Comments on: Comments on 6707

Post number 6707

holgate — Sun, 01 Apr 2001 19:20:09 -0800

Fighting the war on drugs... and winning. In less than a year, without outside assistance, a relatively impoverished country has managed to knock out the world's main source of opium. Who is this progressive regime? Step forward, the Taliban.

By: Steven Den Beste

Steven Den Beste — Sun, 01 Apr 2001 20:27:54 -0800

Oh, yeah, the Taliban are just a sweet bunch.

By: Zool

Zool — Sun, 01 Apr 2001 21:08:16 -0800

I always thought that Tasmania in Australia grew like 70% of the world's opium. I could be wrong or maybe that's legal farms for the medical industry.

By: jpoulos

jpoulos — Sun, 01 Apr 2001 21:12:43 -0800

....and Mussolini made the trains run on time...

By: donkeymon

donkeymon — Sun, 01 Apr 2001 21:40:34 -0800

Oh great. 10% of the population of this city (Baltimore, MD) is addicted to heroin. This could be pretty hard on more than a few people in a few years whe the lack of supply drives the price too high. Are there any good synthetic heroin sources?

By: mathowie

mathowie — Sun, 01 Apr 2001 21:45:47 -0800

Are there any good synthetic heroin sources? besides methadone?

By: holgate

holgate — Sun, 01 Apr 2001 21:50:05 -0800

(There are days I wish that Mark Twain's dream of a back-slanted typeface called "ironic" had come true.) And Zool: you're right about Tasmania: I should have said "main source of opium for heroin".

By: dhartung

dhartung — Mon, 02 Apr 2001 01:26:20 -0800

This article pointed out the linkage between this and the Buddha statue destruction. It really was just done to spite us. Matt, alternatives to methadone exist and, more important, work just as well. And with addiction rates twice the national average [though one alarmist source I saw claimed fifteen times], I guess Baltimore really does have a serious heroin problem, some 12.8% by these conservative estimates. Whew.

By: maqua

maqua — Mon, 02 Apr 2001 04:20:30 -0800

if you want an alternative to methadone, and potentially a cure for all addicting substances (alcohol, cocaine etc), you should look at the mysterious african root bark iboga and its active ingredient ibogaine

By: cardboard

cardboard — Mon, 02 Apr 2001 05:29:02 -0800

Well now we at least have a blueprint as to what's required, and all we need is some forceful yet charismatic individual (much like this Mussolini you speak of) to overthrow the government and implement it. More seriously, I see parallels between the Taliban's behaviour and the recent spate of ostracized american teenagers shooting up their highschools. When nobody likes you, you don't really need to worry about opinion polls anymore; there will come a time when you stop caring about what the community (of nations or whatever) thinks of you. There there, Holgate. There there.

By: lagado

lagado — Mon, 02 Apr 2001 06:44:39 -0800

Revolutionary zeal seems quite good at eradicating the opium trade, like in maoist China for example. Though 30 million non drug related deaths was a high price to pay.

By: Dirjy

Dirjy — Mon, 02 Apr 2001 07:15:29 -0800

The Taliban may have gotten rid of the supply within its borders, but it really won't affect the 'big picture.' As long there is a demand for it anywhere in the world, there will always be someone willing to supply it and cash in. If not in Afghanistan, then some other country. When will the 'drug warriors' learn that drug prohibition policies try to invalidate some of the most basic rules of economics? They may as well try to repeal the law of gravity.

By: DiplomaticImmunity

DiplomaticImmunity — Tue, 03 Apr 2001 10:07:50 -0800

Maybe the opium was hidden in all those statues...