Afghanistan poppy crop a record

Mistrust those in whom the impulse to punish is strong. -Friedrich Nietzsche

The appended AP story says the Afghanistan poppy harvest will be another record harvest. The report to tell this is 995 pages long! That created some work for the government employee problem solvers. The demand for poppy makes the price go up and more money goes to the hands of the insurgents.

The U. S. Government tries to reduce the use of drugs they say are illegal, and increase the use of drugs they say are legal, i.e. drugs approved by the U. S. Government. The government employees in the government schools prescribe drugs for millions of active boys just to make life easier for the government employees. Problem solved, for a commission from the producer.

The "State" creates problems so they can offer a solution. This is the same way the Mafia operates. A business owner may not have a problem until the Mafia tells the owner she needs protection. The owner will pay. The "State" attempts to solve the problem, for a commission. The more problems the State can create the more money the State can collect in commissions. The Mafia and the State simply take a cut from the producers. The Mafia and the State produce nothing.

The State has grown in size on its commissions from the drug war. The State employees continue to extract money from the producers of both legal and illegal drugs. What was not a problem, the Mafia State turned into a major problem that the State says only it can solve.

The doctors used to practice medicine without attending medical school or having a license. The doctors got together, later with medical schools, and told the government employees that people were dying by the hands of untrained doctors. The government employees agreed that a problem existed and they would solve the problem, for a commission from the doctors and medical schools. The government employees gained employment and power. The doctors' monopoly reduced competition and increased their pay. The consumers lost.

Bilbo Baggins

Afghanistan poppy cultivation skyrocketsBy MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press WriterAfghanistan will produce another record poppy harvest this year thatcements its status as the world's near-sole supplier of the heroinsource, yet a furious debate over how to reverse the trend is stallingproposals to cut the crop, U.S. officials say.

As President Bush prepares for weekend talks with Afghan PresidentHamid Karzai, divisions within the U.S. administration and among NATO allies have delayed release of a $475 million counternarcotics program for Afghanistan, where intelligence officials see growing links between drugs and the Taliban, the officials said.U.N. figures to be released in September are expected to show thatAfghanistan's poppy production has risen up to 15 percent since 2006 and that the country now accounts for 95 percent of the world's crop,3 percentage points more than last year, officials familiar with preliminary statistics told The Associated Press.

But counterdrug proposals by some U.S. officials have met fierce resistance, including boosting the amount of forcible poppy field destruction in provinces that grow the most, officials said. The approach also would link millions of dollars in development aid to benchmarks on eradication; arrests and prosecutions of narcotraders,corrupt officials; and on alternative crop production.

Those ideas represent what proponents call an "enhancedcarrot-and-stick approach" to supplement existing anti-drug efforts.They are the focus of the new $475 million program outlined in a 995-page report, the release of which has been postponed twice and maybe again delayed due to disagreements, officials said.The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because parts of thereport remain classified.

Counternarcotics agents at the State Department had wanted to releasea 123-page summary of the strategy last month and then again lastweek, but were forced to hold off because of concerns it may not befeasible, the officials said.

White House Office of National Drug Control Policy:http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/

State Department Bureau of International Narcotics and Law EnforcementAffairs: http://www.state.gov/p/inl/

Audio link to comments on new strategy by acting Assistant Secretaryof State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement ThomasSchweich at the Center for Strategic and International Studies:http://www.csis.org/component/option