COLUMN: A senator's comment, favorable state rank and thanks to soldiers Nov 4, 2009
2 tons of poppy seeds used in making opium. - Assisted with 19 road projects. (Mattoon Journal-Gazette, IL)
Karzai's 'to do' list Nov 4, 2009
In October 2009 a UN report said Afghanistan's illegal opium production had. It said Afghan opium funds global terrorism, caters to 15 million addicts, and kills 100,000 people every year ... This year, however, poppy cultivation and opium production in Afghanistan appears to have. (BBC News -- South Asia)
Legalise drugs and society would benefit Nov 3, 2009
Bruce Anderson: Let's be honest. from The Independent & The Independent on Sunday. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Opinion)
Will: War on drugs has high goals, but little success Nov 2, 2009
In 1998, the United Nations, with its penchant for empty grandstanding, committed its members to "eliminating or significantly reducing" opium, cocaine and marijuana production by 2008, en route to a "drug-free world." Nowadays the U.N. is pleased that the drug trade has "stabilized.". The Economist magazine says this means that more than 200 million people - almost 5 percent of the world's adult population - take illegal drugs, the same proportion as a decade ago. (The News-Press -- Opinion)
Debate over cannabis status Nov 2, 2009
The convention was mainly concerned with controlling the Far East's opium problem, but cannabis was also included by the League of Nations in its list of substances which member states should seek to control, at the behest of Egyptian and Turkish delegates. The law was applied in a rather erratic manner throughout the UK until the Misuse of Drugs Act in 1971, which introduced the drug classification system and sentencing guidelines. (BBC News -- UK)
- Voice: Kill poppies, cut off funding (4) Nov 2, 2009
Again, too simple to use an Agent Orange product on the opium poppies to kill the plants ... Use drone aircraft to spray the opium poppies and voila, the poppies are dead and no more income from the sale of illegal drugs, heroin, etc. (El Centro Imperial Valley Press, CA)
Only one party is in control Nov 1, 2009
After all, they have the oil, natural gas and opium. Goodell tells us of "our weakened condition." And who is deliberately responsible for that. (Casper Star-Tribune, WY)
Report: Karzai's brother gets CIA pay Nov 1, 2009
NYT story says Afghanistan president's brother, long a suspect in opium trade, gets regular CIA payments By Associated Press ... The CIA's ties to Karzai, who is a suspected player in the country's illegal opium trade, have created deep divisions within the Obama administration, the Times said ... Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much... (Salon)
Marines return from Afghan mission Oct 31, 2009
Martin said Helmand province is important because its opium finances the Taliban, and the district center of Now Zad now abandoned once was the No. 2 city in Helmand. "You can tell it was a very verdant, successful and productive city at one time," Martin said. (Honolulu Advertiser)
Iranian scholars share Avicenna's medieval medical wisdom Oct 30, 2009
For instance, Avicenna would have prescribed opium at that time for cough and haemoptysis, a practice which today has an established therapeutic basis. "In the time of Avicenna, the presentation of respiratory diseases, their treatment and their prognosis was much different than in modern times," says Hashemi. (EurekAlert!)
Who's Who on the CIA Payroll Oct 30, 2009
The agency has declined comment on the Times story, but Karzai's CIA connection "has been an open secret in Afghanistan for many years," says Gretchen Peters, author of Seeds of Terror, an of Afghanistan's opium-terrorism nexus ... Karzai has not been formally charged with any involvement in drugs, but allegations about his connections to the opium trade which also helps finance the Taliban and al-Qaeda are legion. (Time.com)
Viewpoints: Americans get killed as we play both sides in Afghan drug trade Oct 30, 2009
The opium poppy was introduced to Afghanistan more than 2,300 years ago by the armies of Alexander the Great ... On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that the CIA has been making regular payments to a suspected major figure in the Afghan opium trade: Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of President Hamid Karzai ... Opium is the one booming sector of the Afghan economy: Poppy fields in the south and west of the country produce the raw material for an estimated 90 percent of the world's heroin. (Sacramento Bee -- Opinion)
Murder in Kabul Oct 29, 2009
Nor was Mr Karzai s position bolstered by a claim this week, by the New York Times, suggesting that the president s brother, who is suspected of involvement in the country s opium trade, has also been getting regular payments from the CIA. Ahmed Wali Karzai reportedly denied the allegations. The Taliban are most likely to attempt more attacks in the coming ten days in an effort to encourage outsiders to waver further. (The Economist)
