The Drug Policy Alliance has started a letter campaign against a plan currently under consideration in the US Senate that basically amounts to launching a biological warfare attack against countries such as Columbia and Afghanistan.

Mycoherbicides have already been extensively studied over the last thirty years - and the results make it clear that they are not an option for controlling crops of coca or opium poppies. They attack indiscriminately, destroying fruit and vegetable crops, causing open sores and feminization in reptiles and other animals, and sickening humans as well. The toxins mycoherbicides produce contaminate soil for years, so that nothing can grow where they have been. Mycoherbicides are so destructive that governments have even stockpiled them as weapons...

Sounds real pleasant.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 09:16 AM | Permalink

Afghan farmers of poppies find themselves caught between the devil and the deep sea. With poverty rife in the war-torn nation, it’s difficult to resist the lure of easy money from cultivating opium poppies, despite international efforts to curb the poppy trade.

Hat tip: DrugSpot

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 07:39 PM | Permalink

More revelations from The Senlis Council today, with a new report on the wires that the British government has failed to honor its pledge to compensate Afghani poppy farmers for eradicating papaver somniferum crops, causing widespread anger in the volatile region.

Based on interviews with farmers in the Helmand province, where 3,300 British troops will arrive over the coming months, the group claims that U.K. counter-narcotics officers promised local farmers $350 for every fifth of a hectare of opium poppies they destroyed.

'These farmers kept their side of the deal and eradicated their crops, but the British Government did not keep their word,' said Mohammad Gull, a local representative from the Sharwali District in Helmand who was involved in the initial negotiations with the British representatives. 'In our culture this is very dishonorable and we are very angry.'

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 07:49 AM | Permalink

You wouldn't trust criminals to be in control of your tap water, something as benign as that, so why do we allow them to control something as dangerous as drugs?

After three years as the top police officer in Cambridgeshire, former chief Tom Lloyd is calling for discussions based around a radical new approach which would take the supply of drugs away from the criminal underworld. He suggests that the drugs trade should be recognised as a hugely profitable business and that efforts should be directed towards undermining that profitability. One approach that should be considered is that drugs, including heroin, should be supplied to desperate users safely and legally by the Government.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 07:49 PM | Permalink

Over at DRCNet there's an interesting article about the "Strategic Communications Plan" seeks to specifically target Congress members, religious leaders, state elected officials, think tanks, media outlets, university students and officials, and the business community, both inside and outside the US.

The plan calls for big efforts to ensure that journalists are given every opportunity to figure out and report the official line. It calls for journalists to be escorted on eradication missions, regular bulletins for the press "assuming poppy eradication goes well," and "professionally designed" press kits with fact sheets "that can last for several months."

Wow.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 06:50 PM | Permalink

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

It looks like with Dubya's second unnanounced trip to Afghanistan, the mainstream US and UK media has picked up on Harmed Karzai's opium poppy eradication plan.

The Washington Post tries to keep things as boring as possible with the stats-laden report Afghan drugs trade still a major threat, while the Houston Chronical takes a more pessimistic view with Afghan Opium stymies US efforts. So where does the truth lie? Well why not just read the damn thing for yourself and make up your own mind, because it looks like all the mainstream outlets have to say is just the same-old status quo.

Drug WarRant has some interesting commentary on the south-american stats in the report.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 11:03 PM | Permalink

Over at the Drug Policy Alliance, respected journalist Walter Conkite has written a letter in support of the organization and has called for an end to the failed "War on Drugs".

Continue reading "Walter Cronkite voices support for drug policy reform, DPA" »

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 12:19 PM | Permalink

The US-backed "War on Drugs" puppet organization, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), has called for Austalia to dismantle it's safe-injection room program. Comparing the program with the Opium Dens of the previous centruy, former INCB president Hamid Ghodse had such powerful insights as: "It is illegal. If you decriminalise crime, then there is no crime and no prisons. Can you say it is a success because there's no prisons?... Uh sure, that makes sense...

Continue reading "INCB to Australia: Safe Injection Rooms Must Go" »

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 08:52 AM | Permalink

US and European policies to stem the flow of opium from central Asia are "limited in scope, funding, and imagination", according to the International Crisis Group (ICG). A private lobby group led by the former president of Finland, the ICG slammed US/EU anti-drug efforts as doing more harm than good.

Continue reading "US and EU Anti-Opium Efforts Ineffective" »

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 12:08 AM | Permalink