Report: Taliban trying to turn US troops into heroin addicts

hum....

Markets for Opium
When the US invaded Afghanistan, the head of my ER, an Air Force brat who then used the military to become a doctor, announced that we were switching from Demerol to Morphine as our main pain killer.

This was a big switch. We give morphine all day and all night long, so it adds up.

I was always suspicious of that guy anyway. He was a right wing Christian, homeschooling, gun hoarding type, with, as I said, ties to the military.

I thought it was just us, but I've heard that the switch was nation-wide. I find that very suspicious. The US invades a poppy growing country, and suddenly only morphine is suitable to relieve pain.

But lately, we've been giving a lot of Dilaudid. On a hunch, I looked it up, and sure enough, Dilaudid is a morphine derivative, but six times stronger.

Are the CIA sharecroppers growing too many poppies for the ordinary markets to absorb?

By the way, I went to a forum sometime about 2003 where the local district attorney was speaking, and he mentioned that for some reason, they were arresting way more heroin users than before. Well, duh!

Posted by wagelaborer at 11:37 PM
http://wagelaborer.blogspot.com/2009/10/markets-for-opium.html

FINALLY!!! Someone who is willing to step out and state the truth in a balanced and forthright manner. Thank you, GoodGodGuy. Your assessment matches exactly the one I had gathered from the many conversations I have had with dozens of childhood friends who served (a few are STILL in the service 30 years later).

I grew up in a neighborhood where poverty and crime were the neighbors we knew best. I had a couple dozen friends within a two or three mile radius of my ramshackle home. I and one other were the only two who went on to college (and the other did not decide to do so until the world had beaten the crap out of him at minimum wage for about five years after high school).

Almost without exception the rest went into the military -- most because they were busted on possession charges and decided that on balance, a commitment to the military was WAY preferable to 6 months in the pokey. At the time, their attitude was, "How bad could it be, anyway?" Hee Hee.

Actually, that "hee hee" is a LITTLE facetious. Whether they thought so at the time or not, the military was the best thing that could have happened to most of them. Don't get me wrong -- I loved those guys like brothers. They were my best friends during that heavily landmined stretch of life between ages 12 and 17.

But they were fuck-ups. Their idea of an "accomplishment" was seeing if they could hit the lowest possible grade point average that would still allow them to pass on to the next grade. They thought I was out of my ever loving mind for doing my two hours of homework before dinner each night. They felt the same way about the fact that I worked four nights a week as a waiter until the whole paycheck = beer equation became clearer to them mid-way through high school.

I remember our only serious flashpoint was when I wouldn't speak with any of them or hang around with them for about six weeks when a group of them decided it would be "fun" to wander through our neighborhood and a couple of others, snapping the radio antennae off cars parked on the street.

Some of them adapted to the military way with comparative ease. For others, submitting to outside discipline was a nightmare. And for a couple, after growing up in white bread Montana, where being CATHOLIC was considered exotic, the combination of racial and ethnic diversity and my friends' inability to push the words coming out of their heads through a filter of common sense before those words tumbled out of their mouths led to a lot of blood and bitterness.

I respected their service. I admired their bravery. I was pleased, almost without exception, at the men (and two women) into which they had matured when they were discharged. But they were stoners going in, and they were stoners coming out. Going in, they were EXTREMELY poorly educated (I doubt they had read three complete books among the dozen of them by the time they entered) and undisciplined. Coming out, they were far more disciplined and while none of them is ever going to win a prize for intellectual achievement, most had at least developed a marketable skill or two. One has since had a pretty successful career as an airline mechanic, for example.

Just because they bear almost no resemblence to the eager, obviously intelligent, beautiful, shiny-eyed go-getters on the television commercials does not make their sacrifice any less noble or their bravery any less impressive. But it strains credibility to hear people describe them as though they were an army of fighting saints. No doubt there ARE two or three who are good from top to bottom. Such rare gems show up in every walk of life, after all. But there were very good reasons why so many of these people ended up in such dangerous, low-paying jobs at the same time our country's private sector was in the midst of an economic boom with some of the lowest unemployment rates in history.