AP: 8 U.S. Troops Die; New Deadliest Month in Afghan War Oct 29, 2009
Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium - the raw ingredient in heroin - and the illicit drug trade is a major source of funding for insurgent groups. Washington Missouri 2009. (Missourian Publishing, MO)
India's sick 'suffer needlessly' Oct 29, 2009
Ironic too is the fact that it's one of the world's biggest legal producers of opium - the raw material for morphine. But almost all of that is exported. (BBC News -- South Asia)
Dose of Realism in a Drug War Oct 29, 2009
In 1998, the United Nations, with its penchant for empty grandstanding, committed its members to "eliminating or significantly reducing" opium, cocaine and marijuana production by 2008, en route to a "drug-free world." Nowadays the U.N. is pleased that the drug trade has "stabilized.". . (Townhall.com)
How goes the Afghan war? 3 ways to tell Oct 28, 2009
The authors highlight three indicators, relating to security forces, the opium trade and public opinion ... The opium trade, meanwhile, is a measure of security (because it funds the insurgency) and of government effectiveness (because it is linked to pervasive corruption) ... Though the acreage devoted to poppy cultivation and the tonnage of opium produced fell last year, "future trends are not particularly encouraging.". (Albany Times Union)
Afghan police: 12 dead in attack on UN in Kabul Oct 28, 2009
An illegitamit government and there major resource is opium. They have nothing but centeruries of fighting. (Longview Daily News, WA)
CIA officials are said to pay Afghan president’s brother Oct 28, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan - Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the CIA, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former US officials. The agency pays Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the CIA s direction in and around Kandahar, Karzai s home. (Boston Globe)
14 Americans Die in Afghan Chopper Crashes Oct 27, 2009
Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium the raw ingredient in heroin and the illicit drug trade is a major source of funding for insurgent groups. U.S. forces also reported the death of two other American service members a day earlier: one in a bomb attack in the east, and another who died of wounds sustained in an insurgent attack in the same region. (Fox News)
Truth must stand in Afghanistan Oct 27, 2009
The mules that smuggle opium out of that benighted land are backloaded with AK-47s. 2. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Opinion)
North Attleborough pilot killed in helicopter crash in Afghanistan Oct 27, 2009
The agents routinely patrol with US forces in Afghanistan, the world s largest producer of opium, which is the key ingredient of heroin and a major source of funding for insurgents. The helicopter was on an operation that targeted insurgents involved in drug trafficking when the firefight began. (Boston Globe)
4 US troops die in Afghan chopper collision Oct 26, 2009
"During the operation, insurgent forces engaged the joint force and more than a dozen enemy fighters were killed in the ensuing firefight.Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium _ the raw ingredient in heroin _ and the illicit drug trade is a major source of funding for Taliban and other insurgent groups.On Sunday, Karzai and his rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, both ruled out a power-sharing deal before the runoff, saying the second round of balloting must be held... (Longview Daily News, WA)
Nevermore: Boo-ography of the ‘Master of the Macabre’ (5) Oct 26, 2009
Nevermore: Boo-ography of the Master of the Macabre - Somerset - Daily American. Staring at Poe s picture on the mug, I recalled my American Lit professor describing Edgar as a shy, handsome man, slightly built, with hazel eyes and a beautiful mouth. (Somerset Daily American, PA)
Wealthy Pakistanis add to country's strife Oct 26, 2009
Yes, they earn a lot from all of that opium poppy in Afghanistan. But that is not all. (Herald Online, SC -- Opinion)
COLUMN: 'Good without God' seems to turn nothing into a bit of something to brag about Oct 24, 2009
a book of stories written by a bunch of opium smoking old men. i'd just as soon believe the book of mormon. (Mattoon Journal-Gazette, IL)
Search On for Medical Marijuana Critic Oct 23, 2009
First it was opium from the chinese building the railroad, then coaine to get you off the opium. We have pain meds from cocaine, opium and even worse but to make a medical maijuana joint help some one you would think that we became the " Subverters of all thats Holy" ... First it was opium from the chinese building the railroad, then coaine to get you off the opium. (CBS News)
Insomnia effects countered in lab Oct 22, 2009
Page last updated at 23:02 GMT, Wednesday, 21 October 2009 00:02 UK. Sleep deprivation impairs brain function. (BBC News -- Health)
