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Eradication

marijuana fields just before they are burned (image via wikimedia.org)
marijuana fields just before they are burned (image via wikimedia.org)

Lebanese Police Destroying Marijuana Fields Attacked

The Lebanese police's annual marijuana eradication campaign in the Bekaa Valley got off with a bang Monday, as police were attacked at least twice.
hostagenation.jpg
hostagenation.jpg

Chronicle Book Review: Hostage Nation

We review a book on Colombia and US drug policy seen through a lens focused on American contractors and Colombian politicians kidnapped by the FARC.

How Afghan Poppy Eradication Efforts Are Helping the World's Largest Heroin Dealers

It has long been known inside Afghanistan that heroin dealers in high positions benefit from the United States and Afghan governments' counternarcotics policies. Now the American public can get a glimpse. US embassy cables published recently by WikiLeaks expose the insider opinion that Afghan officials are using poppy eradication teams to weed out the competitors of major traffickers with whom they are linked.

Ex World Leaders, Branson Launch Anti-Prohibitionist Drug Campaign

"There is a growing perception that the 'war on drugs' approach has failed," the Global Commission on Drug Policies said in a statement, as it began an inaugural two day meeting in Geneva. "Eradication of production and criminalization of consumption did not reduce drug traffic and drug use," the commission said. It concluded that the harm from corruption and violence resulting from prohibition "largely exceeds the harm caused by drugs."

For Mexican Drug Traffickers, Marijuana Is Still Gold

Times are good for marijuana growers of Mexico's western Sierra Madre mountains -- the army eradication squads that once hacked at the illicit marijuana fields have been diverted by the drug war raging elsewhere in Mexico. To the delight of traffickers, marijuana cultivation soared 35 percent last year and is now higher than at any time in nearly two decades.