Obama fighting the wrong drug war.

**doughboyshredder** · 04-02-2009, 05:43 PM

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...0iAWQD978J8OG0

American authorities are planning a broad new campaign to choke off the prime source of financing for terrorists in Afghanistan, sending in dozens of federal drug enforcement agents to disrupt the country's massive opium trade and the money that streams to the Taliban and al-Qaida.

It's just all such a joke.

The government can't keep it's people from using dope, so instead will attempt to erradicate the lifeblood of an entire group of people.

It is not the afghani farmers fault that while even though illegal, many people around the world use drugs.

Smokey McPole · 04-02-2009, 05:46 PM

The government wants people to use dope. Opium is the opiate of the masses. This 'Ghan thing is a huge opium smoke screen.

**OSECS** · 04-02-2009, 05:55 PM

So they'll spend money (we don't have) paying off the tribes not to grow poppy plants. Brilliant !!

**doughboyshredder** · 04-02-2009, 05:58 PM

which will of course increase the profits available across the world, which will increase drug violence even more. Brilliant plan.

**gone** · 04-09-2009, 03:56 PM

Isn't Karzai's brother one of the biggest growers in the country. What a joke, indeed.

**Jer** · 04-09-2009, 04:06 PM

All Jesus Freaks hate drugs for some reason.

**toiletduck** · 04-09-2009, 05:30 PM

Wait, there's a "right" drug war?

**doughboyshredder** · 04-09-2009, 06:19 PM

^^^ good point.

**1080Rider** · 04-09-2009, 06:34 PM

Originally Posted by Jer

All Jesus Freaks hate drugs for some reason.

WTF??? Whites will be mad if he chooses a "black" church and blacks will be mad if he chooses a "white" church. That's a little over the top. Are people really that petty? I'm sure they are...

**Moeghoul** · 04-09-2009, 07:05 PM

They'll just bus whites or blacks over to the other church. Besides, he's the O'bama, all will come to him. He should start his own house of worship. The right wing nuts accused him of being a muslim, he claims he's christian, and the seder in the WH tomorrow should get the wingnuts calling him a jew. He can't lose.

**Mathematics** · 04-09-2009, 07:27 PM

not too concerned about the opium, I'm just lookin for some primo afghan hash.

**doughboyshredder** · 04-09-2009, 08:16 PM

too funny.

"good" afghani hash has maybe 10-15% thc, which is quite a bit higher than most strains of weed. But, here in the pac nw, there are a lot of strains running around with 25-30%thc.

Now, if you really want to get trizzashed make some oil from the buds of that weed. If you are not a very heavy smoker one hit will make you fall out immediately.

**Nathan Explosion** · 04-09-2009, 08:42 PM

Originally Posted by toiletduck

Wait, there's a "right" drug war?

This. I can't stand behind a guy who thinks that we've been so successful with our "war on drugs" that we can propagate it across thousands of miles.

**Rasputin** · 04-09-2009, 09:25 PM

Originally Posted by doughboyshredder

The government can't keep it's people from using dope, so instead will attempt to erradicate the lifeblood of an entire group of people.

It is not the afghani farmers fault that while even though illegal, many people around the world use drugs.

Perhaps the Afghan farmers should grow wheat instead.

**toiletduck** · 04-09-2009, 10:15 PM

Drugs aside, I don't disagree with the concept of trying to destablize a high profit source for the Taleban by attacking the Opium trade, and trying to win a war that not just Obama but a lot of countries are quagmired in - I find more and more that US politics is a game of "find the partisan route to making any news into an attack". It's a bit difference to the classic "War On Drugs" that's painfully stupid in so many ways, anyway.

But yeah, I still love this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCf2f...eature=related

(and no, I couldnt work out how to embed)

**splat** · 04-09-2009, 10:38 PM

Originally Posted by Smokey McPole

Opium is the opiate of the masses.

If you're gonna quote River Phoenix, at least list your source.

**Rasputin** · 04-10-2009, 01:16 AM

Originally Posted by toiletduck

But yeah, I still love this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCf2f...eature=related

(and no, I couldnt work out how to embed)

Yeah it's pretty cool.

**Trainwreck** · 04-10-2009, 07:17 AM

There is a drastic shortage of painkillers in third world nations and some groups, including Doctors Without Borders, have proposed buying up the Afghan opium and refining it into cheap painkillers for use in medicine around the world. Win/win, the afghan farmers make money, cheap painkillers are available to doctors world wide.