Survey ranks stores' charity Christmas card generosity Oct 22, 2009
Page last updated at 01:02 GMT, Thursday, 22 October 2009 02:02 UK. Charity Christmas cards 'give 6. (BBC News -- UK)
'Huge pressure' on hospital funds Oct 22, 2009
Page last updated at 07:27 GMT, Thursday, 22 October 2009 08:27 UK. Huge pressure' on hospital funds. (BBC News -- UK)
Gang crackdown, mob trials transfix China Oct 22, 2009
Others migrated to Hong Kong to escape a communist crackdown on the opium trade, prostitution and gang activity. Over the past 30 years, the economic boom caused by free-market reforms forced the Communist Party to withdraw from many areas it formerly controlled, clearing the way for new gangs to emerge and conspire with officials who held bureaucratic power but were poorly paid. (MSNBC -- International)
Three swine flu-related NI deaths Oct 22, 2009
Page last updated at 20:17 GMT, Wednesday, 21 October 2009 21:17 UK. Please turn on JavaScript. (BBC News -- UK)
Conman accused cries over abuse Oct 22, 2009
Page last updated at 16:39 GMT, Wednesday, 21 October 2009 17:39 UK. Paul Bint, left, is accused of posing as Keir Starmer QC. (BBC News -- UK)
Medical Marijuana Oct 21, 2009
While it didn't apply to marijuana and merely brought the distribution of opium and morphine under doctors' control, the regulation of chemical substances was a major shift in American drug policy ... To get around states' rights issues, the act used a tax to regulate opium- and coca-derived drugs: it levied a tax on non-medical uses of the drugs that was much higher than the cost of the drugs themselves, and punished anyone using the drugs without paying the tax. (Time.com)
Iran Bombing Kills 5 Rev. Guard Leaders Oct 19, 2009
Drug traffickers ferry opium and other narcotics through the cross-border badlands a key source of income for the Taliban in Afghanistan and the ethnic Baluchi tribes that straddle the three-nation region and include members of Jundallah. Iran has pleaded for more international help to cut off the drug routes and criminal gangs. (Time.com)
United States struggles to halt cash flow to Taliban Oct 19, 2009
In Afghanistan, the Taliban have imposed an elaborate system to tax the cultivation, processing, and shipment of opium, as well as other crops like wheat grown in the territory they control, American and Afghan officials say ... By diversifying their revenue stream beyond opium, the Taliban are successfully confounding American and NATO efforts to weaken the insurgency by cutting off its economic lifelines, the officials say ... It is unclear, for example, whether the deployment of 10,000... (Boston Globe)
Running Rampant Oct 15, 2009
"If you're dreaming, you might make out a headline, but you won't be able to read small print." Pouring the girls a bit more tea from their china set, I continued, "The poet Coleridge's most famous poem was 'Kublai Khan.' He was smoking opium and reading about the Khan in 1797 in an isolated farmhouse when he fell asleep and dreamed he composed a poem 200 to 300 lines long. Coleridge awoke and immediately began writing it down until he was interrupted at line 54 by a bill collector. But by the... (Kalona News, IA)
Troops to Afghanistan: Logistics May be Tougher than the Politics Oct 14, 2009
"You could film a biblical movie in Afghanistan without props." The U.S. has been improving Afghanistan's meager road network to enable farmers to ship perishable crops other than opium paste to market, and to deter IEDs, which are easier to detect in fresh pavement. The current U.S. ambassador to Kabul, Karl Eikenberry, emphasized the importance of roads during his service in Afghanistan as a U.S. Army general. (Time.com)
Treasury: Taliban's Bankroll Beats Qaeda's Oct 13, 2009
The only sensible recourse to the Opium ProblemIs to allow legitimate Pharmaceutical companiesTo purchase the narcotics for manufacturing of Pain medications-There is a currently a lack of these products worldwide. This would allow the farmers a transition periodTo move towards another cropWithout devastating them financially Through crop destruction. (CBS News)
NYT: Civilian goals unmet in Afghanistan Oct 12, 2009
Administration officials said there had been progress on Afghan education and access to health care, and claimed some success on a nascent antinarcotics campaign that has phased out efforts to eradicate poppy crops, used for opium, and stepped up interdiction and incentives for Afghan farmers to grow wheat. Tom Vilsack, the secretary of agriculture, is to promote the effort in a trip to Afghanistan in December, officials said. (MSNBC -- International)
Afghan official: Foreigners bolstering Taliban Oct 11, 2009
fiddy6bills wrote on Oct 8, 2009 1:56 AM:" Afghanistan is a nitemare compared to Iraq. Iraq has somewhat of a government and oil resources to help them rebuild. Afghan has what? An illegitamit government and there major resource is opium. They have nothing but centeruries of fighting. I'm glad I'm not the President becuz how do you win. And then they taunt us telling us to study the history of the fighting in Afghanistan knowing it has been filled with wars and fighting and it probably will... (Longview Daily News, WA)
