Have Mercy it’s Tricky Ass Tuesday; On A Mixed^up Monday
“The Virus Has Gone Earborne – they hear something and they want to believe it, they just believe it; even if it’s retarded..” – Fearus Ignoramus
The Stupid Virus
When a lab-monkey declares that President Obama wasn’t born in America, he becomes Patient Zero for a new brand of fear-based news virus – Fearus Ignoramus. We watch as the virus goes ear-borne, spreading from Rush Limbaugh to Bill O’Reilly, all the way to “twilf” Sarah Palin.
okay so now we have a Monkey who is Patient One in the Stupid Virus? Is That the Romper Stomper Character from Mad Maxx ? what is going on in this video ? so many questions,, ohhh this is making my head hurt.
What are they gonna come up with next. oh no why did I ask, when I already know that these are the folks who brought us a debate between Marijuana and Meth. Yeah..
You all know that I have nothing else to say. Just Go Ahead and Stick a Fork In Me; because this is enough
Take a moment and look at the actions and opinions from across America, today. this is the official first Monday of the New Year. A lot of important decisions get made on this day, every year.
We’re Wondering Honestly – How does America really feel now, since we’ve supposedly gone through this Catharsis ?
One of the main problems with race relations is not racist whites but ‘liberal’ whites that are ignorant of and underestimate how ingrained racism is among their people.
The presidential race and victory of President Elect Barack Obama has brought the sickness of white supremacy to the forefront. From conservative white radio host to white elected officials to their own FAUX News network; the hatred, fear and ignorance of white America is once again rearing it’s ugly head.
Question is, do whites have the desire to face their demons and the fortitude to destroy them or, in this age of economic hard-times, give into their demons and bringing about the worst event in American history – Race War.
If the history of the white man is any indication to the future of race relations, Black people, brace yourself for the worst.
While many would like to hide their head in the sand and ignore the very real issue of what happens when the water hole sinks and survival of the fittest begins. I would gather face the challenge head on.
Scapegoating and placing the blame on the minority and weak occures when those in power and control don’t want to face their own sins and shortcomings. Combine that with the shrinking of resources, jobs and necessities of life and you are looking at a powder keg ready to explode.
Now facts have surfaced that whites where killing Blacks in the after math of Hurricane Katrina. But the manifest hatred toward Blacks did start with the residents of Algiers Point, the mainstream media labeled Black refugees, Blacks were abandoned by their own government for weeks without water or food. They were rescued only to find themselves in toxic mobile homes and the story goes on and on.
That was only a sign of white America’s disdain for Black Americans. We saw it in the first OJ trial and Jena 6. We see it when it comes to reporting missing Black children and white corporate crime (ie Madoff) compared to Black street crime.
The real evidence of the sickness of white supremacy came out during PE Obama’s run for President and continues till this very hour. None of the darker races are immune form the sickness, as seen with the genocide in Palestine (illegally called Israel), the unjust embargoes toward Cuba, the neglect in Haiti and Africa, the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the militant posture toward North Korea and Iran and the story goes on.
If we can not get alone together in peace, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, Separation is The Answer. It may not seem sensible or feasible now (nor did the Exodus to the Children of Israel) but give it time, if ‘liberal’ whites don’t make a firm stand against the hate speech on conservative radio and TV America is headed toward a deep, dark pit.
One of the highest ranked Web sites on Dr. Martin Luther King is one run by a White-supremacist group whose goal is to convince youths that the slain civil rights leader was much less than a hero, scholar and peacemaker.
The late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
On “martinlutherking.org” there are downloadable fliers “to pass out at your school.” One of those “educational” fliers asks: “Which holiday honors a philanderer, a drunk, a liar, a plagiarist, and a cheater?” The answer: “Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.”
The operators of the site are members of a group called Stormfront, which the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as the largest “hate group” online. Stormfront has been co-opting King’s name for its Web address for the past decade, and it is the third most popular site that pops up when Martin Luther King is Googled, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
Mark Potok, of the hate-crime-fighting law center, told the Journal-Constitution that Stormfront has about 154,000 members, an 82,000-member increase from two years ago.
Don Black, the leader of Stormfront, has said that wants his Web site to reach high school students “who are forced to parrot the liberal party line about King being a great leader.” He said, too, that “The United States was traditionally a White nation, and we have the right to preserve it. If that makes me a racist, I am.” But Black’s steady stream of hate-talk, no matter how distasteful, isn’t necessarily illegal.
