In the news today, June 22, 2003, a story from London's Independent newspaper reports that Afghanistan has regained its title as the world's biggest heroin dealer. It says:

"Afghanistan is still the source of almost all of the heroin sold in London, even though Britain has poured millions [of taxpayers dollars] into [supposedly] trying to stamp out the war-wrecked country's resurgent drugs production business."

"Opium poppies are springing up from the plains to the mountains of Afghanistan in far higher quantities than in the final year of the Taliban, which the USA and Britain overthrew, while vowing to end the region's narcotics trade. Opium - from which heroin is extracted - is produced on farms only a few dozen miles from the capital city of Kabul, headquarters to the international effort to end the heroin trade and rebuild the country."

"...The cultivation of opium reached its peak in 1999, when 225,000 acres - 350 square miles - of poppies were sown... The following year the Taliban banned poppy cultivation, declaring it to be "un-Islamic" - a move which cut production by 94 per cent... By 2001 only 30 square miles of land were in use for growing opium poppies. A year later, after American and British troops had removed the Taliban and installed the interim government, the land under cultivation leapt back to 285 square miles, with Afghanistan supplanting Burma to become the world's largest opium producer once more."

paid-ad: As long as heroin continues to pour in from other countries, heroin addiction treatment programs will always be there to help the drug’s victims out.

It's time we focused on quality of death, WinnipegFreePress, Feb 26, 2011
The debate over euthanasia is always simmering just below the surface of Canadian society and occasionally it bubbles over, as it is doing today with the release on full parole of Robert Latimer, convicted of the 1993 so-called mercy killing of his 12-year-old daughter. That debate is not likely to be settled any time soon, no matter how much public attention it receives. There is, however, another compelling issue associated with both mercy and death that passes largely ignored by the Canadian people and their politicians, even though it touches directly on the lives of many of us. Ultimately, the question of how to make dying an easier, less terrifying prospect affects us all. Dying is a scary business for most people, and one of its most frightening aspects is the pain that might be associated with it. The most effective way of managing severe pain in the terminally ill is heroin, but it is virtually impossible to obtain in a hospital or hospice setting. One can buy it on almost any street corner in almost any city in Canada, but doctors cannot obtain it legally and safely for a cancer patient living out her last few days or hours in excruciating agony that can't really be touched by any other painkiller. Free Press medical columnist W. Gifford-Jones recently pointed out that Britain, the only Western nation where the medical use of heroin is allowed to treat the terminally ill, is also ranked as the best place on Earth to die, largely because of that -- Canada is ninth. The primary cause of the pain the terminally ill feel is, of course, their disease -- usually cancer. But Canadians and the politicians they elect cannot escape responsibility for what can only be called needless suffering perpetuated by their archaic and careless attitudes toward the beneficial uses of heroin in medicine. We like to talk a lot about quality of life in this country. It is past time we concentrated more realistically on how we can improve the quality of death.

Britain on top of heroin league (all of it comes from Afghanistan). Sunday Times, Feb 27, 2005

Opium trade booms in "basket case" Afghanistan. Independent, Jul 28, 2004
The opium harvest in Afghanistan this year will be one of the biggest on record, the Foreign Office said yesterday, and it has triggered a flood of heroin on Britain's streets. The revelation will prove highly embarrassing for Tony Blair, who cited cutting the supply of heroin as one of the main reasons for the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001...the consequences of the rise were already evident: cheaper, better quality heroin was arriving in Britain, luring thousands more youngsters into addiction than ever before..."The rise in cultivation and production of opium poppies in Afghanistan has horrendous portents for us in the UK bearing in mind the PM's statement that 90 per cent of heroin sold on British streets comes from Afghanistan".

Map of NATO led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) (has beefed up deployments: countries contributing more than 1,000 soldiers: US/UK/Germany/Canada/France/Italy/Netherlands/Poland/Australia)

Poppy crops eyed for Canada prairies, Canadian Press, Sep 28, 2009 (...Opium poppies could be a cash crop for farmers battered by record dry weather this year. "Significant domestic consumer demand and commercial opportunity for the agricultural sector exists relative to poppy production in Canada"...The government estimates farmers could earn $3,000 to $6,000 a hectare growing poppies, compared to about $800 for a hectare of wheat...)

Heroin poppy threatens Afghanistan (thriving under UN control). BBC, Mar 22, 2004. Go to 6.Super-States

UK may ban smoking in public (chief med advisor warns of 'passive smoking for children'). ThisIsLondon, Jul 3, 2003. Go to 22.Doublethink & 2.Big Brother & DRUG WAR & PEACE

3,000 troops to Afghanistan (to fight non-existent enemy). National Post, Jun 28, 2003. Go to 12.Ministry of Peace (War) & ARMY TO AFGHANISTAN & BOSNIA?

Afghanistan world's biggest heroin dealer (poppies springing up everywhere in midst of Western armies). Independent, Jun 22, 2003. Go to 35.The Brotherhood & 23.The Proles

IN AFGHAN FIELDS THE POPPIES GROW

DRUG WAR & PEACE

AFGHANISTAN REMEMBERED