Opium: Iraq''s deadly new export

[Roland99]

Source: KUNA

Farmers in southern Iraq have started to grow opium poppies in their fields for the first time, sparking fears that Iraq might become a serious drugs producer along the lines of Afghanistan, it was revealed here Wednesday.

Rice farmers along the Euphrates, to the west of the city of Diwaniya, south of Baghdad, have stopped cultivating rice, for which the area is famous, and are instead planting poppies, Iraqi sources familiar with the area told The Independent newspaper.

The shift to opium cultivation is still in its early stages but there is little the Iraqi Government can do about it because rival Shia militias and their surrogates in the security forces control Diwaniya and its neighbourhood.
There have been bloody clashes between militiamen, police, Iraqi army and US forces in the city over the past two months, the paper said.

The shift to opium production is taking place in the well-irrigated land west and south of Diwaniya around the towns of Ash Shamiyah, al Ghammas and Ash Shinafiyah.

Read more: http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1747424&Language=en

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Yet another awesome unintended consequence, courtesy the batshit insane neocons.

[bahrbearian]

1. Iraq is in dire need of Pain Killers

[Missy M]

2. I guess the US will become their biggest customer

we are fighting a war to get the oil and next we will fight a war to stop the drugs.

[Zensea]

3. Are you sure it is an unintended consequence?

Don't be.

[Kagemusha]

4. I don't know what American would dream of poppies in S. Iraq

That would really be thinking outside the box. So personally, I'm confident it is an unintended consequence.. even if I'm not "sure".

You'd generally want this stuff somewhere where it can be controlled.

[Roland99]

7. Maybe Hastert's buddies are branching out!

[Roland99]

6. Well, perhaps a consequence that no one cared about.

The only focus was getting the US military into permanent positions in the Middle East.

[ixion]

9. I see a pattern here...

invade, occupy, and start the poppy production.

[JVS]

13. Hmmm, subduing Iraq with opium isn't the worst thing that could happen

People could use the mellowing effects

[Rob H.]

5. A similar thing happened in Afghanistan

The Taliban had nearly wiped out production in early 2001. By early September of 2006 Afghani poppy growers were experiencing their biggest harvests ever as a result of the Taliban encouraging its cultivation in exchange for protection.

[Kagemusha]

8. Well what's different here is, S. Iraq has no long, illustrious history of this.

Afghanistan most certainly did. And now well... ironic, isn't it? Business has never been better, because so long as the Americans are around, the Taliban is on the same side as the opium industry.

[Rob H.]

11. True

More proof that Bush is like some Bizarro King Midas--everything he touches turns to shit.

[Kagemusha]

15. You've got a good point there.

The evidence sure has piled high.. and stinky.

[Chemical Bill]

12. If the NY Whore Times says...

that the Taliban is responsible, it must be a lie. After we invaded, and our pals the warlords were in charge, production skyrocketed. The Taliban may be looking for more funding now that Bin Laden has been dead for several years, but opium production in Afghanistan fits a pattern going back to the CIA in SE Asia in the 1950s and '60s, and then in Central and South America in the '70s and '80s. When the CIA comes to town, they pay their bills with drug money. See "The Politics Of Heroin" by Alfred McCoy, and "Dark Alliance" by Gary Webb.

Bill

[madrchsod]

10. dam i wish they`d start growing

growing pot for hashish production instead of poppies

[Chemical Bill]

14. This is not an accident.

The farmers would not grow opium without a market for it. Somebody came to town and told them to grow it. The CIA has been doing just that for decades. The CIA even admitted this to congress.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/121304.html

Bill

[eridani]

Another link to the story

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2573299.ece

[eridani]

16. Another link to the story

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2573299.ece