Cursor, dear friend, time to wake up. The 1990′s are long gone and the Soviets have abandoned their war in Afghanistan. The CIA’s actions during those times are a far cry from Curry’s assertions that the US military (who AC claims to support immediately before he goes on to trash them) are actively encouraging, patrolling, protecting and selling the raw opium.

http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO109C.html

“…opium production is protected by the government of Hamid Karzai as well as by the Taliban … the U.S. military turns a blind eye”

Again, last time I checked, Karzai and the Taliban are not members of the US military. I agree the US “turns a blind eye.” Ignoring a problem is not the same as encouraging it. I have lived in Afghanistan while the Taliban was in power, during the war and after the Taliban was removed. I have walked in the poppy fields of northern Afgh and had the owner show me how the harvesting of the opium-rich sap is done. I have tried to talk these farmers into abandoning their lucrative poppies by offering them free wheat seed from Uncle Sam. I’ve seen fields sprayed with herbicides by US mil helicopters.

I don’t mean to say that the CIA isn’t using some of the poppy fields to fund their own activities but it would surprise me. I am saying from my seven years of personal experience, I’ve never seen a US military operation to protect or encourage drug production in Afghanistan. To accuse soldiers of participating without solid proof is slander of the worst kind.

dig this: Twice in the last six months, there was a shortage of the lower dose tablets which resulted in me being scribed double dose tabs.

my take away: someone doesn’t want anyone getting off their pain meds too easily. (or of course, automatic larger profits to be made because of the higher dose meds being scribed..or both.

my research into this revealed that two generic manufactures had complete recalls of the above drugs because of mis-dosed tablets-like 10mg tabs actually containing 40-60mg of the drug, and the synthetic variety having 16mg when it should have only had 4 etc… one of the companies folded, iirc.

This led to (surprise!) scribes of the more expensive brand name varieties..

THE MOST telling item of note (and dare i say “coincidence” in relation to our recent “push into Afghanistan” is that in the last 7-8 months, the quality of street heroin has increased significantly..to the point that all “regulars” have quality material not seen since the 70′s.

-this is straight from my old friends on the street who i pass-by omw into the city..very reliable..esp given that all i ever heard last year was “everything is crap”

so i says is..you do the math.

-s

“In 1995, the former CIA director of the Afghan operation, Charles Cogan, admitted the CIA had indeed sacrificed the drug war to fight the Cold War. `Our main mission was to do as much damage as possible to the Soviets. We didn’t really have the resources or the time to devote to an investigation of the drug trade,’… `I don’t think that we need to apologize for this. Every situation has its fallout…. There was fallout in terms of drugs, yes. But the main objective was accomplished. The Soviets left Afghanistan.”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO109C.html

Former U.S. State Department Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Thomas Schweich, in a New York Times article dated July 27, 2007, asserts that opium production is protected by the government of Hamid Karzai as well as by the Taliban, as all parties to political conflict in Afghanistan as well as criminals benefit from opium production, and, in Schweich’s opinion, the U.S. military turns a blind eye to opium production as not being central to its anti-terrorism mission.

http://usinfo.state.gov/usinfo/USINFO/Products/Webchats/uncnd_01_mar_2007.html

This was common in Southeast Asia during Vietnam.

Any nation that turns a blind eye to the drug trade merely because the end justifies the means is as guilty as running it themselves. It is hypocrisy.

Cursor_

Sheesh, JCD. Could it be that IRNA’s source was No Agenda?

Just wanted to point out that

IRNA that reported this is owned by Iran government, and it always publishes crazy stories about US. and they were the ones that photoshoped their missiles to look like they have more missile..

so it is like fox news…

you need a better source for that..

“IRNA, as a state-controlled organization, is often viewed as a political instrument rather than a fair and balanced news source. The state has been known to censor Iranians access to information by publishing misinformation, jailing journalists, and shutting down news outlets.[2][3] Recently the IRNA played a critical role in the 2009 Iranian presidential election, calling the election in favor of incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad despite allegations of voting fraud later confirmed by the Guardian Council.”

from : Wikipedia

This has been true since ancient times.