Back in February I posted about a viable alternative to erradication in the Afghan opium war -- embracing the opium poppy as a legitimate resource. Parisian security and policy think-tank Senlis Council issued a report on this issue last month that strongly supports this position.

Well, it looks like the idea is finally gaining a bit of momentum in the mainstream press, with articles and commentary appearing in the Toronto Star and on the AFP Wire.

Continue reading "Mainstream picks up on poppy legitimization scheme" »

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 10:05 AM | Permalink

Whoa. Double Whoa.

Crazy poppy lovin' college kids.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 11:58 PM | Permalink

Destroying Afghanistan's Opium Poppy crop is not the answer to bringing peace and prosperity to this troubled region. With a full third of Afghanistan's GDP coming from the illicit opium trade, it seems clear that eradication of the poppy crop will be a devastating blow to the country's economy and its citizens already meager prosperity. Instead, it would make far more sense to embrace the poppy and turn the illicit opium trade in to a legitimate market.

Continue reading "Afghanistan should embrace, not eradicate, the poppy" »

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 05:08 PM | Permalink

This is one of the most amusing non-stories I've come across in a while:

No drugs or drug paraphernalia were found during a search of West Central High School Thursday.

Indeed. Sure was worth violating the students' privacy and creating a general atmosphere of mistrust. When are people going to wake up and realize we're not making our kids any safer by turning their schools in to prisons?

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 03:35 PM | Permalink

Is the prohibition of natural substances such as Opium and Marijuana really just narcophobia? Here's a very interesting article from Singapore that explores whether Opium's impact on health has been over dramatised, and that prohibition effectively ammounts to little more than a century-long sustained attack on traditional Asian culture. This is pretty progressive stuff considering it's coming from a country where even chewing-gum was illegal until recently...

Continue reading "Narcophobia and the Opium Myth" »

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 08:19 AM | Permalink