U.N. says heroin production in U.S. occupied Afghanistan at "frightening record levels"

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detail/U_N_says_Afghan_opium_crop_soars.html?siteSect=143&sid=8144986&cKey=1188250661000&ty=ti

KABUL (Reuters) - Opium production has soared to "frightening record levels" in Afghanistan, which now has more land producing drugs than Colombia, Bolivia and Peru combined, the United Nations said on Monday.

Afghanistan is locked in a vicious circle where drug money feeds both the Taliban insurgency and official corruption which in turn weaken the government's hold of large parts of the country and allows more opium to be produced.

The area of Afghan land where opium poppies are grown rose by 17 percent to 193,000 hectares in 2007 from 165,000 last year and this year's harvest was 8,200 tonnes, up from 6,100 tonnes in 2006, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.

Afghanistan produced 93 percent of the world's opium in 2007, up from 92 percent last year, the annual UNODC report said.

"No other country has produced narcotics on such a deadly scale since China in the 19th century," a UNODC statement said.

Most Afghan opium is processed to make heroin and smuggled out of the country to Europe and the Middle East where it fuels addiction and crime.

[whistle]

1. BushCo crime family and CIA production goals are right on target

[icymist]

2. Bet they'll aim this at the poor, inter-city neighborhoods.

That way they can arrest many more young and give them a choice, prison or the army. Nice clean way to avoid a draft.

[Virginia Dare]

6. The Republican trickle down theory as it was meant to be...n/t

[indepat]

3. Enough to make one at whose feet this lies

[dipsydoodle]

4. drug money feeds both the Taliban insurgency ...?

The Taliban were instrumental in stopping the opium trade when they had overall control so who's growing the poppies now ?

Maybe this helps explain *u**'s analogy bewteen Irag and Vietnam.

Sam Stone
©John Prine

Sam Stone came home,
To his wife and family
After serving in the conflict overseas.
And the time that he served,
Had shattered all his nerves,
And left a little shrapnel in his knee.
But the morphine eased the pain,
And the grass grew round his brain,
And gave him all the confidence he lacked,
With a Purple Heart and a monkey on his back.

Chorus:
There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes,
Jesus Christ died for nothin' I suppose.
Little pitchers have big ears,
Don't stop to count the years,
Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios.
Mmm....

Sam Stone's welcome home
Didn't last too long.
He went to work when he'd spent his last dime
And Sammy took to stealing
When he got that empty feeling
For a hundred dollar habit without overtime.
And the gold rolled through his veins
Like a thousand railroad trains,
And eased his mind in the hours that he chose,
While the kids ran around wearin' other peoples' clothes...

Repeat Chorus:

Sam Stone was alone
When he popped his last balloon
Climbing walls while sitting in a chair
Well, he played his last request
While the room smelled just like death
With an overdose hovering in the air
But life had lost its fun
And there was nothing to be done
But trade his house that he bought on the G. I. Bill
For a flag draped casket on a local heroes' hill.

Repeat Chorus

[Virginia Dare]

5. Mission Accomplished....n/t

[stillcool]

7. running guns and drugs...

a repetitive theme.