Taleban attacks are on the rise, the UN says.The Taleban made an estimated $100m in 2007 from Afghan farmers growing poppy for the opium trade, the United Nations says. Maybe the heroin itself is a kind of attack?
Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said the money was raised by a 10% tax on farmers in Taleban-controlled areas. The UN estimates last year's poppy harvest was worth $1bn.
Mr Costa said the Taleban made even more money from other activities related to the opium trade. One is protection to laboratories and the other is that the insurgents offer protection to cargo, moving opium across the border,"
"Last year Afghanistan produced about 8,000 tonnes of opium," Mr Costa said. "The world in the past few years has consumed about 4,000 tonnes in opium, this leaves a surplus, representing hundreds of millions of dollars. "It is stored somewhere and not with the farmers," he added.
Can the intense high of heroin be brought down to a mild euphoria, such as chewing on a coca leaf? This seems to me to be an interesting possibility for making the world a bit happier. I don't know my chemistry, though. Maybe all this nefarious and illegal business could be brought out into the open, in a way that helps everybody.
A horse is a horse, of course of course.
No comments:
Post a Comment