The civil rights leader’s nephew, Isaac Newton Farris Jr., who heads the nonprofit King Center in Atlanta, said he has decided against challenging Stormfront in court.
“You can’t stop people from having opinions,” he said. “If people think my uncle was adulterous and didn’t have a Ph.D., we can’t do anything about that. The only thing we can do is stop them from using his name.”
Pete Wellborn, an Atlanta lawyer who specializes in Internet law, told the Journal-Constitution, “As vile, reprehensible, ignorant and horrible as that Web site is, one could argue that it’s political comment.” The Kings could succeed in a suit, he said, if they could prove that Stormfront is making money off King’s name.
The June 5th edition of Congressional Quarterly Weekly (which is not available on-line) includes a terrific cover story by Seth Stern entitled “Meth vs. Crack: Different Legislative Approaches.” As the title suggests, the article explores the noticeable difference between the legislative reaction to the “crack epidemic” 20 years ago and the “meth epidemic” today. Here are just a few snippets of a long and very informative article [update: that can now be accessed here]:
When Rep. Elijah E. Cummings visits rural communities in the Midwest that have been ravaged by methamphetamine use, he hears stories of despair and damage not unlike those he heard during the crack epidemic of the 1980s…. The similarities exist despite fundamental differences between the populations affected by the two drugs. Meth is used mostly by white people in rural areas, while the epicenters of the crack epidemic were the African-American communities of the inner cities. “If you were to close your eyes and listen to how they talk about the effect on communities, how it breaks up families and drives down property values, you would swear they were in any urban community” during crack’s heyday, Cummings says.
What’s different this time are the solutions that his congressional colleagues are promoting. The first comprehensive federal anti-meth law, enacted this year, focuses on cutting off the supply of the chemical ingredients used to make the drug — not on toughening punishments for dealers or users. “There seems to be more of an emphasis on shutting down these meth labs and trying to figure out ways to treat these addicts and then get them back into flow of society,” says Cummings, a Maryland Democrat. “We don’t get for crack or heroin that kind of support for prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.”…
Lawmakers in both parties consistently characterize meth addicts in more sympathetic terms than they describe crack addicts, and they are showing far less enthusiasm for imprisoning users than at the height of the crack problem two decades ago…. Although lawmakers almost always rebut the notion, their own rhetoric suggests that race is an essential — albeit, perhaps subconscious — reason they are treating the two drug epidemics differently.
Some sociologists and criminologists say the racial component is obvious. “The difference is, meth is a white drug,” says Daniel F. Wilhelm of the Vera Institute of Justice, a New York nonprofit organization that seeks to reduce racially disparate prosecutions. “You don’t see any pictures of young black men and women described as the face of meth,” said Marc Mauer of the Sentencing Project, which advocates for overhauling sentencing law — a reference to the before-and-after mug shots that sheriffs’ offices and lawmakers often display to highlight the physical toll of meth addiction.
[L]istening to the way members of Congress talk about meth users and the images they invoke to portray the problem leaves observers such as Craig Reinarman, a sociology professor at the University of California Santa Cruz convinced that many lawmakers at least talk about drug users differently when they’re “drawn from the good old boy segment of our society, the us rather than the them.”…
(Know For Life / Topix.com) For decades, data about the condition of Black men and boys in America has shown that they fared far worse than their White counterparts in areas such as economics, education, and health.
‘The election of a Black President is a good step in the right direction but it will not change the fact that Black males are suffering in the South and can no longer be overlooked.’ —Christopher Crothers
With the rise of the country’s first Black President-Elect, many have said such research is no longer needed and the conversation should cease to take place entering into the year 2009 and beyond.
The Foundation for the Mid South disagrees and wants to take action.
“The election of a Black President is a good step in the right direction but it will not change the fact that Black males are suffering in the South and can no longer be overlooked,” said Christopher Crothers to The Final Call.
The foundation released a report showing that Black males in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, or the Mid South, are more likely to lack quality health insurance, lose their lives in a homicide or drop out of school.
“Many people, especially Whites and the middle-class, have told us they are tired of seeing these numbers and hearing about racism. They want us to stop bringing this plight to the forefront as if everything is fine now,” said Mr. Crothers, who serves as the foundation’s communications director.