My experience in southeast Asia was that less than half of the guys in my company used heroin or opium and 3/4 grass.
Believe me these guys are kids 19 - 23 and are very into having a good time. Don't kid yourself into thinking they are just good christian boys. Some are, others are in the army because they didn't want jail time. The all volunteer army is not the best one we can field. Without the draft, you won't have the educated and resourceful young people you would otherwise.
Sorry, not to diss their bravery. They are all valiant soldiers and I am proud to have been one of them.

Only if you wanna be , only if you wanna be !

ordinary people are addicted to pills (heroin) a lot today

Really, you mean they want those troops the hell out of their country? How is this news? Total no brain-er.

For the record, opiates in particular have been used in just about every war since??? Although they've been more noted as a "performance enhancer", than something to directly kill your enemies with. (You can decrease the weight a troop has to carry by replacing food (just for a meal or two daily) with an opiate..... IT worked. all kinds of other benefits too)

It's messed up, if these guys could regulate their behavior, they could use it to their advantage. But no, spoiled Americans gonna OD and die.....

Afghanistan has a monopoly on illegal opium production that has devastating global consequences, a UN report says.
UN findings say an opium market worth $65bn (£39bn) funds global terrorism, caters to 15 million addicts, and kills 100,000 people every year.
The UN says corruption, lawlessness and uncontrolled borders result in only 2% of Afghan opiates being seized locally.
The UN says more Russians die annually from Afghan drugs than Soviet soldiers were killed during its Afghan conflict.
Afghanistan produces 92% of the world's opium, with the equivalent of 3,500 tonnes leaving the country each year.
Most of the opium that leaves Afghanistan makes its way through Pakistan, Central Asia and Iran, leaving a trail of addiction, criminality and death in its wake, according to the report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
It says more people die globally from Afghan opium than any other drug but just a tiny percentage of what is produced is seized on route.
Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UNODC, said Afghanistan's opium production could create a "perfect storm" in the region.
"The Afghanistan/Pakistan border region has turned into the world's largest free-trade zone in anything and everything that is illicit - drugs of course, but also weapons, bomb-making equipment, chemical precursors, drug money, even people and migrants," he said.
"We have identified the global consequences of the Afghan opium trade.
"Some are devastating but expected; others seem surprising, yet they are very real.
He also had some difficult words for those nations currently involved in Afghanistan: "I urge the friends of Afghanistan to recognise that, to a large extent, these uncomfortable truths may be the result of benign neglect."

It happened in during the vietnam war and they tried to cover it up so the public would believe them[the government] until it became widespread,before drugs in huge amounts were brought back to the US in duffel bags,and before huge amounts of junkies came home! with good quality heroin it doesn't take much to become addicted,and once addicted fear takes over and they keep using! get your enemy addicted and they become unreliable,they make mistakes,which cost lives! since the major crop is poppies its easy to put this strategy into play! am willing to bet heroin addiction is a bigger problem there then our government is willing to admit,you can also assume that since drug use is more accepted by the generation serving there,and many of them joined the military because they are not able to find jobs,and many come from poor urban areas where heroin use is common,its not hard to realize that with the stress of being in a war zone,that you'd seek release anyway you can! I'll say again that every poppie field should be napalmed and to hell with what the afgans think about it! test all service personell and offer those found to be users treatment! lastly lets get the hell out of there and let them kill each other!

I'm in the military. Of course some soldiers look to get into this kind of stuff. Some means very few.

Stories like this make for great stories so they get blown way out of control.

Soldiers are not bored in Afghanistan looking to get high. For the most part they are way too busy.

But yeah, why wouldn't the Taliban hope to addict all the soldiers. But trust me they are not counting on it.

Best inducement to joining the Army I've seen.
Come to exotic foreign lands and get wasted, (in the somewhat less lethal sense..)

I am not surprised. Often, the Military reflects society. We have a drug problem in the United States and as expected we have a problem in the Military.

