
How Do Afghan Drug Lords Spend All That Loot? - robg
http://trueslant.com/jefftietz/2009/08/20/elections-and-20-man-rule-in-afghanistan/
======
biohacker42
The FARC in Columbia and the war lords in Afghanistan are all rich because a
bunch of baby boomers can't bare the thought of legalizing drugs. Please
someone contradict me and make a more reasoned argument. I am too pissed off
to think of anything better.

~~~
patio11
_Please someone contradict me and make a more reasoned argument._

The FARC sells _cocaine_. The Afghan warlords sell _heroin_. There is no
constellation of American political interests for which "Legalize cocaine and
heroin" is even remotely conceivable as an achievable policy option.

Incidentally, no matter what you legalize, smuggling remains a viable option
for whatever it is you don't. FARC could just as easily be the world's largest
kiddie porn or sex slave ring. Afghanistan could sell slaves.

(I am not speaking hypothetically. There are nations which do both. A
willingness to do evil plus a local monopoly on coercive force makes for a
very profitable combination.)

~~~
bravura
Your argument is specious.

The total addressable market for heroin and cocaine consumption is
demonstrably high. Kiddie porn demand will never reach this level, and hiding
a sex slave in your house is difficult.

~~~
nandemo
Funny that you say that.

In Japan there's a whole (legal) industry that would be probably classified as
"kiddie porn" distribution in US. It's certainly bigger than the local cocaine
and heroine market.

~~~
biohacker42
What's legal in Japan creeps me out, but what's illegal in the US is often
silly.

~~~
sho
You'll be happy to know that freedom of expression is slowly being crushed in
Japan, just like everywhere else, so you won't have to feel creeped out much
longer.

[http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/08/21/un-demands-
hentai-b...](http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/08/21/un-demands-hentai-ban/)
(possibly NSFW)

~~~
sketerpot
The UN's obscure subdepartments can demand, but Japan doesn't have to comply.
And considering the size of the market for hentai, I don't think it's going to
go away any time soon.

------
euroclydon
The War on (some) Drugs is so friggin' stupid! We'd be better off just doing
what we can to make drug production a respectable and not so dangerous trade.

~~~
ryanwaggoner
I don't necessarily disagree, but we already don't have a war on a long list
of drugs, from caffeine to nicotine to alcohol to pharmaceuticals. You seem to
feel that this list is inadequate, but that legalization of all drugs isn't
the answer either, so I'd be interested to know _which_ drugs we should no
longer war against, and what the criteria is.

~~~
grsxfcyt
We could just change it every year. The increase in police will help boost the
economy. At each state of the union address the pres could announce that this
year Jolt and Ibuprofen are banned and you would have 24hours to consume it
all before the police raids start.

------
steveplace
Or we could set up morphine processing facilities and sell the processed,
medical grade, codine/morphine on the open market-- creating industry, jobs,
economic devpt.. that whole schtick

------
jsonscripter
I wish they would just firebomb the poppy fields and get it over with. What
would be wrong with that? They've been saying they would for years but always
decide to 'wait a little longer' and never do anything.

~~~
martincmartin
They would take away the livelihoods of a large number of farmers. From an
Afgan farmer's position, when there are these foreign troops with strange
customs and behavior that you don't really understand or like, and then they
destroy all your crops and leave you and your family to starve, it tends to
turn you against them. And when you have a lot of anger and time on your
hands, some will decide to take up arms against the troops instead.

~~~
m_eiman
A better solution would be to just pay the farmers more than they get for the
poppy to produce something else instead. With some basic sanity checks on the
amount of stuff they produce the inevitable cheating of the system should be
somewhat manageable. It might not be very cheap, but neither is handling the
effects of drug-based crime at home or posting troops abroad.

~~~
sharpn
I heard saffron could be a viable alternative cash crop.

~~~
hughprime
Sounds a bit unfair to all the saffron farmers in other countries. With half
the land in Afghanistan suddenly devoted to saffron production, the value of
saffron will plummet. Meanwhile, Afghan saffron farmers will be selling their
saffron to the US government for some insane price. If I were a foreign
saffron farmer I'd be pretty pissed off. Oh, and the number one saffron
producer at the moment is Iran, so you'd probably get a vast industry in
smuggling Iranian saffron across the border to be sold in Afghanistan.

Oh, and also the drop in opium production will raise opium prices, and so
you'll need to keep raising the Afghanistan saffron buying price in order to
keep it more attractive than opium farming.

I foresee all sorts of unforeseen consequences, and those are just the
foreseen ones!

~~~
fizx
It would be pretty sweet for us if we could convince them to grow biodiesel.

~~~
JimmyL
If the could grow corn or soybeans - which are the main feedstocks for
biodiesel - it would be better for everyone if they just used it for food
production, as opposed to refining it and shipping it over here.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
Where would they get all that water? Corn is a VERY thirsty crop, wheras opium
poppies actually produce more alkoloids when given less water.

~~~
JimmyL
I don't think they could - hence, one of the many reasons that they don't grow
it.

I'm saying that _if_ they had the capability to grow corn, as fizx suggests,
then it would be better to use that corn for food, as opposed to biodiesel.

