Opium Brides of Afghanistan

Here is an old story. I actually found it in June before my blogging hiatus. Opium Brides of Afghanistan tells about the hard times that have befallen poppy growers in Afghanistan. Since the government/military crackdown on drug trafficking, these poor souls have had to sell their daughters to pay their debts to drug lords! As appalling as that fact is in and of itself, what I found more disturbing was the tone of the article which was way too dismissive of the practice and almost tries to justify farmers growing poppies as a way of life. Must be the liberal drug culture pushing it's agenda. I mean I personally believe that growing poppies for drugs is despicable. And having to sell your daughter because some drug lord fronted you the money for your cash crop and the government came and burned your plants; well that is beyond disgusting.

The reporter tries to garner sympathy for the father but a man who would sell his daughter is no father. People who default to drug traffickers often wind up dead. And yet that has not stemmed the tide of farmers after the easy money, little though it is.

An estimated 500,000 Afghan families support themselves by raising poppies, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. Last year those growers received an estimated $1 billion for their crops—about $2,000 per household.

The man in the article is selling his 9 year old daughter to a 45 year old man because he owed $2000. Oh he tried to flee but was caught and forced by tribal elders to give his little girl away.

The article goes on to say that promoting the farming of other goods has failed.

Wheat or corn brings $250 an acre at best, while poppy growers can expect 10 times that much. Besides, poppies are more dependable: hardier than either wheat or corn and more tolerant of drought and extreme heat and cold. And in a country with practically no government-funded credit for small farmers, opium growers can easily get advances on their crops.

So what we have here is a situation where a man trying to make $2000 growing poppies has his crops destroyed and is forced to turn over his 9 year old baby girl to some lecherous 45 year old drug lord and it is all legitimized by Islamic law. My sympathy lies only with the little girl who will have her life destroyed because her father didn't think raising wheat would support his ten kids but facilitating the making of opium and heroin to ruin other lives would.

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San Francisco Considers Allowing You to Shoot Up Dope Without Consquences

Well the liberal agenda marches on. In an effort to mimic other "progressive nations, San Francisco considers opening up an injection room. The Associated Press has this story:

Hoping to reduce San Francisco's high rate of fatal drug overdoses, the public health department co-sponsored a symposium on the only such facility in North America, a four-year-old Vancouver site where an estimated 700 intravenous users a day self-administer narcotics under the supervision of nurses

700 dopers a day go to a public funded medical facility and shoot up dope. That just oozes compassion to me. Let's not get these people to see that they have a problem they need to kick, let's help them not overdose so they can stay addicted. Fortunately there were some raised eyebrows.

Bertha Madras, deputy director of demand reduction for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, called San Francisco's consideration of such a facility "disconcerting" and "poor public policy."

"The underlying philosophy is, 'We accept drug addiction, we accept the state of affairs as acceptable,'" Madras said. "This is a form of giving up."

Poor public policy indeed. The mayor's approval is necessary for any plan of this nature to go forward. The advocates of this lunacy plan to work on him because currently he is not too keen on the idea.

The mayor's spokesman, Nathan Ballard, said Thursday that although he does not want to discourage debate, he "is not inclined to support this program because, quite frankly, it may create more problems than it supposedly addresses."

But agian the liberals look to others as an example. The Vancouver room is described:

The site, exempt from federal drug laws so users can visit without fear of arrest, has 12 private booths where addicts inject drugs such as heroin, cocaine or crystal. They can use equipment and techniques provided by the staff, and then relax with a cup of coffee or get medical attention in the "chill out" room where they are observed, said program coordinator Sarah Evans.

"It looks kind of like a hair salon," Evans said of the bustling space. "If we were a restaurant, we would be making a profit."

Yeah except restaurants don't tell you to bring your own food so they can make sure you don't croak after eating. That and the typical restaurant goer isn't likely to rob your house or mug you for cash for their next fix of food.

While 800 overdoses have occurred on the premises, none resulted in death because of the medical supervision provided at InSite, said Thomas Kerr, a University of British Columbia researcher who has extensively studied the program. His research also has shown an increase in addicts seeking drug treatment and a decrease in abandoned syringes, needle-sharing, drug-related crime and other problems since the clinic opened, he said.

Sounds very counter-intuitive. How do they attribute all of this to the opening of one drug room? Death by overdose is currently on the decline in San Francisco so if the trend continues after they open a drug room will they claim it was because of it? I am always leery of the findings of researchers with such a vested interest. It isn't likely that they would find that opening a drug room has a negative impact when their name is tied to the success.

I really can't get behind a program like this. It promotes all the wrong things and condones drug use. I don't care how many addicts survive their overdoses because of it. Maybe that very fact would encourage them to take larger doses. The State would be right there in case they get into trouble. The whole point of this is not to save junkies. it is to move us closer to legalized drug use in America. There is only one drug room in North America. The other sixty-four are in Europe. Why do the liberals insist on dragging America in the direction of countries we fought to get away from?