September 24, 2001

6:57 PM

Taliban Magic Trick: $43m...now you see it, now you don't!"Afghan farmers are ready to swamp world markets with heroin amid signs that the Taleban has dropped its ban on opium growing."

Okay...can we please end the War on Plants now?
posted by tpoh.org (11 comments total)

Woooo I wonder if the Swiss way of doing things is the right one
posted by Aikido at 7:16 PM on September 24, 2001

I agree! The War on plants needs to stop.
posted by BlitzK at 8:08 PM on September 24, 2001

War on drugs aside, the US had given them money not to grow and ship but I have seen suggestions that they took the money and went on planting. In addition, we gave 15 million in humanitarian aid--unless that was a different name for the dope deal. But in any case, in about a week from now, the Talleman will not be doing much farming and selling abroad. Clearly, no matter what takes place as far as our military, we are moving to asssist the Northern opposition to dump the Tallyman (how are your bananas?).
If this comes to pass, then the dope thing again might be an issue...
posted by Postroad at 8:34 PM on September 24, 2001

How is it that I've been flooded with photos of the wasteland that is af, and I've yet to see one of the sprawling opium fields...
posted by bitcrank at 8:59 PM on September 24, 2001

War on Plants? Dammit boy, those Triffids will be all over the damn place if we don't keep 'em down! Christ, what kind of commie plant-sympathizer are you? Plants killed my entire family, and now I'm gonna wipe 'em out once and for all!
posted by aramaic at 9:42 PM on September 24, 2001

How come they don't just grow food instead of opium?
posted by dopamine at 10:35 PM on September 24, 2001

Because you can't charge $60 a Kilo for watermelons. Not even seedless ones.
posted by Optamystic at 11:39 PM on September 24, 2001

> the Taleban has dropped its ban on opium growing.

You see? Every dark cloud does have a silver lining?
posted by pracowity at 12:32 AM on September 25, 2001

[?.]
posted by pracowity at 12:38 AM on September 25, 2001

Um ... shouldn't the article say that the Afghan farmers are getting ready to flood the market with opium, not heroin?

Which might seem like nitpicking, but it's the difference between coca paste and crack. That is, you still need a more sophisticated segment of the criminal organization to get it to market.

The Afghan farmers aren't going to be generating junkies without a whole lot of help from others.
posted by sacre_bleu at 5:27 AM on September 25, 2001

Optamystic: Because you can't charge $60 a Kilo for watermelons. Not even seedless ones.

Seedless, maybe not. But what if they're square?
posted by Slithy_Tove at 8:55 AM on September 25, 2001