel the bank accounts of radical terrorists and addict millions in its wake.

The most powerful nation on earth is a helpless giant, unable to stop the devastating trade even when armed with the ultimate weapon. We have become the Lotus Eaters.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Political Humor/Cartoons
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1 posted on 09/30/2002 9:54:11 AM PDT by bat-boy
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WIPE THE SMILE OFF OF THIS MAN'S FACE.

VOTE THE RATS OUT!!

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2 posted on 09/30/2002 9:54:37 AM PDT by Mo1
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To: Mo1
The CIA reportedly noted that if Lotus Eater was released into the poppy fields that several Southeast and Southwest Asian governments would fall.

Just say "NO" to drugs. Bankrupt the CIA.

3 posted on 09/30/2002 9:57:49 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: bat-boy
In mid-1880s, the French imported rootstock from America to improve their wine vineyards. Unfortunately, the US root stock continued a louse, which promptly destroyed the French wine industry.

Years later, only after ascertaining the US rootstock contained no louse, was it permitted back into France, to replace their dead vines. Hence, most all French wine is, in reality, American wine.

While this "fungus" may only have an effect on opium poppies, do we know? Lab tests are one thing, field tests another. And can we really afford to find out? Suppose this goes awry? Most 3rd World nations are but 2 or 3 clean shirts away from starvation...

4 posted on 09/30/2002 10:17:26 AM PDT by donozark
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To: donozark
1st para-should read:CONTAINED!
5 posted on 09/30/2002 10:25:05 AM PDT by donozark
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
And I ask of you rascally totalitarians, would it be OK then for folks from Afgahnistan to attack American tobacco feilds with a tobacco killing fungus? Clearly tobacco kills far more people than opium. Would that be OK??
6 posted on 09/30/2002 10:25:25 AM PDT by corkoman
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To: bat-boy
Like the US government is really going to stop the flow of cash which so fixates our politicians and floats our major banks in laundry money.

Passing strange, I'm sure, that Al "COSCO is our friend" Haig and major Maotai Henry Kissinger were on Nixon's Narcotics council and oversaw the CIA's cranking of the Golden Triangle out of China as well as the stopping of flights over Burmese poppy fields as we APPEASED the Chicoms even as our men were dying in ignominy in their dirty war in Viet Nam.

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak no Evil

The drug scourge is a case of SUPPLY, not DEMAND.

No one ever susses out on their own and pays for their first high. It's offered them, pushed on them ... and no one is so desperate for drugs they'll rob or kill for them if they're not readily available in the first place.

The appeasement of China as part of Nixon's so-called "Drug War" was only exacerbated when -- upon the collapsing of the Evil Empire like a cheap umbrella -- Bush didn't even wait for the dust of the Wall to settle before teaming up with the very Soviet agents, particularly in Czechoslovakia, who'd been overseeing the marxist drug offensive against the West.

Having put a "former" Soviet at the elbow of our drug forces and customs agents, are we surprised that the influx of drugs has only increased?

Talk about your useful idiots ... little wonder the profile of our wholly unconstitutional Federal Police force has only grown more Soviet-like subsequently ... black masked, jackbooted, no-knock thugs who even pull in tanks to assist them in the siege and incineration of Americans at Waco?

7 posted on 09/30/2002 10:35:50 AM PDT by Askel5
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Bankrupt the CIA.

Hear hear.

8 posted on 09/30/2002 10:36:11 AM PDT by Askel5
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To: corkoman
Clearly tobacco kills far more people than opium.

And one reason for that is the way the government and their Interested Party lickboots like George Soros seek to turn addicts into a Sustainable Resource by providing them clean needles and comfy shooting galleries instead of letting them OD in droves to "send a message".

9 posted on 09/30/2002 10:37:38 AM PDT by Askel5
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To: Askel5
"Talk about your useful idiots ... little wonder the profile of our wholly unconstitutional Federal Police force has only grown more Soviet-like subsequently ... black masked, jackbooted, no-knock thugs who even pull in tanks to assist them in the siege and incineration of Americans at Waco?"

None of those Americans were using drugs! I see where you're going with this one. You're down with the jack booted, no-knock thugs as long as they're attacking us law abiding, non-drug users!! So much for your crusade for freedom.

