Pubdate: Sun, 23 Mar 2008
Source: Times-Standard (Eureka, CA)
Copyright: 2008 MediaNews Group, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.times-standard.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1051
Author: Robert W. Barker
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

HEROIN IN HUMBOLDT: THE POLICY THAT MAKES IT AVAILABLE

It struck my attention as soon as I saw the headlines  in the Eureka 
Times-Standard reading: "Drug task force  seizes $120K worth of heroin" 
(March 15). The headlines  were my worst fears coming true, for it is the 
proof of  what the global media has been screaming for a while:  Heroin is 
on the way back, and now it is here in our  county.

One quickly realized it is the Bush policy in  Afghanistan coming home to 
roost, right here in  Humboldt County. Not only did we miss our chance to 
get  Bin Laden and stop al-Qaida at its roots. We turned loose another 
monster on the globe -- heroin.

Heroin, like morphine, is a derivative of the opium  contained in poppies, 
and most of the world's poppy  crop originates from northern Afghanistan.

When the U.S. ventured into Afghanistan, it was not the  capital of poppy 
production it once was. The Taliban  had eradicated most of it, and 
controlled the rest for  their personal profits.

No, they are not the philanthropic types. They are  control freaks, and 
they wanted to have power over the  poppy production, limiting it to their 
friends who paid  them in advance. Yet they did (inadvertently, 
perhaps)  curtail the majority of massive poppy-growing that  Afghanistan 
is famous for, and as a result the heroin  trade suffered.

Now, six years later, the U.N. announces the largest  poppy crop in the 
history of Afghanistan is harvested,  and the heroin that is the resulting 
product is growing  cheaper and gaining popularity on a global scale.

Our failure to see the Afghanistan struggle through,  and the diversion to 
Iraq, has had more consequences  than one can easily discern, and the drug 
trade is one  of those resulting phantom problems sneaking up on  America.

The production of heroin and the ensuing addictions  leave society paying 
for our neglect. This scourge of  civilization called heroin is highly 
addictive, and  drains the moral and character of its users.

Meth has penetrated our county and left its scars, and  as heroin becomes 
cheaper it will add to the woes of an  already overtaxed social system. 
More arrests,  interventions, more deaths and medical problems, 
and  additional misery thanks to Mr. Bush's poor policy and total incompetence.

U.N. studies inform us that Afghanistan production  levels of opium has 
risen for the second straight year  (2007) in record proportions, a 
staggering 45 percent  more compared to the previous year. The 
Taliban  strongholds of Helmand Province are pushing hard to  make money 
for the destitute Taliban.

The U.N. report further told us that a $600 million  counter-narcotic 
program has essentially failed from  corruption and incompetence, and 
American taxpayers pay  for both failures.

"I think it is safe to say that we should be looking  for a new strategy," 
said William B. Wood, the American  ambassador to Afghanistan, commenting 
on the report's  overall findings.

So do we, Mr. Wood, and now it is showing up in large  quantities in this 
rural American county.

Yes, heroin has been here before, but statistics prove  that as the poppies 
increase, so grows addictions, and  heroin is a tough drug to eradicate on 
the streets of  Humboldt County. Sadly it could have been or could 
be  stopped at the source, in the land of the Afghans, if only we were not 
in Iraq.

Perhaps we should send the cost for this problem to the  neocons in D.C. 
and tell them to pay the bill for the  problem they helped to create and we 
have already paid  for.

Robert W. Barker is a resident of Eureka.
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