The report, titled “Black Male: Why the Mid South Cannot Afford to Ignore The Disparities Facing Its Black Men and Boys,” was released in early December with a focus on men and boys ages 16 to 44. The idea was born out of forums attended by the foundation that brought together others to discuss the state of Black men and boys both nationally and in the South. It was also to call leaders and philanthropic organizations to get involved with their resources.
“A lot of these conversations are being held on a national landscape, but not in our region,” said Mr. Crothers. “There is a lot of data out there but we don’t have initiatives that specifically focus on Black males. We feel that there should be a field that’s developed around these issues because it’s serious.”
The Mid South is home to nearly 10 million people—roughly 3.3 percent of the U.S. population. The three states, although majority White, possess a high concentration of counties and parishes where Blacks comprise over 50 percent or more of the population.
Poverty was the leading indicator of disparities in the region with a 17.3 percent poverty rate. In just Louisiana and Mississippi alone, non-White households’ average net worth is $5,100. That’s 14 times less than Whites, according to the report.
“I think some of us are under the illusion that just because (Barack) Obama is in office that magically our problems as Black men will just fade away,” said James Brooks, a resident of Jackson, Miss., to The Final Call. “I got laid off this past year, lost a son to violence and have no health insurance. Capitol Hill can’t help me, we need to unite in our own region.”
Brenda Charles, a resident of Little Rock, said to The Final Call, “Our Black boys are on the road to death on a daily basis. Unprotected sex among our young people is out of control. There are no jobs for them so they turn to dealing drugs only to enter the prison system. We already know the statistics. Where is the help from those with the money?”
In Mississippi, 46.9 percent of Black males are uninsured, compared with 25.3 percent of White males. And, 23.5 percent of Black males in the three-state region don’t have a high school diploma. Citing U.S. Bureau of Justice statistics, the report says that Black male homicide rates were 8.3 times higher than White males. Black on Black offenses accounted for 94 percent of the homicides between 1976 and 2005.
Who will stand up for the South?
Mr. Crothers cited organizations such as the New York-based 21st Century Foundation, as a model of what can be done in the Mid South to address the problem. The 21st Century Foundation provides grants for strategies and programs geared toward issues affecting Black males.
“Where is the outrage? It seems like we are ‘raged-out.’ The crisis facing Black men and boys is becoming a part of the culture,” saidRev. Alfonso Wyatt, 21st Century board member. Over the next five years, 21st Century plans to fund and/or incubate Black Men and Boys research and action.
Sedrick Muham-mad mentors Black boys in New Orleans through his Models for Success program. “There is a lack of consistent and effective programs for our young men in the South due in part to lack of funding. Without being connected to resources, programs decline because there aren’t a lot of high industries in this area to feed the initiatives.”
“The indicators of disparity are sounding an alarm,” said Dr. Naccaman Williams, in the foreword of the report.
“We recommend more investment in research and data, an increase in public knowledge, the convening of state advocacy institutions around local policies, and that leaders work together. Action is needed,” said Mr. Crothers.
We want to immediately state that we DO NOT ENDORSE THE USE OF ANY DRUGS OR ILLEGAL SUBSTANCES – ESPECIALLY COKE OR METH.
As Well We Do Not Endorse the use of Ritalin and Like Kind Drugs.
We’ve done loads of blogs on the problems of the Drug Wars; and the Narco Traffico Policy Problems; so add this one to the pile cause not a word we say makes any difference.
Apparently not a body we show you, not a bullet we talk about; not the kid on your evening news laid out like a statistic; none of it makes any difference.
so lets try the subtle approach, and see if maybe a Cartoon Character can get people to pay attention to this travesty unfolding around us; and destined to get worse – ALA Post Vietnam; if we don’t do something about the Economy Quick.
Remember if a drug dealer has a job making enough to live, they usually don’t resort to dealing drugs. don’t believe us and the studies we’ve shown you then just listen to Mr Mackey – He Knows,
to quote Mr Mackey – “Mmmkay, Drugs Are Bad, Don’t Do Drugs“
A teenage girl prepares to smoke a pipe of crystal meth.
When methadone was first proposed for the treatment of heroin addiction, it sounded like a pointless gambit — sort of like substituting vodka for gin. That’s enabling addicts, critics said, not helping them.
