IRAQ: Traumatised young Iraqis turn increasingly to hard drugs

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/50c1a09af2d66c1934b58169e42a62d3.htm

KERBALA, 11 October (IRIN) - Khalid Hussein, a 22-year-old university drop-out, is a heroin addict, just like his Dad. And with his father's blessing he sells the drug on the streets of Kerbala to support his family.

It is early morning. Khalid's father snorts a small quantity of heroin himself and wishes his son good luck as he sets out into the streets of this city, 160 km south of Baghdad, to find new customers.

"In the beginning I found the idea strange, but today I feel comfortable doing it because at the same time as I'm earning my own money, I'm also using the drug and it helps me forget the terror that has descended on our lives since the foreigners took over our country," Hussein said. snip

And drug pushers told IRIN they had found a lucrative market amongst soldiers in the US-led occupation forces. They report strong demand from Italian troops in particular.

[Chico Man]

1. I've heard from soldiers the quality of the hash they are smoking over

there is insane.

I just could not fathom lighting up or doing any kind of drugs in that atmosphere. Only for the fast and furious, I suppose.

[LynnTheDem]

2. So are US troops. The number of drug and alcohol problems here at Ft Hood

is really quite astounding the past couple years.

[benburch]

6. I can believe it.

I know for fact that Vietnam had that effect. I have a good friend who was an artillery sgt in Vietnam and came home with a monkey on his back.

And this war is, if anything, psychologically worse that Vietnam. In Vietnam, most Americans believed that Communism was a real threat. Nobody except a few "dead ender" freepers think there was ever any threat in Iraq.

[shance]

3. This is so difficult to read but its important.

Thanks NNNOHLI.

You always post important, good information.

Its tough to see the damage this Administration (and Congress) has allowed to occur towards innocent people in our name.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

4. Young Iraqi men getting high are less likely to take up arms

or join the Jihad. Instead, they're only thinking about where they're going to get their next high.

I may be wearing my tin foil over this, but it wouldn't surprise me if the Pentagon didn't have a plan to get Iraqi men hooked on drugs thinking that it might help stop the fighting. It's strange that hard drugs and pornography started showing up on the streets of Baghdad within weeks after the U.S. invaded.

[stillcool]

5. that old saying...

'Reality is for people who can't handle drugs'..i would imagine the reality there makes drugs easier to handle.