What we should do about the Afghan poppy fields is to initiate our own version of the Columbian cartel’s offer O Plata o Plomo (Silver or lead)

Either the opium farmers sell their crop to us, at a fair price, or we burn their fields. If they play, we give them aid, if they don’t ply they’re cut off.

schmuck281 on June 24, 2008 at 9:39 PM

Unfortunately, the local Taliban (and other) warlords have already been making that offer to the farmers for some time now. The farmers aren’t getting rich or anything near it here – many of the struggle just to exist year to year, which is tricky when your customers very literally have a gun to your head. Michael Yon has done some excellent reportage on the subject. Two solutions that come immediately to mind: eliminate the warlords and other drug smugglers with extreme prejudice and cause all sorts of political upheaval (doesn’t bother me horribly; they can’t hit us with rocks from over there) or eliminate 95% of the profits and the necessity of doing everything under the table by ending drug prohibition (ironically, prevented by the people who “get it” on gun prohibition) and take out a good chunk of organized crime in our country as well.

Either the opium farmers sell their crop to us, at a fair price, or we burn their fields. If they play, we give them aid, if they don’t ply they’re cut off.

I am just saying, all of the things you believe about pot, are wrong, have been proven wrong time and time again, and you believing it is just a byproduct of the massive misinformation campaign against it that the government continues to this day. Try reading about it seriously instead of just believing everything you hear in government sponsored commercials.

muyoso on June 24, 2008 at 2:46 PM

Don’t give me you self pronunciation of a gateway drug. Friends are one thing when you see them do it because you can distance yourself if you choose to. Family, in most cases, you can’t distance yourself.

Go take care of your Mom.

Anyone who has ever witnessed someone doing Heroine and who can walk away without the image in their head for the rest of their lives is either unable to grasp the other persons addiction and think it is a phase, or is mentally challenged.

upinak on June 24, 2008 at 2:16 PM

It seems like that would be an effective way to keep people from ever trying heroin, even if it is legal. Most people don’t have a strong desire to huff glue, even though it’s cheap and legal.
scotta on June 24, 2008 at 3:26 PM

Don’t forget about partial birth abortion………

upinak on June 24, 2008 at 2:16 PM

It seems like that would be an effective way to keep people from ever trying heroin, even if it is legal. Most people don’t have a strong desire to huff glue, even though it’s cheap and legal.

upinak on June 24, 2008 at 2:43 PM

I’m deeply sorry to hear that one of your family members suffers from drug addiction. I’ve seen it in my family, and even more among my friends. It’s a horrible thing. However, the government can’t prevent people from doing horrible and self-destructive things. I know there’s a natural tendency to believe that if we just had more enforcement that we could Win the War on Drugs. Ain’t going to happen. The Soviet Union – a police state in the most literal sense of the word, with anti-drug laws that would never pass in the United States in a million years – couldn’t control their drug problem. What makes you think it will be any different here? The only governments to have any success were the ones that simply executed everyone involved – users, addicts, dealers, smugglers, etc.

Addiction – whether it be to legal intoxicants, illegal drugs, gambling, whatever – is always horrible, but the underlying problems are psychological and not due to the existence of the particular vice in question. Some people choose to behave self-destructively, and will do so with whatever means are at their disposal. The argument here is not unlike the argument against banning guns – people will still find ways to kill each other, unless we get around to banning sharp objects, heavy blunt objects, cars, trucks, furniture, batteries larger than a “D” cell, MySpace, rope, scarves, and, of course, our own bare hands.

So because you are completely ignorant as to it, you want it banned from everyone? Pot is not addicting at all. It is not a gateway drug. If anything is a “gateway drug”, its alcohol, as its the first drug that most people take in their lifetime.

You want to keep people off of drugs? Teach them to be happy without intoxicants. Trying to stop the supply is like trying to hold back the tide by building sand castles. The only thing it does is create more crime and violence. Alcohol prohibition built up organized crime in the US to unprecedented levels. Drug prohibition has kept it there.

Would that include the image of blissful release from terrible suffering?

LimeyGeek on June 24, 2008 at 2:30 PM

Limey my brother is a meth/heroine user. The images in my head will never leave me.

muyoso on June 24, 2008 at 2:31 PM

Pot, not matter what anyones tells me, is a gateway drug. It may helps some, but that doesn’t mean they don’t get addicted to it.
For those who are having issues with cancer, I don’t see a problem with it, as I know a few here where I live who smoke it to help them eat, not for the pain. But the amount they get surprises me and one who was short on cash for food, sold some of their pot cigarettes. That is something I do not condone.

You can say what you want, I do not approve of any legalization of drugs. If you are smoking pot for medical purposes, you usually have a sticker to prove you are using it for medical purposes. But other then extreme cases of cancer…. nope, it should be illegal.

Still waiting for you to answer the question I posed to you earlier. Please explain it to me.

Anyone who has ever witnessed someone doing Heroine and who can walk away without the image in their head

Would that include the image of blissful release from terrible suffering?

Unless you believe that the reason most people won’t try heroin is because it’s so darn illegal…

Right….just like we’re all seething homicidal maniacs under the surface – we just need to touch a gun to release our inner murderous self.

Seriously though, Tehran would hang drug smugglers and dealers. Why in the world would the absence of western funds stop them from attempting to keep them out of their society?

Honestly, the worst thing the US could ever do to Iran is over throw the mullahs societal controls. Dropping huge amounts of drugs and alcohol and porn in their major cities would be worse to the mullahs than a nuclear attack.

I agree 100%, the US should be buying up this crop.

kcluva on June 24, 2008 at 1:49 PM

“The US” = “The taxpayer”

Where exactly does the gubmint get the authority to spend my money on buying up drug crops?

Or any crops, for that matter? (Farm subsidy tangent alert)

Right, but unless you plan to make it legal to sell pot to 15-year-olds, you’re still going to have a black market.

Kafir on June 24, 2008 at 1:38 PM

Like the underage black market for beer and cigarettes? Not exactly big gang profit centers.

Drug trafficking in Iran is a Capital Offense, death by hanging.

saus on June 24, 2008 at 1:46 PM

I’m not surprised.

And still the ‘war on drugs’ continues unabated. I guess that even death is a worthwhile risk when the black market gains are so huge.

Remove the marketspace.

I agree 100%, the US should be buying up this crop.

LimeyGeek on June 24, 2008 at 1:22 PM

Drug trafficking in Iran is a Capital Offense, death by hanging.

unless you plan to make it legal to sell pot to 15-year-olds, you’re still going to have a black market.

Kafir on June 24, 2008 at 1:38 PM

No. The youth market is only worthwhile when there is an older, more monied, market to prime.

Why is there no black market for under-18 alcohol sales? No profit.

The risks and costs associated with getting such contraband to kids simply wouldn’t be met by their allowances.

Not true really. In fact, marijuana use among teens is down when medical marijuana is present. I guess it takes the “cool” factor away or something, I don’t know.

http://www.mpp.org/news/press-releases/ny/new-report-co-authored-by.html

When you make something legal, it takes away the black market. Thats the whole damned point.

muyoso on June 24, 2008 at 1:12 PM

Right, but unless you plan to make it legal to sell pot to 15-year-olds, you’re still going to have a black market.