Obama's Nobel: The Last Thing He Needs Oct 10, 2009
Son of a missionary, a former Army medic and mountaineer, he has made it his mission to build schools for girls in places where opium dealers and tribal warlords kill people for trying. His Central Asia Institute has built more than 130 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan a mission which has, along the way, inspired millions of people to view the protection and education of girls as a key to peace and prosperity and progress. (Time.com)
The Savannah Accelerated Development Authority Is The North Well Positioned For It? Oct 8, 2009
Karl Maxs famous assertion that religion is the hope of the hopeless, the spirit of the spiritless, an opium of the masses could therefore not be by accident. But the reality is that no one is naturally made poor. (Ghana Web, Ghana)
Teen dies from drinking poppy tea Oct 8, 2009
But, the poppy plant is used to make opium ... Poppy seeds contain mostly morphine and codeine, while the stem has more opium. (KHOU.com, TX)
US, Afghan troops seize tonnes of opium Oct 8, 2009
US and Afghan forces seized 50 tonnes of opium and killed 17 Taliban insurgents on Wednesday, the defence ministry said, as US President Barack Obama mulled his options for the increasingly war-torn country ... Destitute Afghanistan produces around 90 per cent of the world's opium, used to make heroin sold on the streets of Europe and central Asia. (Sydney Morning Herald -- World)
Homegrown Pot Threatens Mexican Cartels Oct 8, 2009
Now, lets allow Americans drug themselves to death by permitting them to grow the Coca Plant (Cocaine) and the Opium Poppy Plant(Heroin) in their backyard ... With Opium, Americans will win the war in Afghanistan since the Taliban will nolonger have a lucrative source of income with opium. (CBS News -- US)
Antiwar Protesters Seek to Revive Movement Oct 8, 2009
Afghanistan needs the sort of infrastructure that the Army Core of Engineers can provide, they need schools, roads and non opium based work opportunities. A poor, destitute Afghanistan IS the terrorist breeding ground that hosted training camps responsible for actual American civilian deaths. (CBS News -- US)
Stop Making False Claims Against Obama; Attack with FACTS Oct 7, 2009
FactChecker wrote on Oct 6, 2009 5:23 AM:" To "No Blood for Opium"You are entirely correct. Very few things in that list are Bush's fault. It is the equivalent of saying that because something happened during your watch, it is entirely your fault.To NewOrleansCajunYou are correct as well. Perception is unfortunately an important part of the way people handle and filter information. Thank you for pointing that out. " ... No blood for opium wrote on Oct 5, 2009 8:46 PM:" Hey FactChecker, do you... (New Iberia, LA)
Biden Butts In Oct 7, 2009
A warlord can be a Taliban, an al-Qaida member, an opium trafficker or all of the above. Biden's idea, as McChrystal put it bluntly, "won't work.". (Investors Business Daily)
Lee Robins; pioneered study on roots of abnormal behavior Oct 7, 2009
In the 1970s, the federal government commissioned her to study returning Vietnam veterans who had been addicted to heroin or opium. She reached what Bucholz called the startling revelation that many recovered spontaneously from their addiction on their return, thus challenging notions of the irreversible nature of this form of addiction. (Boston Globe)
A Soldier's Last Letter From Afghanistan Oct 6, 2009
"Get that last part? But read on."Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the world's opium, which was worth some $3 ... For a cut of that, Afghan officials open their highways to opium and heroin trafficking, allow public land to be used for growing opium poppies and protect drug dealers ... Islam forbids the use of opium and heroin. (CBS News)
Pro & Con: Should Obama send more U.S. troops to fight the Afghan war? Oct 6, 2009
With allegations of corruption within and outside the government and its alleged ties to the opium trade, the recent decision to accept President Hamid Karzai s re-election will increase pressure on President Barack Obama to justify further U.S. troop deployments to Afghanistan to prop up a government now regarded by Afghans and international organizations as systemically corrupt. The Obama administration is considering accepting Gen. Stanley McChrystal s military assessment that 40,000 more... (Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- Opinion)
Wis. women accused of receiving opium in the mail Oct 3, 2009
women accused of receiving opium in the mail ... women accused of receiving 11 pounds of twigs soaked with opium through the mail ... -- Two women accused of receiving opium through the mail have been charged in Manitowoc County. (Albany Times Union)