I certainly hope the Military is taking aggressive measure to provide service members with the proper treatment and evacuate them back state-side for further treatments

http://www.worldphoto360.com

Well, hold on here a second... let me get this straight:

The Taliban, being an islamic radical group, are against opium production and use, who also tried to end the opium business.

Yet the Americans, by giving money and equipment away to fuel their own drug habits - to cope with the war - are funding the Taliban's arsenal in the Afghani-Pak conflict.

I don't want to paint a bad picture of the troops (of any nation fighting the Taliban), but it sounds like they're (unintentionally) supporting their enemies to help themselves deal with the horrors of war.

I'm afraid of whether Canadian soldiers are getting into the same habit as well.

Perhaps if we didn't give them all the tools necessary to start the production of opium cultivation then this wouldn't be an issue there.

But we need to remember that the CIA were the ones that showed them how to hook soldiers onto drugs as a weapon in the first place for the 'Cold war'.

Interestingly enough, under Taliban moral code, growing (not just the use of) Opium is thought to be against the Islamic faith.

Another interesting note would be that since the Taliban have been "removed" production has jumped up again in Afghanistan...

"Taliban trying to turn US troops into heroin addicts" - KEEP TRYING, TALIBAN!

U.S. soldiers are Good Christians, God Warriors, Freedom Fighters!!! They'll never, never get into drugs!

since the invasion heroin production has increased 90%

did he just say the taliban and al-queda? sorry, not related

Warfare, imho if we are not prepared to completely defeat (by whatever means) any who we are in armed conflict with, than .... why?

Hello? Vietnam.

This is no surprise! The vietnamese did it to our troops in vietnam! while the taliban may be religious fanatics they aren't stupid and are simply following in the footsteps of our former enemies.Get you enemy drug addicted and they become unrealible in the field.we should demand that every poppie field in this crappy county be distroyed! Hell we should get the hell out of there and spend the money it costs on our own people!

LOL indeed ;)

“It’s here that the American dream decided it liked the taste of the vomit it was chocking on. Just rolled over on its back and screamed for more drugs. it didn't die.“ - Warren Ellis

What a group of supermen this band of terrorists are? Like Americans need help with abusing drugs. If there were no money being by our Government on illegal drugs they would not be here in such abundance. After all, we got the drug companies pushing their drugs and you don't go to jail for them. Heroin and all illegal drugs should be put on the market, the use would drop. they would be more expensive, no insurance no drugs.

Covered over on the News blog with excerpts from the original Daily Beast article.

Anyone here in the military? Think this is happening or a trumped up story?

pis test our troops more and send them home for rehab if they are dirty.

this war is really just another 'Nam, bring the troops home already.

When you turn a person into a certified "killing machine" those lives that you take haunts you forever.Drugs are a convenient way to escape the horrors of war.

Yes, scag, hard to resist when it comes at a buck a pop.
Needles included. Troops needing release will seek out what gives them that release. There is plenty of grass there too.

It worked before..

Drugs have been used as a weapon for centuries. It has always been a way to seek control. One of the items on the communist manifest is to infiltrate college students, which they used beginning back in the late 50's into today.
Think I'm paranoid. Check it out!!
My brothers, sisters and I thought my grandmother was when she showed the info to us back in the late 60's early 70's....
They planned on getting drugs into that group so it would eventually become normal and the students would be open and pliable. Gee, I think it worked....

Prescott begot Ben Ladin begot the Base begot Taliban

we have been paying for this war since the '20s there is no way we can win/loser it

its scary that the taliban is getting its funding from the very people its fighting

Heroin Addiction in Vietnam
http://www.mooveon.net/en/article_6125260596660

Anybody want to know how many heroin addict's came home from Vietnam?

Heroin is cheaper than a six pack right HERE yes we got oxy a patriotic sintetic but they are cheaper that's the capitalst way no

You mean...some of our troops take drugs? I thought that sort of thing was confined to the Joint Chiefs...