I must have slept in a weird position last night, because this morning there is not enough Advil in the world to make my back stop hurting. It’s extra annoying because who really wants to admit that they screwed up their back by sleeping?
Was talking w/someone last night about the marijuana bust over in Centreville (let’s face it, there isn’t a lot going on around town, so of course it’s a topic of conversation) and then of course we launched into this long discussion on “where did they go wrong” and managed to get caught. It occured to me later that god help us if there is an off duty cop sitting around when we have these discussions - it probably just doesn’t look good.
CNN ran an interesting piece on the continued poppy/opium farming in Afghanistan. I can only describe it as an exceptionally messed up situation. The government has tried to give them “alternate livelihoods” via assistance with growing other crops, but there is no market for them. So, they’ve gone back to poppy cultivation because it’s pretty much the only way they can eat. If you’re a farmer and you’ve got the choice of growing something that is actually going to put food on your table, or growing something that is just going to sit around and never be sold - which way are you going to go? I can’t help but think that with the amount of money that has been spent on eradication and such, just saying “Look, whatever the Taliban or local druglord is paying you to grow opium, we’ll give you twice as much NOT to do it” - might be cheaper and more effective in the end.
But, as long as there is a market for the drugs, (and I can’t imagine a day ever when there won’t be a market somewhere in the world) and people that need money that can’t earn it with other farm crops, they’re going to continue to grow.
Makes me wonder if maybe we should just legalize it and take the all the money spent and put it into prevention and rehab. Some days I don’t think the result would be a whole lot worse than things are now.
I do have to wonder what the future holds for Afghanistan - they have such a rich history and culture, and all I can see is the place just completely imploding in on itself at some point.
