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Who's Profiting From Afghan Opium Trade?

Localização: 
Afghanistan
Publication/Source: 
Al Jazeera
URL: 
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=12262

From the Maras to the Zetas

UPDATE: Check out Phil's book review of De los Maras a los Zetas here. Despite the daily toll of arrests and busts in the United States, America's drug war is waged largely in other countries. Mexico, for example, is likely to see more police killed in a bad weekend than the US will see in an entire year. And in Colombia, the drug war is now part of a messy civil war/war on drugs/war on terrorism with casualties—police, soldiers, guerrillas, paramilitaries, civilians—on a daily basis. But despite the occasional newspaper report, Americans hear very little about how our war on drugs is affecting producing and transit countries. I can't recall the last book published in English on the Mexican drug trade (hmmm…possible Soros grant opportunity here?). But just because it isn’t being written in English doesn’t mean it isn’t being covered. I'm now reading "De los Maras a los Zetas: Los secretos del narcotrafico, de Colombia a Chicago" ("From the Maras to the Zetas: The Secrets of the Drug Trade From Colombia to Chicago") by Mexico City journalists Jorge Fernandez Menendez and Victor Ronquillo. While I get the sense that Fernandez and Ronquillo are fairly mainstream in their approach—the book is in many ways similar to the "drug crime" genre in US publishing—the pair have compiled detailed information on the workings of the Mexican drug trade and opened up a panoramic view of the complex, complicated, and extremely bloody world of the underground economy. I think I will review the book this week, even though it is in Spanish, because the information it imparts is so critical to understanding the consequences of the American insistence on drug prohibition as the only approach to drug policy. Perhaps, if enough people here express interest, an American publisher will pick up this timely and important work. Until then, saber dos lenguajes es mejor que saber solamente uno. The book is published by Editorial Grijalbo, a highly respected Mexican press. When I called to inquire about getting a review copy, the folks at Grijalbo were so happy to get some interest from El Norte that they sent three other drug war-related titles in their catalog, including two by Mexico's most well-known narco-journalist, Jesus Blancornelas of Tijuana. I look forward to reading them. We invited Blancornelas to the 2003 Out From the Shadows conference in Merida, the first hemispheric anti-prohibitionist confab. Blancornelas, who had survived a 1997 assassination attempt at the hands of Arrellano Felix cartel gunmen, said he would come, but only if he could be accompanied by armed bodyguards. Merida is a long way from the violence of the US-Mexican border, and the vibe was entirely different. We didn’t want guns at our conference, so Blancornelas didn’t show.
Localização: 
United States

Spray Plan Sparks Fear (Afghanistan)

Localização: 
Afghanistan
Publication/Source: 
Edmonton Sun
URL: 
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/World/2006/10/02/1935624-sun.html

Southwest Asia: Leading Scholar Takes Senate Foreign Relations Committee to School on Afghan Drug Trade

https://stopthedrugwar.org/files/kabul2.jpg
war-torn Afghanistan (photo by Chronicle editor Phil Smith, 2005)
While Afghan President Hamid Karzai was in Washington this week for meetings with President Bush and other officials, and politicians of both parties were calling for increased anti-drug spending in Afghanistan to deal with that country's burgeoning opium crop, a little noticed Senate hearing last week provided a real crash course on a rational drug policy in Afghanistan. In a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on September 21, New York University Professor Barnett Rubin, perhaps the country's leading Afghanistan expert, provided a strong critique of the obsessive focus on crop eradication and even suggested policymakers consider regulating the opium trade. Rubin is most recently the author of Aghanistan: Uncertain Transition from Turmoil to Normalcy, published by the Council on Foreign Relations in March.

Rubin addressed the issue both in his prepared remarks and in a brief question and answer session at the end of the hearing. His remarks are worth quoting extensively. Here is what he said in his prepared remarks (available only to paid subscribers):

"On narcotics, I would like -- sometimes when people call for a stronger counternarcotics policy, which I fully endorse, they focus on crop eradication, as if crop eradication were the central point of counternarcotics. I would submit that that is an error.

"First, we have to be clear about what is the goal of our counternarcotics policy in Afghanistan. Where does the harm come from? We are not trying to -- or we should not be trying to -- solve the world's problem of drug addiction in Afghanistan. If we, with all our capacity, cannot stop drug addiction in the United States, we are certainly not going to use law enforcement successfully to eliminate half the economy of the poorest and best armed country in the world.

"Therefore, we must focus on the real harm which comes from drug money. Now, 80% of the drug money inside Afghanistan, regardless of the 90% of the total income from drugs which goes outside of Afghanistan -- 80% of the drug money inside of Afghanistan is in the hands of traffickers and warlords, not farmers. When we eradicate crops, the price of poppy goes up, and the traffickers who have stocks become richer. Therefore, we should be focusing on the warlords and traffickers, on interdiction and so on, while we are helping the poor farmers. That is also consistent with our political interests of winning the farmers over and isolating those that are against us.