I don't know whether America's socially conservative right shot this down or the drug company lobbyists did (might hurt their profits). It looks like it might be back on the table now

Since the inception of the "war on drugs" and the DEA every drug out there has become cheaper and more readily available and a few new ones have come along. I guess we learned nothing from Prohibition and so people all over the world must suffer and die due to the profits available on the black market.

**OSECS** · 04-10-2009, 07:49 AM

Originally Posted by Trainwreck

There is a drastic shortage of painkillers in third world nations and some groups, including Doctors Without Borders, have proposed buying up the Afghan opium and refining it into cheap painkillers for use in medicine around the world. Win/win, the afghan farmers make money, cheap painkillers are available to doctors world wide.

I don't know whether America's socially conservative right shot this down or the drug company lobbyists did (might hurt their profits). It looks like it might be back on the table now

Since the inception of the "war on drugs" and the DEA every drug out there has become cheaper and more readily available and a few new ones have come along. I guess we learned nothing from Prohibition and so people all over the world must suffer and die due to the profits available on the black market.

Aren't opiate drugs/medicines (even in pill form) extremely addictive ?? So we give these cheap painkillers to the third world in what amounts ?? What happens when the supply runs out ?? What happens to the people who become addicted to the pain pills ?? Haven't you just opened another market for the drug trade ??

**Trainwreck** · 04-10-2009, 08:03 AM

Opiates are a standard painkiller in the medical industry today and include Morphine, Codeine, Valium, Diazepam and Thebaine. Synthetic opiates are also quite common (but more expensive) such as Demerol, Methadone and Darvon.

**OSECS** · 04-10-2009, 08:10 AM

Originally Posted by Trainwreck

Opiates are a standard painkiller in the medical industry today and include Morphine, Codeine, Valium, Diazepam and Thebaine. Synthetic opiates are also quite common (but more expensive) such as Demerol, Methadone and Darvon.

Morphine, and codeine are extremely addictive. Valium is also addictive. We had a family friend who was on prescribed morphine, and he hated it because of the addiction that went part and parcel with the drug.

The synthetic variants may not be, but that would kind of defeat the argument about making cheap pain killers from actual opiate plants wouldn't it ??

**Trainwreck** · 04-10-2009, 08:17 AM

There is a good read on the subject here

Basically, the painkillers available to every American for even a minor surgery are not available to a lot of the world for any surgery.

**Trainwreck** · 04-10-2009, 08:23 AM

Originally Posted by OSECS

Morphine, and codeine are extremely addictive. Valium is also addictive. We had a family friend who was on prescribed morphine, and he hated it because of the addiction that went part and parcel with the drug.

The synthetic variants may not be, but that would kind of defeat the argument about making cheap pain killers from actual opiate plants wouldn't it ??

If you have undergone a major surgery in this country you have been on one or more of those drugs in all likelihood, I know I have been on several occasions. Are you an opium addict now? I am not.

Denying people pain medication on the off chance they may become addicted is inhumane and fundamentally hypocritical in a country as besotted with painkillers as this one is.

**OSECS** · 04-10-2009, 08:31 AM

Originally Posted by Trainwreck

If you have undergone a major surgery in this country you have been on one or more of those drugs in all likelihood, I know I have been on several occasions. Are you an opium addict now? I am not.

Denying people pain medication on the off chance they may become addicted is inhumane and fundamentally hypocritical in a country as besotted with painkillers as this one is.

Don't get your panties in a wad. I 'm not trying to blast the idea (I think it has merit), and I don't advocate anything of the kind resembling holding back medication. But, given the lack of structure in the third world, and the insatiable appetite for drugs by some. This program seems ripe for abuse, black markets, corruption, etc.

Here in this country hospitals probably have a better handle on the situation than some third world backwoods facility. Giving these drugs, in any quantity to a health organization could also potentially put them at risk of hijacking and endanger their lives just being in possession of such valuable cargo. These drugs would be valuable commodities on the open/black market.

I'm just playing devils advocate, and asking some questions that I don't have answers to.

**Trainwreck** · 04-10-2009, 08:42 AM

I beleive that, if properly structured, the Afghan poppy crop could be converted into inexpensive medical quality painkillers for distribution to charitable organizations (Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, etc) benefiting both the Afghan farmers and the world population at large. Keep the supply chain tight though, don't just dump a bunch of cheap opiates on the world market.

I don't know if it would entail less loss of life though. Obviously drug cartels are not going to like having their supply disappear, and Afghanistan produces most of the world's opium.

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