In Afghanistan, the War on Drugs is OVER! We Won!

[Philosoraptor]

ttp://www.rawstory.com/showoutarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fhosted.ap.org%2Fdynamic%2Fstories%2FA%2FAFGHAN_OPIUM_BOOM%3FSITE%3DCODER%26SECTION%3DHOME%26TEMPLATE%3DDEFAULT

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Opium cultivation in Afghanistan has hit record levels - up by more than 40 percent from 2005 - despite hundreds of millions in counternarcotics money, Western officials told The Associated Press.

The increase could have serious repercussions for an already grave security situation, with drug lords joining the Taliban-led fight against Afghan and international forces.

A Western anti-narcotics official in Kabul said about 370,650 acres of opium poppy was cultivated this season - up from 257,000 acres in 2005 - citing their preliminary crop projections. The previous record was 323,700 acres in 2004, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

"It is a significant increase from last year ... unfortunately, it is a record year," said a senior U.S. government official based in Kabul, who like the other Western officials would speak only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive topic.

[Sherman A1]

1. The hits just keep comin'

more failed work by our Republican Leadership.... Who could have forseen this???

[sofa king]

2. Somehow, I think the CIA could have foreseen this.

That's why they're in charge of heroin distribution in Eurasia.

[Toots]

6. So has the CIA switched from cocaine to heroin now or are they doing both

We all know the CIA has been in the drug trade for many decades. It was the GOP's brilliant idea to launch the Crack Cocaine era. It accomplished several things for them. It helped make a large percentage of blacks into felons so they can never vote plus got them off the streets and in prison where the GOP feels they belong. It raised untold funds for their dirty little Contra War and helped re-enforce the idea that drugs need more law enforcement and less constitutional rights for citizens and helped to bolster the price of drugs so they could make even more money. The GOP has been intricately involved in the drug trade since the Vietnam era or even before. How else do you think drugs find their way into America so easily? The Bush*'s are at the top of the heap where these things are done. Daddy Bush was head of CIA all during those huge drug years..

[Lasher]

3. We have turned a corner.

Afghan Opium production is in its last throes.

[pinniped]

4. More counternarcotics money equals more acres of crop.

Bravo.

[ERF]

5. You don't give up on a perfectly good theory just because

it isn't true!

Free market economics is only valid when it means screwing the poor.