"Furthermore, it is a mistake to consider the drug problem in Afghanistan as something that is isolated in the major poppy growing areas. For instance, now there is fighting in Helmand province, which is the major poppy producing area in the world. Because there is fighting going on, it is not possible to implement a counternarcotics strategy in Helmand. We need to implement rural development throughout Afghanistan, especially in the areas where there is no poppy, in order to show people what is possible and build an alternative economy."

And here is an exchange between Rubin and Sens. George Voinovich (R-OH) and Frank Lugar (R-IN):

VOINOVICH:

"Mr. Chairman, could I just ask one last thing? You alluded to the issue of the drug problem in the United States. And I got the impression that some of these drugs are coming into the US. Is that...

RUBIN:

Well, I perhaps should have said the developed world. I believe actually the bulk of the narcotics produced in Afghanistan are consumed in Iran and Pakistan.

VOINOVICH:

OK. So that's why the Iranians are so interested in making sure it stops.

RUBIN:

Yes.

VOINOVICH:

The reason I bring it up is I just had our local FBI director visit with me from Cincinnati, and he said, "Senator, the issue of terrorism is one that we're gravely concerned about." But he said the biggest issue that we've got here in the United States that we're not paying attention to is the drug problem, and that our resources are being, you know, kind of spread out. And we really have got to look at that. It's still there, and we need to deal with it. And we're not directing our attention to it. And I think you remember the other hearing we had a year or so ago, we had the folks in here and they were talking about how active the Russian mafia is in the United States and seemed to be doing about whatever they want to do, because we don't have the resources to deal with that problem. So from my perspective, you're saying the biggest market is in those countries you just mentioned...

RUBIN:

That's in physical quantity. The biggest market in money is in Europe and of course in the United States. If I may add, if you don't mind my mentioning something that I heard in the other house yesterday, Dr. Paul, a Republican from Texas, mentioned at the hearing yesterday that in his view we had failed to learn the lessons of prohibition, which, of course, provided the start-up capital for organized crime in the United States, and that, in effect, by turning drug use into a crime, we are funding organized crime and insurgency around the world. And it may be that we need to look at other methods of regulation and treatment.

VOINOVICH:

Thank you.

LUGAR:

Thank you, Senator Voinovich. It's a fascinating thought that you just imparted, that although the bulk of the drugs may be utilized by Iran and Pakistan, that the greatest value for those that are not imbibed by these countries comes from Europe and the United States. Why? Because the people surely don't receive it for free, but what is the distribution? Why are Pakistan and Iran so afflicted by drugs from...

RUBIN:

Well, they're closer. Basically, the cost of production is a negligible portion of the price of narcotics.

LUGAR:

So it's transportation...

RUBIN:

No, no. It's risk because it's illegal.

LUGAR:

I see.

RUBIN:

If it were not illegal, it would be worth hardly anything. It's only its illegality that makes it so valuable.

LUGAR:

Another fascinating topic. (LAUGHTER) Well, we thank you again for your help (inaudible). The hearing is adjourned."

Another fascinating topic, indeed. At least someone is trying to educate our elected officials about the economic and political consequences of drug prohibition -- in Afghanistan, anyway.

Taking a cue from marketing guru, peddlars now "package" drugs--Meant for foreign clients, these "packaged products" are smuggled outside India

Localização: 
India
Publication/Source: 
Mumbai Newsline/Expressindia
URL: 
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=202890

Guatemalan troops storm prison with jacuzzi, drugs

Localização: 
Guatemala
Publication/Source: 
Reuters
URL: 
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2029896.cms

