Comments on: Obama and the Afghan narco-state

By: JW

JW — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:54:13 +0000

To Dave, who said:Please, please, please

The only truly effective method to curb this problem is to legalize these narcotics. Legalize, tax and regulate. The only reason that such drugs are illegal is because, at some point in time, people in a position of authority decided that they were immoral. There is nothing immoral about using narcotics, but there is a lot of immorality in refusing to allow people to grow a crop that puts money in their pockets and food on their table.

There is plenty of evidence to show that their is no downside to legalizing narcotics, and plenty of upside to it.
==========================
No, that is a terrible idea. Legalizing pot may have a chance in hell of being adopted(I doubt it). But legalizing heroin,cocaine,PCP, or other highly dangerous and addictive drugs is ridiculous. It is a drain on society, what would happen if 2/3 of all people did drugs and just laid around all day high? Not to mention the healthcare costs to treat the enormous number of new OD’s. Society would collapse, not to mention our economy.

By: dave

dave — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 14:07:23 +0000

Please, please, please

There is plenty of evidence to show that their is no downside to legalizing narcotics, and plenty of upside to it.

By: A. Hussaini

A. Hussaini — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 20:27:45 +0000

I believe an “International Entity” should be established were most countries of the world would be members. Said entity’s goal should be dismantlement of illegal drugs’ networks. Instead of fighting it alone, better fight it together. After all, we’ve become a One World.

Only then finance resources shall always be available and on-going. Besides of course the benefit of sharing knowledge.

It should be the task of an international organization like the U.N.

By: delacroix

delacroix — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 01:24:40 +0000

I believe a large portion of the opium crop is in fact, made into pain pills in india, at generic pharma companies. a backdoor off the books operation that cuts the shareholders out of the revenues, while allowing them to shoulder the costs. now thats effecient management!!

By: mrsp

mrsp — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:33:18 +0000

It could be possible that drug demand along with crime will rise in hard times. Don’t know the stats on that but it’s obvious that Karzai (who is an X-oil company man) knows well how to wheel and deal and was placed there by the Bush cartel for a reason. Could it be that Narco dollars from the opium sales help to hold up the U.S. economy and help to fund the CIA’s special ops? I think the notion that only the Taliban profits from it is weak at best, certainly since they prefer to ban everything not in their control.

By: Cazart

Cazart — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:12:34 +0000

To take a cynical view – the only task here is to hurt the Taliban.
1. If we pay more for opium than the Taliban does, farmers will want to come to us, not them. Funding denied.

2. If the Taliban sees these farmers selling to us, not them, the farmers will be targeted. (Sorry, farmers. Poppy-growing is dangerous work.)

3. If the poppy farmers are targeted, we know where the Taliban will strike – taking control of the fight. (Hey, I SAID this was cynical…)

4. We also get a big supply of raw opium which can be used sold to Big Pharma for medicine. The rest gets burned.

Will poppies crop up in other countries? Undoubtedly. They always have and likely always will. Not our (current) problem. Our current problem is to weaken the Taliban to the extent that we can provide a basic framework for functioning government, nab a few Qaeda baddies…and then get the hell out.

By: Sketch

Sketch — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:01:32 +0000

Recreational drugs are expensive/valuable (depending on which side of the transaction you view them from) because of the risk premium imposed by prohibition. By repealing prohibition, you can:

-Dramatically knock down the demand for raw materials (poppies), since the full crop will be able to reach end users without interception/eradication at various points in the supply chain, thus causing a price collapse and driving cultivation away from poppies to other cash crops.
-Remove the corrupting influence of the trade, since there will be no incentive for farmers to bribe officials as their actions are no longer illegal.
-Open a pathway to a new domestic government revenue stream by taxing the end product, thus shifting a large fraction of the profits from recreational drugs away from al Qaeda and towards the U.S. Federal balance sheet.
-Save lives of American recreational drug users by:
–Regulating the quality of the product.
–Remove the incentives for violence surrounding the current recreational drug system.
–Lift the risk that other users bear in bringing an injured/overdosing friend to the ER, since they will no longer have to weigh the risk of being arrested with the risk their friend will die.

By: Concerned

Concerned — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 06:40:36 +0000

What needs to be done is for the UN or whoever to purchase the entire crop and make it into pain pills which are in short supply in many countries. Two problems solved at once! But they’ll probably continue to burn it and anger the locals of the land they are occupying.

By: justin Ciale

justin Ciale — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:35:18 +0000

Have the policy makers of legalising drug use and developing a practice like alcohol usage. Imagine the savings in justice administration, law enforcement, courts, correctional personnel, etc. The drug dealers and drug cartels would just run out of business. Controlled usage of drugs would become a profitable business for governments at all levels.
The policy of criminalising drug usage has been in place for so many years it is a futile enterprise.

By: susan

susan — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:49:50 +0000

I think this is a great start. Afganistan has little good earth and to tell them to eradicate the only cash crop the country has…………….is ………..so presumptious.