But over the years, maintenance treatment with methadone and other synthetic opiates like buprenorphine has proved successful — more than any other heroin-addiction therapy — in getting people off illicit drugs and lowering HIV transmission rates, crime and death among users. That success, in part, has got researchers wondering whether addiction to other drugs — namely to the stimulants cocaine and methamphetamine — could be curbed in the same way, by substituting a chemically similar alternative. (See the Year in Health, from A to Z.)
“It’s an idea that really does need to be rigorously evaluated,” says Frank Vocci, director of the pharmacotherapy division at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). “But right now there is more discussion than data.”
The problem of stimulant addiction in the U.S. has dropped out of the spotlight of late, but it has not disappeared. According to a 2007 government survey, 2.1 million Americans had used cocaine in the month prior to the survey and 1 million had taken other stimulants for nonmedical purposes, including more than half a million users of methamphetamine. There are currently no overwhelmingly effective addiction treatments. Abstinence-based rehab therapy for meth and cocaine work about as well as rehab for other drugs — meaning that about one-third of users improve following treatment, but most relapse repeatedly.
And despite decades of study of dozens of compounds, there are as yet no federally approved medications for cocaine or meth addiction.
Asked whether NIDA thought the concept of stimulant maintenance treatment holds promise, Vocci says, “If putting your money where your mouth is means [that we consider it promising], then, yes, we’re funding a fair number of studies.”
To date, the research has been mixed but intriguing. The best-studied drugs so far are dexamphetamine, a form of amphetamine contained in the antihyperactivity drug Adderall, and modafinil, the wakefulness drug used to treat narcolepsy and shift-work sleep disorder. Most studies have been small and focused on safety rather than efficacy. Some have found no effect — but because of their size, it’s difficult to determine whether that’s meaningful.
One British study followed 60 stimulant addicts who were treated with dexamphetamine in a Cornwall clinic. Doctors tracked how well these patients fared compared with 120 heroin addicts being treated with methadone, and found an equivalent reduction in illicit drug use and drug injection. In both groups, about two-thirds of patients stopped injecting over 10 months.
Another trial in Australia followed 30 cocaine injectors, 16 of whom were treated with dexamphetamine and 14 with a placebo. Cocaine-positive urine tests in the dexamphetamine group fell from 94% to 56%, while the placebo group showed no change after 14 weeks. A similar study of modafinil at the University of Pennsylvania in 2005 found reduced cocaine use in addicts.
But there are reasons that stimulant maintenance treatment was not initially studied more extensively. For one, high doses of amphetamines can cause brain damage, psychosis, heart attack and stroke. (High doses of opioids like methadone, in contrast, can also be dangerous, but once a patient develops a tolerance to them, even very high doses of the drugs are not toxic.) The consequences of high-dose use are important, since addicts in treatment often try at least once to use illegal drugs “on top” of their maintenance drug. So far, however, studies of dexamphetamine and similar drugs have not revealed major safety problems. Although a few patients have had psychotic episodes from using “on top,” those particular patients turned out to have previously suffered psychosis. “There’s pretty consistent evidence that the side effects are generally nominal,” says John Grabowski, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Minnesota who has championed the study of stimulant maintenance treatment in the U.S.
Another problem is that stimulants appear to increase users’ desire subjectively, rather than satisfying it. While a heroin high is calming and lasts for several hours, cocaine and amphetamine feel different. As actor Robin Williams, an admitted ex-user, put it, cocaine makes you feel like a new man, and the first thing the new man wants is more cocaine. It produces excitement, not relaxation. And the concern is that a maintenance drug would have the same escalating effect.
“That’s one argument, but the data doesn’t seem to support it,” says Craig Rush, professor of behavioral science at the University of Kentucky. In a study of seven cocaine-dependent patients, Rush treated them with dexamphetamine maintenance, then gave them cocaine in the lab. The effects of cocaine were blunted. Rush is now looking at what happens when dexamphetamine-maintained patients are given a choice whether or not to take cocaine in the lab — preliminary results suggest they “just say no” more often.
The newer stimulant drug, modafinil, does not carry the same addiction risk as amphetamines, making it a promising alternative as a maintenance drug. But it’s also less effective in treating the most severe addictions, according to Grabowski. “In our research, we were able to separate out [the more and less severely addicted patients], and the more severe people were more responsive to the more potent stimulants,” says Grabowski, who has conducted two randomized controlled trials involving nearly 200 patients, which found that dexamphetamine treatment reduced cocaine use better than a placebo.
