An article that appeared in the Metro newspapers Vancouver edition claimed that tests done on military vehicles(2)showed traces of narcotics and that the military was going to experience drug trafficking problems amongst it's rank and file.Never mind the Canadian troops are active in Kandahar province as well as Helmand and any vehicle that didn't show traces of narcotics would be more suspect as they are constantly running through fields that either contain or have contained poppy crops.This is typical of all western military thinking in that it's easier to fire from the lip than to actually think.It's also true that Canadian troops travel with the Afghan army who toke up before,during and after any action with the Taliban.Perhaps some Canadian troops have also picked up the habit.It was clear from dialogue with some of our troops that they smoked pot but found the idea of toking during a firefight to be insane.At any rate,the very last thing our troops should have to worry about is some narc sniffing around.With marijuana and more specifically hashish being a staple of Afghan life,the last thing we should be doing is looking for something else to culturally oppress our ally.I don't know who was responsible for this lame article but let's hope they have nothing to do with making policy for the Afghan theatre of operations.With a defacto Taliban government in place in Kandahar already,we are obviously hanging on by the skin of our teeth in Afghanistan.All it would take is for some suit in Ottawa to decide they were going to act on this information and we'd start to lose the Afghan army.They won't fight if they can't toke.What does that say about us and our policy on the same issue?
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