War On Drugs

Here is another example of what the "war on drugs" has come to. A Maryland mayor's house raided by police, his dogs shot, and his family traumatized.

If this report is accurate, it just goes to show what can happen to anyone. It could have been worse. Many people, myself included, take the security of their homes seriously and will shoot first and ask questions later if someone comes busting through the front door.

No one wants to harm a law enforcement officer who is just doing his job, but when the door crashes open, the homeowner doesn't know who is breaking in. With the number of home invasion incidents reported in the news, the potential victim can't afford to take a chance on it being just an overzealous bunch of cops.

With $30 billion spent annually on the "war on drugs," you'd think it would have been won by now. So what do we have to show for all the money and effort expended to rid our country of dangerous drugs? Well, more drugs and a lot of people in jail. It's a lot like the time they decided to make alcohol illegal in America. The result was .... more alcohol and a lot of people in jail. Oh, yeah, and the birth of organized crime.

Maybe it's time to rethink this perpetual problem. We already know that the traditional methods of dealing with this type of situation do no good and, in fact, make the problem even worse.

Illegal drugs aren't going away as long as people want them, and no one wants America to continue down the road to becoming a police state.

I know, we're pretty far down that road already.

Sudafed

I went to the store to buy a box of Sudafed for my wife.....she has a bad cold.

Little did I know that it would have been a less involved procedure if I had tried to buy a gun or even dynamite.

First of all, even though no prescription is required, Sudafed is kept behind the pharmacy counter. I had to surrender my drivers license and wait while the pharmacist ran a background check on me on the computer. Then she entered some information about the Sudafed, including the lot number, and I had to fill out a tag with my name, address, date of birth, signature, and date and TIME of purchase. WTF?

I've heard that pseudo ephedrine, a Sudafed ingredient, is used to make methamphetamines, but is one box going to be enough for the government to worry about? It's probably been over 20 years since the last time I bought Sudafed, and I have no idea how to make methamphetamines, nor any inclination to do so.

This one purchase took several minutes, and the time and effort required to satisfy the law must have some influence on the cost of the drug.

Needless to say, I am not just disgusted.....I'm outraged! If 20 years ago someone had told me what I would have to go through just to by a stupid box of Sudafed, I would have said "No way! Not in THIS country!" But I was pretty naive 20 years ago.

Now if only someone could come up with a way to make a "dangerous" drug from dandelions. I would enjoy watching DEA agents desperately trying to keep my lawn free of weeds.

Afganistan opium production

Reports I've read claim that opium production is steadily increasing in Afghanistan. The Taliban and Al-Qaida are said to be raking in millions in de facto taxes from this drug trade (although, I suspect that they are not the only ones).

We probably don't have enough napalm bombs to take out all the poppy fields, but there is, perhaps a practical solution to the drug production problem over there.

What if the U.S. and other concerned nations bought the entire poppy crop of every Afghan grower and destroyed all that could be harvested?

We could then train, fund, and otherwise assist Afghan farmers in cultivating other crops that would be much more useful to the people in that part of the world.

Then, if anyone decided to go back into the opium trade, we could use our limited supply of napalm bombs to destroy the crops (and the farmers that grew them).

It might be more economical in the long run and would definitely be more effective than anything yet tried. At any rate, it would reduce the supply of opium and increase the supply of food and other cash crops.

Yeah, I know it would make us look like bullies, but I can live with that.