Rise of Heroin and the Politics of Politics
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/24/health/he ... index.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/us/o ... .html?_r=0http://drugfree.org/learn/drug-and-alco ... 017-study/I have noticed a pattern in the news over the past year. Heroine use and deaths are on the rise in the US. It is a problem hitting the US, but not elsewhere.
I am not a conspiracy theorists, but I often wonder if some of these type problems are not more preventable. I often think that dirty politics have way more to do with some of these issues than we realize.
In 2010 I was on one of my Afghanistan deployments, and was an advisor for a brigade commander of the Afghani Elite National Police (ANCOP). The commander and I got summoned to a higher level planning meeting down in Helmand Province. There were some higher ranking US officers, general level Afghani officers, and Afghani government officials. The reason for the meeting was to discuss how the government could secure migrant workers heading into Helmand to harvest the opium crop without having any influx of terrorism or violence increase during the harvest season.
During the meeting when they were discussing various policing strategies, I stood up and asked a question. We knew the Taliban was financed by the opium trade, and we also knew that heroin use was on the rise in the US. I asked why we did not just block off the area, not allow the opium to be harvested, and to just let the opium poppies rot in the fields. I figured it killed multiple birds with one stone, as it would defund the Taliban, put a major dent in the world's supply of opium, and would prevent an influx of outsiders from heading into Helmand.
I was quickly escorted outside that meeting by a Marine full bird Colonel (I was a Major at the time). He very firmly let me know that such statements were not to be made again, and that question about destroying the opium fields were not permitted. Discussion or questions from me were not entertained by the Colonel, and I went about my business of advising.
I have never forgot that incident.
While I understand that destroying those fields is somewhat like playing Whack-a-mole, because some other part of the world will pick up the slack and produce what you just destroyed. I still believe putting a dent in the opium market would have been a good thing.
I often wonder if there are not logical and useful ways that the drug trade in America could not be crushed. I am not so much talking about marijuana, but more the opiates, meth, heroine, Cocaine.. We know where it comes from, we know it comes across the Mexican border, we know what gangs distribute it, yet the problem seems to grow, not get better.
Perhaps if the War on Drugs was replaced with a war on drug dealers, we would make more progress.
Just my thoughts and ramblings on the subject.