The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), which annually loses some 3% of its 5,000 agents to attrition, has a two-year hiring freeze because of budget cuts to U.S. programs. DEA bean counters say they would need an additional $12 million to maintain current agent levels. The DEA's overseas funding has increased, but overall, DEA chief financial officer Frank Kalder admits, "there will be less drug enforcement going on. There's no getting around that."
Ironically, the same foreign policies that have necessitated DEA cutbacks have also caused this:
The White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy estimates that opium production in Afghanistan, which not only provides 90% of the heroin consumed globally but also funds Taliban activities, rose 61% last year over 2005. Some 670 tons of heroin are expected to flood the market, and that should slash the street price of a kilo of Southwest Asian heroin, now about $90,000 in Los Angeles.
Roll up your sleeves, folks. It's about to get crazy up in here.
Seriously though, faithful readers, please stay away from the Afghani heroin. We're primarily a web-based organization and I've heard that stuff can make you sell your computer. We need you to respond to our action alerts, write LTE's, and hopefully donate when you can.
Instead of getting jacked up on junk from Jalalabad, let's celebrate the DEA's hiring freeze by sending them job applications [9].
Location:
United States
See map: Google Maps [10]