Proponents of stimulant maintenance treatment also note this significant detail: Many stimulant abusers suffer from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). While ADHD affects about 1% of the general population, according to Rush, it shows up in about 30% of cocaine and amphetamine addicts. Psychiatrists often hesitate to give hyperactivity drugs to patients with a history of addiction, but some studies suggest that maintenance may be exactly what this group needs — and that their drug abuse is an attempt to self-medicate. The studies that have included ADHD patients (many studies exclude them to avoid confounding) showed positive results. In one pilot study, conducted at Columbia University, maintenance treatment reduced cocaine use and craving in 12 cocaine addicts with ADHD.
None of the researchers believe that stimulant maintenance is a panacea or that it will work for every cocaine or meth addict. But there is no medical treatment that works 100% of the time. “I think we have found something of potential benefit, and it should be met with interest and further research, rather than disdain,” Grabowski says.
Increase In Meth Labs May Mean New Laws
Producers Finding Ways To Skirt Current Laws
By Reported By Cara Kumari
WSMV-TV
updated 7:16 p.m. ET,Wed., Dec. 17, 2008
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A dangerous homemade drug is making a comeback.
Video: Increase In Meth Busts Could Lead To New Laws
Local and state authorities have been making some headway against methamphetamine production, but they said there has been a recent surge in lab busts.
Currently if an individual wants to buy a pill that contains pseduoephedrine, he or she has to show photo identification.
Law enforcement officers said that requirement made a large dent in the number of methamphetamine labs over the past three years.
However, busts are on the rise again, and some possible changes include putting liquids with pseudoephedrine behind the counter.
Lawrence County had three methamphetamine busts this year, until last week when police raided four more labs. Across Tennessee, methamphetamine lab seizures have spiked.
“We anticipated some rebound to the lab seizure numbers,” said Tommy Farmer of the Tennessee Meth Lab Task Force.
Through October, there were 625 busts in the state, compared to 583 in all of 2007. In middle Tennessee, methamphetamine lab busts are up more than 50 percent.
Authorities haven’t seen these numbers since 2005, when tough new laws limited access to psuedoephedrines, a common ingredient in methamphetamine.
Police said cooks have found ways around the law.
“They are going to look for alternative ways to acquire the precursor chemicals used to make meth, and that’s what we’re seeing,” said Farmer.
Farmer said he’s already talking with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the governor’s office about making some changes and eliminating loopholes in the existing law.
For example, there is discussion of the possibility of putting liquid pseudoephedrines behind the counter as well as tablets.
But with the state’s deepening budget crisis, any changes are going to have to come without a price tag.
“We think we can have some modifications or adjustments made to the existing legislation that would not have an impact or would not have a fiscal note attached to it,” said Farmer.
Experts said better law enforcement tactics have also resulted in the large increase in methamphetamine busts.
Officers around the state are very well trained to spot methamphetamine labs, and aggressive law enforcement measures have shown results.
Tennessee is not the only state dealing with an increase in methamphetamine labs. The entire region is experiencing a spike, with the biggest increases seen in Missouri and Michigan.
CBS Evening News Exclusive: Mexico’s Ruthless Drug Cartel Violence Now Crossing The Border
TIJUANA, Mexico, Dec. 16, 2008 | by Bill Whitaker
(CBS) In the past few years, Mexico has become one of the most dangerous places on earth. Drug gangs have killed more than 5,000 people this year – more than the entire American death toll in Iraq. Tuesday, the Justice Department declared Mexico’s drug cartels have become the biggest organized crime threat to the United States. CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker takes an exclusive look at how Mexico’s problem is crossing the border.
The sound of a country in crisis includes the cries of a woman wailing upon finding husband dead in cab of truck. The United States’ southern neighbor is in the throes of a drug war – one that’s growing more savage every day as the brutally aggressive Sinaloa Cartel muscles in on territory controlled by the Arellano-Felix, the Juarez and Gulf Cartels for control of lucrative routes for smuggling marijuana, cocaine and amphetamines into the United States – a $14 billion a year illegal trade, Whitaker reports.
The drug traffickers are more reckless and ruthless than ever. A group of terrified school children were caught in the crossfire of a three-hour shootout on the streets of Tijuana. In Juarez, a crime reporter was shot to death, the fifth Mexican journalist silenced this year.