10 posted on 09/30/2002 10:43:48 AM PDT by Destructor
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To: bat-boy
We pay taxes to support these "friendly" governments. We pay taxes to support the "large groups friendly to the U.S.". We pay taxes to pay for the WOD.
11 posted on 09/30/2002 10:47:40 AM PDT by banjo joe
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To: Askel5; donozark
Understood and agree wholeheartedly with both of your posts. I posted the article to show the hypocracy of our government over the issue.

This is the same government running commercials stating that potheads are funding terrorists.

12 posted on 09/30/2002 10:48:08 AM PDT by bat-boy
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To: donozark
If one type of intoxicant is removed, a different one will replace it. If you want to affect the amount of the use of drugs, you must work on demand, not supply.
13 posted on 09/30/2002 10:51:34 AM PDT by Protagoras
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To: bat-boy
"This is the same government running commercials stating that potheads are funding terrorists."

But when DA Buush had B-52's right there in Afrganistan with Daisy cutters do you think he had the sense God gave an apple to bomb the sh*t out of them - No way!!!

He cut a deal so that the farmers would have a source of income and not turn on us toop -

This years Afgan crop up over 1,400 %!! What is that nut case and this administration thinking.
14 posted on 09/30/2002 10:55:09 AM PDT by SEGUET
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To: Askel5
In 2001, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency concluded that America has more than 100,000 heroin addicts.

Can that be right? All of this nonsense for 100,000 people?

15 posted on 09/30/2002 10:59:08 AM PDT by Wolfie
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To: ThomasJefferson
Me thinks your post 13 was meant for Aske15?
16 posted on 09/30/2002 11:02:39 AM PDT by donozark
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To: donozark
It was meant for anyone who was addressing the eradication of the substance as an answer to the question of how to reduce the use of mind altering substances. If that wasn't you, I apologise for misdirecting.

I say to anyone who is interested, demand is where you must work if you want to decrease usage, not supply. Supply will always expand to demand.

And the particular substance is not what the damand is for. The demand is for mind altering substances. It will always remain. The extent of the demand is the question.

17 posted on 09/30/2002 11:08:58 AM PDT by Protagoras
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To: bat-boy
I don't watch much TV but the one commercial I saw re:"potheads" referenced FARC. The Columbian terrs.

Although article doesn't address issue, and it is unrelated in most ways, Morphine is an opium derivitive. Thousands of cancer/trauma patients dependent on this. Guess if gov wiped out opium it would have to maintain opium fields (as it does pot fields) for medical professionals to prescribe this pain killer?

Anyway, article interests me. Will have to do some reading on this. Always leary of gov plans to alter nature. Recall what MO-Dept. of Conservation did to the fish population when they reintroduced the Otter to Missouri...We now have Otter trapping season...

18 posted on 09/30/2002 11:12:03 AM PDT by donozark
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To: corkoman
And I ask of you rascally totalitarians, would it be OK then for folks from Afgahnistan to attack American tobacco feilds with a tobacco killing fungus? Clearly tobacco kills far more people than opium. Would that be OK??

It would be perfectly okay with me. Probably the only people it would not be okay with is state legislatures that derive the lion's share of their revenues by taxing smokers, who are mostly "the poor," by the way.

19 posted on 09/30/2002 11:12:21 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: SEGUET
IMHO you cannot launder 500 BILLION dollars PER YEAR without the full knowledge and cooperation of the international banking institutions and the United States government.

Remember, this is the same government that could tell us everything about the 9/11 terrorists within what, 2 days. This is the same government that can trace laundered money to multiple terrorist organizations. Yet they cannot stop 500 billion dollars of drug money from being laundered.

If you have the time, read this article and the series of articles by Catherine Austin Fitts, who is a former Assistant Secretary of the Federal Housing Commissioner under Bush 1, a former managing director and member of the board of directors of Dillon Read & Co, Inc. She is currently the president of an investment advisory firm Solari, Inc,. It will open your eyes on just what is going on.

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n346/a03.html?1389

20 posted on 09/30/2002 11:13:44 AM PDT by bat-boy
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