XPost: alt.drugs.pot, rec.drugs.cannabis
From: bliss@mouse-potato.com

Drug War Chronicle, Issue #1085 -- 12/12/19
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psmith@drcnet.org https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/1085

A Publication of StoptheDrugWar.org
David Borden, Executive Director, borden@drcnet.org
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"

Table of Contents:

1. AMERICA'S AFGHANISTAN ANTI-DRUG BOONDOGGLE NEARS THE $9 BILLION MARK [FEATURE]
How many billions will go down the drain before we figure out we can't
spend our way into making certain drugs disappear? https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/nov/20/americas_afghanistan_antidrug

2. ATTENTION, AMPHIBIAN SUBSTANCE FANS, THERE'S A NEW TOAD IN TOWN [FEATURE] Sapo isn't a psychedelic, but the Amazonian toad venom has some powerful
and cathartic effects. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/nov/03/attention_amphibian_substance

3. MEDICAL MARIJUANA UPDATE
The Senate approves a bill protecting medical marijuana states from
federal intervention, Alabama and Kansas move toward filing medical
marijuana legislation, a South Dakota medical marijuana initiative hands
in signatures, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/nov/14/medical_marijuana_update

4. THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
A West Virginia narc goes down for stealing heroin from the evidence
room and giving it to his snitches, a New Jersey federal prison guard
gets caught in a years-long smuggling scheme, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/nov/20/weeks_corrupt_cops_stories

5. CHRONICLE AM: NEW ZEALAND MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION REFERENDUM COMING,
SD HEMP FIGHT, MORE... (12/3/19)
South Dakota lawmakers are moving toward trying again to legalize
industrial hemp, New Zealand provides information on a coming marijuana legalization referendum, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/dec/03/chronicle_am_new_zealand

6. CHRONICLE AM: NH SENATE PANELS KILL LEGAL POT, MMJ EXPANSION BILLS;
FED AGENCY EASES HIRING RULES, MORE... (12/4/19)
The US Virgin Islands could be moving toward marijuana legalization, but
New Hampshire isn't--at least for now. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/dec/04/chronicle_am_nh_senate_panels

7. CHRONICLE AM: YANG ON SAFE INJECTION SITES, BLOOMBERG ON MARIJUANA,
MORE... (12/5/19)
Michigan pot shops see high demand on opening day, Democratic contenders
stake out drug policy positions, Maine finally has all pot business applications ready, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/dec/05/chronicle_am_yang_safe_injection

8. CHRONICLE AM: OR DRUG DECRIMINALIZATION INITIATIVE, ND MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION INITIATIVE, MORE... (12/6/19)
A second North Dakota pot legalization initiative has submitted language
to state officials, the Beckley Foundation publishes a report on getting
to legal Ecstasy, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/dec/06/chronicle_am_or_drug

9. CHRONICLE AM: HOUSE RESOLUTION CONDEMNS RACIST DRUG WAR, PRISON
RACIAL DISPARITIES SHRINK, MORE.... (12/10/19)
Michigan legal pot sales are off to a hot start, a House resolution
demands Congress apologize for racist drug war, a new report finds
declining racial disparities in incarceration, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/dec/10/chronicle_am_house_resolution

10. CHRONICLE AM: US AFGHAN OPIUM FIASCO, NEW ZEALAND LSD MICRODOSING
TRIALS, MORE... (12/11/19)
Expungements for past minor pot offenses are beginning in Chicago,
clinical trials on LSD microdosing are about to get underway in New
Zealand, Kentucky's new Democratic governor moves to restore voting
rights for ex-felons, and more. https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/dec/11/chronicle_am_us_afghan_opium

(Not subscribed? Visit https://stopthedrugwar.org to sign up today!)

================

1. AMERICA'S AFGHANISTAN ANTI-DRUG BOONDOGGLE NEARS THE $9 BILLION MARK [FEATURE] https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2019/nov/20/americas_afghanistan_antidrug

The amount of money the US government has spent trying to wipe out
Afghan opium since it invaded the country in 2002 has now reached $8.94 billion, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction
(SIGAR) noted in his latest quarterly report to Congress (https://www.sigar.mil/pdf/quarterlyreports/2019-10-30qr.pdf) on October 30.

Afghanistan is far and away the world's largest opium producer (https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/press/releases/2017/November/afghan-opium-production-jumps-to-record-level--up-87-per-cent_-survey.html)
and has been for the entire period since the US invaded and occupied the country in late 2001. According to United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime's (UNODC) 2018 Afghan Opium Survey (https://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/Afghanistan/Afghanistan_opium_survey_2018_socioeconomic_report.pdf),
Afghan farmers were cultivating about 150,000 acres of opium poppies in
the late 1990s, but around 300,000 acres a year in the mid-2000s.