Bill Gore has witnessed the carnage, first as the FBI Special Agent in Charge in San Diego, now as the county’s undersheriff. He says American drug users should realize they have blood on their hands.
“This is not a victimless crime,” Gore said. “That people are dying, literally hundreds of them, on the streets of Tijuana, so they can have their recreational drugs on this side of the border.”
After Mexican president Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels last year, troops and federal police have captured or killed scores of drug kingpins. Yet, violence continues. (CBS)
The most extreme violence is just south of the border – nowhere worse than Juarez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso. There have been 16 murders in El Paso this year and almost 1,500 drug-related killings in Juarez.
One grisly new tactic is beheadings. A headless corpse hung above a busy highway almost two hours before police covered it with a sheet – the head found in a nearby park.
In Tijuana, nine men were decapitated last month, three of them policemen, their badges stuck in their mouths – some of the 40 murders in Tijuana occurred in just one weekend.
It is a bloody war fueled by a high-powered arsenal of weapons, most smuggled in from the United States.
The gun violence is fueling a boom in the security business. Gabriel Martin turns cars into tanks with armor plating, bullet-proof glass. Of one car he says: “An AR-15 with armor-piercing nose could not get through that.”
And there’s a long waiting list of people anxious to pay from $30,000 to $90,000 to outfit cars with James Bond-like smoke screens and nails to puncture pursuers’ tires.
(CBS)
“As crime rises it seems like the business grows,” Martin said. “People are scared to be kidnapped.”
The current FBI Agent in Charge in San Diego says gangland kidnappings, common in Mexico as a secondary source of cartel income, are becoming common there.
“The violence is absolutely spilling across into the United States,” said FBI agent Keith Slotter said.
About 40 San Diego residents were kidnapped in Mexico this year – double the number three years ago. Many more go unreported.
“Normally, the kidnappers have done, we believe, extensive research ahead of time,” Slotter said. “They have a good, a solid background on a person’s financial means.”
They kidnapped one woman’s husband, an American with businesses in Tijuana. They demanded $2 million. She’s afraid to reveal her identity.
“I had to sell my business. I had to sell property. Anything to get back my husband,” the woman said. “There was no need for them to kill my husband.”
Ironically, this orgy of violence erupted after Mexican president Felipe Calderon declared war on the cartels last year, dispatching 40,000 troops and federal police to cities under siege. They’ve killed or captured scores of drug kingpins.
Authorities call this a success, though a fierce gun battle raged in the middle of the city for almost an hour. In the end, the federal police and the military took custody the most wanted chief of the Tijuana drug cartel.
With the arrest of Eduardo Arellano-Felix, the once powerful cartel is in disarray. The unintended consequence of success: a bloodbath, as the next generation of gangsters battles for dominance.
“We cannot live with that kind of intimidation, with that kind of terror on our streets,” said Jorge Ramos, the Mayor of Tijuana.
So the mayor of Tijuana last week tapped former army Lt. Colonel, Julian Leyzaola, to run the city’s police department.
He promises to take back the streets.
“Even in war you don’t see what you see here,” he said through a translator. “People whose heads are cut off, people who are dissolved in acid. If the cartels only understand the language of violence, then we are going to have to speak in their language … and annihilate them.”
In other words, fight cartel violence with superior violence: the coordinated power the police and military. As the government fights to get the upper hand, there’s likely to be more blood in the streets
Narcotics trafficking and drug addition have long been hidden scourges in Turkmenistan, Central Asia’s most insular state. But President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has sent signals in recent weeks that his administration is pondering ways to tackle drug-related issues.
The clearest indicator of a shift in the Turkmen government’s attitude came on World AIDS Day, December 1, when a variety of state agencies hosted an informational event, titled Unite for Future! Unite Against AIDS and Drugs!, at a theater in central Ashgabat. Printed matter on the hazards of diseases associated with drug additction, especially AIDS, were available for distribution. The materials were a collaborative effort produced by the Turkmen Health Ministry, the National Red Crescent Society and the Youth Center of Turkmenistan.
Though modest in its scope, the event underscored the fact that Berdymukhamedov’s administration is taking tentative steps toward addressing what is one of the country’s most daunting social challenges. During the last session of Turkmenistan’s old parliament, held before fresh elections on December 14, some outgoing MPs expressed concern about the dangers of narcotics trafficking, as well as the high public health social costs exacted by drug addiction.
