WHAT ARE THEY SMOKING

When I was in Vietnam, I took a drag or two of pot. It burned my throat and made me cough. So, forget that I have to defend whether I inhaled or not. But, if there's an American who pays any attention or watches TV or the movies or maybe inhales and doesn't think that many in our great country are involved with the "weed," they must have their ipods maxed out. And, if you watch an HBO series like The Wire, you understand the unbelievable pull drugs have on our society and how so many kids are crashing and burning.

Without exception, the "girlfriends" think we should legalize pot, take the profit motive out and the problem goes away. We're smart people and could figure it out. I doubt we'll do it as somehow following the old paths seem to be easier and the only ones we'll do. (I will have to admit, however, that I personally have never known someone heavy into drugs that did not start with pot, even though studies say this is not the case).

However, in Afghanistan, it ain't pot, rather the makings of the "hard stuff." Based on what I read, we have the resurging problem of the country growing poppies which becomes heroin--the country grows 92 percent of the world's heroin. Over 400,000 acres in cultivation. And, it is grown mostly by small farmers. The U. S. official position: it has to go, plain and simple. We spend millions to get rid of the poppies just as we do in California with pot and guess what: we can't eradicate it. And, in Afghanistan, who gets hurt? The small farmer. From what I read, one promising possibility might be in the legitimate production of poppies which would in turn be turned into codeine and morphine used for medical purposes. Makes sense to me.

This is an aside but just as relevant: what I think is a problem with government in general and this problem in particular is that we don't have any real thinkers who get themselves in a position that they can do something about problems that need "thinking outside the box." The best illustration of this shortcoming I know for my point is an episode of HBO's, The Wire. One of the police Captains decided on his own to legalize the drug trade in his sector which is only what he could control. Kids were dying, shooting each other while fighting rivals for the possibility to sell drugs. The police captain did it by innovative approaches to what was going on. Guess what: it worked miraculously almost but in the process, he got vilified and forced to retire. Get the picture, this happens over and over: government comes up with plans usually created by bureaucrats. The bureaucrats don't listen to outsiders or those with new ideas, it is business as usual and in this case, millions of dollars to eradicate and basically hurt the small farmer eking out a living under the worst of conditions in Afghanistan. Thus we hurt the very people we are trying to liberate and win over.

This sort of thinking in Afghanistan is probably what is going to sink our efforts in a country that had such great progress. Help.