ENCOD Press Release on Transparency in Setting European Drug Policy

A TESTCASE FOR TRANSPARENCY CITIZENS' PLATFORM CALLS FOR OPEN DIALOGUE ON DRUGS 26 September 2006 The European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies, ENCOD, today presented its comments to the Green Paper issued by the European Commission in June this year, dealing with the role of civil society in the design of drug policy in the EU. According to ENCOD, the process of involving civil society in European drug policy can become a testcase for transparency in the European Union. " Drugs and drug problems are among the issues that concern EU citizens most. But authorities do everything to avoid an open debate on what kind of policies we need to face these problems. They do not wish to be challenged on their traditional way of thinking drugs ", says ENCOD, a coalition of 150 citizen associations from 24 European countries. EU governments started to work out the concept of a common drug policy in 1990. Several Strategies and Action Plans on Drugs have been adopted since. "But always far from the attention of citizens and even parliaments", says ENCOD. "The current Action Plan on Drugs, that was approved in June 2005, ignores completely the outcome of the evaluations of earlier strategies as well as the recommendations of the European Parliament that were pointing in the direction of a fundamental change in drug policies. EU Governments continue with policies that everybody knows do not work, " says ENCOD in its comments. In the Green Paper, the European Commission has presented several options for installing a dialogue with civil society on drugs. The initiative seems to be motivated by the current tendency inside the European Commission to increase the role of citizens in decision-making processes. However, according to ENCODs coordinator Joep Oomen, it remains the question if the Commission understands what dialogue with citizens is all about. "Involving civil society in a dialogue on drug policy can only be successful if it takes place in an open and transparent setting. This is not the case with the proposals in the Green paper on drug policy. Take for example the fact that the Commission reserves the right to select the people who are allowed to the dialogue. As a justification for this position, the Commission invokes the fear that the forum could become a platform for ideological debates. Apart from the fact that this is an easy excuse to ensure the control of the "dialogue" remains in Brussels, it also shows that the Commission still does not understand that in a sincere dialogue, debates are necessary. If all participants speak on the basis of evidence, these debates can easily be managed ." Therefore, the only way to ensure a transparent dialogue, says ENCOD, is to avoid the exlusion of any possible stakeholder in the process and to ensure that the organisations who are invited to the dialogue are accessible to any EU citizen. Of the 16 European civil society networks that exist today, only 2 are made up of associations that are open to all citizens. The others consist of organisations of professional health experts or researchers working in the field of prevention, treatment and information, the large majority of them subsidized by the state. For the Green Pepper see www.encod.org/GPENCOD.pdf For the Green paper see http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2006/com2006_0316en01.pdf For more information, please contact ENCOD at EUROPEAN COALITION FOR JUST AND EFFECTIVE DRUG POLICIES (ENCOD) Lange Lozanastraat 14 2018 Antwerpen Belgium Tel. 00 32 (0)3 237 7436 (Joep Oomen) Mobile: + 33 6 148 156 79 (Farid Ghehioueche) Fax. 00 32 (0)3 237 0225 E-mail:[email protected] Website: www.encod.org A PLACE TO OVERGROW CANNABIS PROHIBITION: http://www.cannabis-clubs.eu
Localização: 
Brussels
Belgium

Medical marijuana takes hit as Tories announce $1 billion in cuts

Localização: 
Ottawa, ON
Canada
Publication/Source: 
Canada Press
URL: 
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=0e5d5cf9-9394-44b4-9bf1-30a8fb183d06&k=33491

Hilarious Video: The Hazards of Covering the Drug Beat

Now, I don't know if this is real or not, but it is quite amusing. The video clip shows a British journalist attempting to file his report from the scene of a massive drug burn. He has some problems. This has been floating around for awhile, but I think it's worth posting here. Enjoy. WARNING: This link goes to a web site that features naked or semi-naked people. If you are offended (or easily distracted) by such images, you might not want to go there. Sorry about that; it was the only link I could find. NOTE: When I go to the link, the page appears blank at first even though you hear the sound. Wait a few seconds for the page to load completely, then scroll down a bit to get to the video screen.
Localização: 
Colombia

Barnett Rubin Lectures the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Afghan Opium

On Thursday, I crossed back into the US from British Columbia and spent the day listening to all the back and forth over Chavez's "devil" comments as I drove across Washington, Idaho, and Montana. About 4am, I checked into a motel in Broadus, Montana—which is about 150 miles from nowhere in any direction—flipped on the tube, and lo and behold, there was Afghanistan scholar Barnett Rubin giving the Senate Foreign Relations Committee a tutorial on the complications of US Afghan policy. What really caught my attention was Rubin's closing remarks. Unfortunately, the C-Span video link to Rubin's remarks isn't working as I type these words (but perhaps is by the time you are reading them; give it a try), but the good professor basically lectured the committee on the foolishness of attempting to wipe out the opium crop. Addressing the senators as if they were a group of callow undergrads at a seminar, Rubin explained that the only way to deal with the opium problem was to regulate and control it. That caused Sen. Frank Lugar (R-IN) to stir himself from his lizard-like torpor long enough to mutter something to the effect that "this is a big issue for another day." Here is what Rubin had to say in his prepared remarks:
"The international drug control regime, which criminalizes narcotics, does not reduce drug use, but it does produce huge profits for criminals and the armed groups and corrupt officials who protect them. Our drug policy grants huge subsidies to our enemies. As long as we maintain our ideological commitment to a policy that funds our enemies, however, the second-best option in Afghanistan is to treat narcotics as a security and development issue. The total export value of opiates produced in Afghanistan has ranged in recent years from 30 to 50 percent of the legal economy. Such an industry cannot be abolished by law enforcement. The immediate priorities are massive rural development in both poppy-growing and non-poppy-growing areas, including roads and cold storage to make other products marketable; programs for employment creation through rural industries; and thoroughgoing reform of the ministry of the interior and other government agencies to root out the major figures involved with narcotics, regardless of political or family connections. "News of this year’s record crop is likely to increase pressure from the US Congress for eradication, including aerial spraying. Such a program would be disastrously self-defeating. If we want to succeed in Afghanistan, we have to help the rural poor (which is almost everyone) and isolate the leading traffickers and the corrupt officials who support them."
What he actually said at the end of his testimony was even stronger. Check it out if that damned C-Span link ever actually works.
Localização: 
Washington, DC
United States

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