China's other face: The red and the black Oct 2, 2009
An obvious difference between modern gangsterism and its pre-revolutionary counterpart is that few gangs today are known by names unlike the famous Green Gang, a powerful force in pre-communist Shanghai, or Chongqing s Robed Brothers, who controlled the city s opium trade and gambling. China before 1949 was a chaotic mix of competing political, military and criminal forces. (The Economist)
Letters to the editor: Oct. 1 edition Oct 2, 2009
The country has few economic resources aside from opium. It has porous borders with nuclear-armed Pakistan, where Al Qaeda already operates freely. (Lincoln Journal, MA)
Will NATO's 60th Anniversary Be Its Last? Oct 1, 2009
As for the grander projects of democracy promotion and nation-building, Afghanistan's rudimentary economy remains heavily dependent on opium poppy production and its political system suffers from rampant corruption of which the irregularities of the most recent presidential election represent only the tip of the malfeasance. No wonder, then, that the Europeans are thin 00001C9A king seriously about how to get out. (CBS News)
Stimulus-funded university research addressing issues from climate change to cancer, creating jobs and training a new generation of scientists Sep 30, 2009
The grant from the National Institutes of Health will enable University of Kentucky researcher William Stoops to study the pharmacological effects of tramadol, a synthetic opioid that does not appear to be abused at the same rate as other natural, semi-synthetic and synthetic analgesics derived from opium alkaloids. Stoops is an assistant professor in the UK College of Medicine's Department of Behavioral Science and the UK Center for Drug and Alcohol Research. (EurekAlert! -- Business News)
USA's Yesterdays: Pure Food and Drug Act: Patent medicines down the drain Sep 26, 2009
In many cases, bottled remedies were most often liberally tainted with alcohol, opium, morphine or cocaine ... Likewise, opium, for a time, might have soothed the pain. (Mattoon Journal-Gazette, IL)
HSBC bids farewell to dollar supremacy... Sep 25, 2009
Remember the British role of foisting opium on the Chinese and then forcing them to sign unequal treaties with land concessions and extra-territorial rights. The same applies for other Western powers that battened on China's weakness. (The Drudge Report)
Stay and fight or cut and run? Sep 24, 2009
Rupert Cornwell: Has America reached the turning point in Afghanistan. - Rupert Cornwell, Commentators - The Independent. (The Drudge Report)
SSDP pushes reform Sep 24, 2009
" Dulin said that a most basic reform would be to sever marijuana from all other illegal drugs, meaning that the punishment for marijuana would be less harsh than the punishment for cocaine or ecstasy. Wadsworth said that the university needs to look at the alcohol policies compared to those for marijuana. The penalty for using drugs is essentially double than for using alcohol, Wadsworth said. Meanwhile we have all these problems, community relations with neighborhoods like Mission Hill and... (Northeastern News, MA)
Letters to the editor Sep 24, 2009
However, the question that remains unanswered - in fact, it is rarely asked - is this: Once a "victory" is attained and U.S. troops head home, won't the corruption, the Taliban, the opium crops and the suppression of women's rights slowly and surely return. Of course they will. (San Francisco Chronicle -- Opinion)
Charges dropped against leader of alleged Laos coup plot Sep 19, 2009
" "At the same time he's very distressed the case that we believe is an unfair government sting operation is proceeding against a number of fine people," Keker told the Sacramento Bee. Pao is a prominent figure in the Hmong community in the United States, a former general in the Royal Lao army in the 1960s and 1970s who fled to the United States in 1975 after communists ousted Laos' royal rulers. His arrest two years ago outraged Hmong in the United States, with large protests outside government... (Channelnewsasia.com)
Addicts opens another front in Afghan war Sep 18, 2009
Afghanistan, besieged by decades of war, is fighting another battle a spiraling epidemic of heroin addiction in the country that is the world's largest producer of opium, which is used to make heroin ... Lemahieu said up to 1,600 heroin users a day would frequent the den, which he called "the 's of opium addiction." Each day, two to four bodies would be found victims of overdose, malnutrition or exposure related to drugs ... Some were wounded in Afghanistan's civil war from 1992 to 1996 and... (USA Today)
Obama replaces God in schools Sep 17, 2009
Well another example is the opium industry that Great Britain imposed upon China in the 19th century ... What, you want to do people of out of their Constitutional right for some good wholesome recreation of kicking back with some 100% organic opium ... It is the opium of the people. (Logan Herald Journal, UT)