Turkmen citizens will tell enquiring foreigners that drug use is prevalent in Ashgabat and that addicts are responsible for many serious crimes, including robberies and even murders. Addiction likewise encourages other forms of criminal behavior, especially prostitution, as young Turkmen women sell their bodies in order to maintain drug habits. “Unemployement is so high, often men are ashamed and start to use heroin,” said one Turkmen man, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Afghanistan has been the top opium-producing country in the world over the past several years, according to UNODC
KABUL, 10 December 2008 (IRIN) – A senior official in the Interior Ministry has told IRIN that “unprecedented progress” has been made in the fight against drugs, with at least 500 drug traffickers arrested in the past eight months.
Mohammad Daud Daud, a deputy interior minister with responsibility for counter-narcotics, told IRIN counter-narcotics activities had been “boosted considerably” since 2007.
In the past eight months, over 300 tonnes of cannabis, over 25 tonnes of opium and over 10 tonnes of heroin, as well as several tonnes of heroin-producing chemicals, were impounded. Twenty-five heroin-producing laboratories were also destroyed, according to the Interior Ministry. (The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) survey in 2007 said a total of 90 laboratories were in operation in March 2007).
As well as taking a direct toll on the health of Afghans who abuse drugs, the drugs trade helps finance Taliban and criminal activities and fuels insecurity, in turn hampering humanitarian aid operations. Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of people are involved in poppy cultivation, and opium income makes up to 40 percent of gross domestic product, experts say.
Lives lost
The government says it has paid a high price for its counter-narcotics operations: At least 45 police officers have been killed and 65 injured in armed clashes with smugglers and insurgents involved in the drugs trade, the Interior Ministry said.
In its latest, August 2008, survey UNODC said incidents related to eradication activities in Helmand, Kandahar, Herat, Nimruz, Kapisa, Kabul and Nangarhar provinces had led to the deaths of at least 78 people, most of them policemen, in 2008. This represented an increase of about 75 percent on the 2007 figure (19 deaths). The main incidents were in Nangarhar and Nimruz provinces, UNODC said.
Under strong international pressure the government has beefed up the judiciary, with judges encouraged to convict arrested smugglers swiftly, according to media reports, but progress is by no means even: According to an Interior Ministry press release issued on 4 September, unidentified gunmen killed the head of the counter-narcotics court and several judges have received death threats.
Drought helps stem opium production
According to UNODC, there had been a 19 percent decrease in the area under opium cultivation to 157,000 hectares, down from 193,000 hectares in 2007. However, because of a higher yield of 48.8kg per hectare (up from 42.5 kg in 2007), overall opium production dropped just 6 percent from 8,200 to 7,700 tonnes, UNODC said in a statement on 26 August.
The number of opium-free provinces has increased from 13 to 18 (out of 34), according to UNODC. “Last year the world got hit by a heroin tsunami, almost 700 tonnes. This year the opium flood waters have started to recede”, said the executive director of UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa.
UNODC said eradication efforts had played little part in the decrease: In 2008, 5,480 hectares were eradicated – nearly four times less than the 19,047 hectares destroyed in 2007.
Instead, UNODC attributed the decrease to good local leadership, assisted by drought. Some governors discouraged farmers from planting opium through campaigns, peer pressure, and the promotion of alternative development. The most impressive results were in Nangarhar, which also experienced severe drought.
The US Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) on 24 October said potential opium production in Afghanistan had declined steeply – by 31 percent – to 5,500 tonnes, down from 8,000 tonnes in 2007.
Today’s opium poppy crop is concentrated in the south and southwest: 93 percent is confined to just five southern provinces, with Helmand accounting for over 60 percent of poppy cultivation, ONDCP said.
Corruption
Allegations that clampdowns on drug production and exports are hampered by corruption, in which government and security officials share proceeds in return for protection, are widespread. Daud acknowledged that drugs money may have corrupted some officials.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai rejected a recent article in the New York Times which said his younger brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, was involved in the heroin trade.
Meanwhile, the head of UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa, has called for a crackdown on corruption, which is “greasing the wheels” of the drugs trade. “Corrupt officials, landowners, warlords and criminals must feel the full force of the law, otherwise the opium economy will continue to operate with impunity, and the Taliban will continue to profit from it”, he said in a statement.
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Take a moment and look at the actions and opinions from across America, today. this is the official first Monday of the New Year. A lot of important decisions get made on this day, every year.
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