Nearly 70% Of Youth In Punjab Are In The Grip Of Drugs

[Raju]

http://www.examiner.com/x-5919-Norfolk-Cri...tion-once-again

The U.S. military has made Afghanistan safe for opium production once again

April 14, 12:55 AM · Add a Comment

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In 2000, the Taliban banned opium production in Afghanistan, making it illegal to grow poppies. Any farmer caught cultivating the cash crop would be severely punished, usually by death. By the middle of 2001, there was basically no opium produced in Afghanistan, though that nation ordinarily led the world in production of the drug. However, since the start of the U.S. led invasion, the poppy fields are growing again and the opium trade is flourishing as never before. Apparently, Bush's idea of a 'War on Terror' was making the world safe for the narcotics trade.

The Taliban had relied on opium sales to finance their operations until July 2000. It was then that the regime's leader Mullah Mohammed Omar issued a ban on the drug trade, because he claimed that it conflicted with Islamic law. Less than a year later, a U.N. delegation visited the areas of the country where poppies were traditionally grown and found nothing. The head of the U.N. Drug Control Program said: "There are no poppies. It's amazing."

In March 2002, a U.S. foreign intelligence official speaking on the condition of anonymity, reminded a reporter with NewsMax.com of the CIA's record of involvement with the international drug trade. The official said: "The CIA did almost the identical thing during the Vietnam War, which had catastrophic consequences--the increase in the heroin trade in the USA beginning in the 1970's is directly attributable to the CIA. The CIA has been complicit in the global drug trade for years, so I guess they just want to carry on their favorite business."

He went on to say: "The sole reason why organized crime groups and terrorists have the power that they do is all because of drug trafficking. Like the old saying, 'those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.'"

The following is a listing of Afghanistan’s opium crop in metric tons, since 2001:

-2001...185mt

-2002...3,400mt

-2003...3,600mt

-2004...4,200mt

-2005...4,100mt

-2006...6,700mt

-2007...8,200mt

-2008...7,700mt

The 2008 crop of opium set a record for production and was worth an estimated $1billion.

Afghanistan could now fairly be described as a 'narco-state' and the U.S. military has played a large role in that nation's illicit evolution. Have we sent our young men to die in Afghanistan to protect or possibly monopolize the opium trade?

[chhokaranwala]

drugs is a universal problem in Punjab

one of the problems is that our Sikh leadership seem to waste more time in petty squabbles or fake struggles with the government to divert the attention of the quom