As the US occupation dragged on, opium cultivation generally climbed
throughout the 2010s, peaking at more than 800,000 acres in 2017. That
equates to about nine tons of raw opium produced that year, with the
heroin produced from it going into the veins of addicts and others from
Lahore to London.

The SIGAR report also noted that although drought had caused poppy
cultivation to drop by 20% last year, "it remained at the second-highest
level since the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) began monitoring it in 1994."

So, despite spending nearly $9 billion, the US war on Afghan opium has
not only not succeeded but has seen the poppy foe steadily gain ground.
And even though drought struck the crop in 2018, opium still exceeded
the value of all of Afghanistan's licit exports combined and accounted
for between 6 and 11 percent of its Gross Domestic Product.

For Sanho Tree, director of the Drug Policy Project at the Institute for
Policy Studies and a long-time observer of US policies aimed at drug
producing countries -- not just Afghanistan -- the SIGAR report spoke
volumes.

"Over a similar period in Colombia, the US wasted $10 billion," he said.
"I guess we can conclude the drug war failed more efficiently in
Afghanistan."

To be fair, the US effort against opium has faced huge hurdles. Because
of its crucial role in the national economy, providing hundreds of
thousands of jobs to farm workers and incomes to farmers, moves to
suppress the crop meet entrenched resistance -- and that's where the
national government is in control.

But the Taliban controls roughly half the country, and in those areas,
it doesn't try to repress the opium trade, but instead taxes it.
According to a BBC report (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-46554097), the Taliban generates somewhere between $100 million and $400 million from
taxes on opium farmers, producers, and traders. That's not the bulk of
Taliban revenues, but it is a significant boost for the insurgency.

When it comes to suppressing illicit drug crops, there are three main approaches: eradication, interdiction, and alternative development.
According to the new SIGAR report, all three have proven ineffectual in Afghanistan.

Interdiction -- the effort to suppress the trade by arresting
traffickers and seizing drugs -- has been the bailiwick of Afghan
security forces funded by the US. But the SIGAR report notes that
despite their "strong performance" and their "improved capabilities over
the years," activities have had "minimal impact on the country's opium cultivation and production." It notes that all opium seizures since 2002
only add up to about 8 percent of the production of the single year of 2018.

Eradication isn't going very well, either. With the Afghan government announcing early this year that is was abolishing the Ministry of
Counter Narcotics and moving its functions to other government entities, essentially no eradication took place this year, the SIGAR report round.
Only about one thousand acres were eradicated last year and two thousand
the year before. And Helmand province, the biggest poppy producer, saw
no eradication at all between 2016 and 2018.

"Eradication efforts have had minimal impact on curbing opium-poppy cultivation," the SIGAR report concluded. "The Afghan government has
struggled to perform eradication due to the security challenges in poppy-growing areas. Since 2008, on average, annual eradication efforts resulted in eradicating only 2% of the total yearly opium-poppy
cultivation."

That may not be a bad thing, said Tree.

"Forced eradication usually forces peasant farmers into food
insecurity," he explained. "Panic sets in. How will they feed their
families next week, next month, or next year? What's the one crop they
know how to grow, for which there ready and willing buyers, and doesn't
require transportation infrastructure like bulky fruits and vegetables?
Of course, farmers replant! But this time, they've had to borrow money
from traffickers to survive and they become even more ensnared in the
drug economy."

The third leg of the anti-drug effort is alternative development. But of
the nearly $9 billion the US has invested in the Afghan drug war, less
than 5 percent has gone to such programs. The USAID Regional
Agricultural Development Plan has received $221 million since 2002,
while another $173 million has been spent on alternative development
programs. The Defense Department, meanwhile, spent $4.57 billion on counternarcotics during the same period.

But alternative development efforts seem to be waning. An important
program, the Good Performers Initiative, which sought to encourage
provincial level anti-drug efforts ended this year with the transfer of
its last two programs to the Afghan government. But even here, the SIGAR
report found, "the program was deemed ineffectual at curbing opium cultivation."

It appears that no matter how many billions the US spends to wipe out
Afghan opium, its money flushed down the drain. Maybe it's time to try something different.

================

================ ...
___________________

It's time to correct the mistake:
Truth:the Anti-drugwar
<http://www.briancbennett.com>

Cops say legalize drugs--find out why:
<http://www.leap.cc>
Stoners are people too:
<http://www.cannabisconsumers.org>
___________________

bliss -- Cacao Powered... (-SF4ever at DSLExtreme dot com)

--
bobbie sellers - a retired nurse in San Francisco

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of cacao that the thoughts acquire speed,
the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
--from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)