MIR ALI, Afghanistan - On the barren high plains of western Afghanistan, along a roadway south of Herat city, is a collection of sturdy earthen huts known as Qala-e-Biwaha, or "village of widows." Most of the village's men have disappeared - killed while trying to smuggle opium across the desolate frontier into neighboring Iran. The widows have been left to fend for themselves and their children, some of whom have also died while transporting drugs over the border from Herat Province's rugged Adraskan district. [continues 1187 words]
John Huffman, the Organic Chemist WHO Put Together Cannabinoids to Study Brain Receptors, Is Taking Heat As Compounds Find Their Way into Dangerous "Herbal" Concoctions. John W. Huffman is a bearded, elfin man, a professor of organic chemistry who runs model trains in his basement and tinkers with antique cars. At 79, he walks a bit unsteadily after a couple of nasty falls. Relaxing on his back porch in the Nantahala National Forest, watching hummingbirds flit across his rose beds, Huffman looks every bit the wise, venerable academic in repose. [continues 1021 words]
Growers Resisting Order to Destroy ARABAN, Afghanistan -- A bountiful spring harvest has come to Nangarhar province. A gorgeous carpet of pink and violet flowers has sprung from the red earth, stretching for miles past fields of young green wheat and white-topped onions. These are opium poppies, the first crop since the Taliban outlawed opium growing in July 2000, reducing the crop by 96 percent. This is also the first poppy crop since the interim Afghan government was installed in December, and it has precipitated a crisis in Nangarhar. [continues 536 words]
Afghanistan: Growers Vow To Fight Ban. 'Yes, We Know It's Poison, But We Have To Feed Our Families.' ARABAN, Afghanistan -- A bountiful spring harvest has come to Nangarhar province. A gorgeous carpet of pink and violet flowers has sprung from the red earth, stretching for miles past fields of young green wheat and white-topped onions. These are opium poppies, the first crop since the Taliban outlawed opium growing in July 2000, reducing the crop by a stunning 96%. This is also the first poppy crop since the interim Afghan government was installed in December, and it has precipitated a crisis in Nangarhar. [continues 1496 words]
In the first hours of his last day of temporary duty in Colombia, DEA Special Agent Charlie Martinez was shot straight through the chest. The bullet tore a hole just above Charlie's right nipple and ripped an exit wound the size of a quarter through the top of his right shoulder. The man who shot him was Rene Benitez, a wiry little Cuban American wanted in Florida for cocaine trafficking. Benitez had already shot Charlie in the hip. Now he aimed his .380 automatic at the center of Charlie's forehead and squeezed the trigger. [continues 4653 words]
