U.S. armed forces walking through an opium poppy field.
Credit: publicintelligence.net
Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan is named for the wide river that runs through its provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, a low-slung city of shrubby roundabouts and glass-fronted market blocks. When I visited in April, there was an expectant atmosphere, like that of a whaling town waiting for the big ships to come in. In the bazaars, the shops were filled with dry goods, farming machinery and motorcycles. The teahouses, where a man could spend the night on the carpet for the price of his dinner, were packed with migrant laborers, or nishtgar, drawn from across the southern provinces, some coming from as far afield as Iran and Pakistan. The schools were empty; in war-torn districts, police and Taliban alike had put aside their arms. It was harvest time.
Across the province, hundreds of thousands of people were taking part in the largest opium harvest in Afghanistan’s history. With a record 224,000 hectares […]
In my old 1897 Sears Roebuck & Co. catalogue along side a Dr. Pasteur’s “Microbe Killer” which claims to eradicate any form of disease and purify the whole system, there is another concoction under the heading of “Special Family Remedies”, all of which are considered a necessary article in every household in which there is a liquid of “Laudanum” (which is a tincture of opium) for which a 1oz bottle costs 10 cents or a dozen for the sum of one dollar. These were all tested by the leading Doctors at the time (before pharmaceutical companies got control of everything). Now we have to go through great lengths of time going to Doctors and pharmacies to acquire a concoction made by a pharmaceutical company that synthesizes a compound similar to opium combined with acetomenophene which is now known to cause drastic internal damage to the body and at a great cost. Anyone who thinks this is progress is simply ignorant!