Poppies

[lone wolf]

Poppies aren't illegal.

 

[ironsides]

Taliban Raise Poppy Production to a Record Again By DAVID ROHDE
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Aug. 25 — Afghanistan produced record levels of opium in 2007 for the second straight year, led by a staggering 45 percent increase in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand Province, according to a new United Nations survey to be released Monday.
The report is likely to touch off renewed debate about the United States’ $600 million counternarcotics program in Afghanistan, which has been hampered by security challenges and endemic corruption within the Afghan government.
“I think it is safe to say that we should be looking for a new strategy,” said William B. Wood, the American ambassador to Afghanistan, commenting on the report’s overall findings. “And I think that we are finding one.”

Taliban Raise Poppy Production to a Record Again - New York Times

We have just retaken taken Helmand Province from the Taliban who have controlled it since the U.S. left it for Iraq. Took the U.N. almost a year to finally try and stop the production there. No idea what this years production was.

 

[Ron in Regina]

And yet no one mentioned the real reason poppies are the only crop. The warlords, gang leaders what ever you want to call them force the farmers into growing them so they can make money to buy guns whatever they want, and have been doing it for hundreds of years. Yes the UN sometime used these local leaders for their own needs. The poppy is just about the only cash crop a farmer can grow. They cannot grow enough food to see them thru the year.


"Follow the Yellow Brick Road" Yellow Brick is the word.

Yeah....it's a crappy deal seeing as Afghanistan was a food exporter
until the early 1980's. The Soviet invasion ended that, and the times
have continued to the present day.

 

[petros]

The poppy is a symbol of Imperial expansion going back to the Roman days.

Wherever the Roman army went so did Morpheus (think morphine) and his magic poppies which kept the soldiers alive to fight another day.

Who are we really honouring? Morpheus or the fallen soldier?