{"id":797,"date":"2005-02-05T17:12:58","date_gmt":"2005-02-05T21:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/wordpress\/?p=797"},"modified":"2005-02-05T17:12:58","modified_gmt":"2005-02-05T21:12:58","slug":"stage-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=797","title":{"rendered":"Stage Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

The second<\/a> act<\/a> has begun and George is reading his part like an Andover<\/a> cheerleader<\/a>. What beastly handler decided he should quixotically pose and smirk unwaveringly at Marine Corps Sergeant Byron Norwood’s mother as she became unhinged by the ghost of her son? The boy king is a cold fish. <\/p>\n

Will prohibition of the peace sign now be a codicil to the pre-show checklist? Pacemakers must have gone into overdrive each time Safia Taleb al-Suhail<\/a> flashed a “V” sign. If she meant victory, not peace, for whom? Halliburton cronies, whose KBR subsidiary shall be freed from “silly” asbestos claims? The thousands of Iraqis who have been freed from their bodies, arms, and legs by coalition forces and from the reconstruction work of their country by foreign contractors? The opium-growing warlords in Afghanistan, who despite a ban by the Interim gov’t in 2002, then Karzai’s call for a jihad against it, and now the tying of U.S. aid to its eradication, are free to supply “75 percent of opiates globally<\/a>“?<\/p>\n

Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections, scheduled for April<\/a>, have D.C.’s narco-warriors in a political dilemma over their programme nicknamed ?Plan Afghanistan<\/a>? which asks Congress<\/a> “to provide nearly $780 million in anti-drug aid to Afghanistan over the next three years: $173 million for interdiction, $180 million for law enforcement and judicial reform, $5 million for a public information campaign, including broadcasting anti-drug messages from supportive mullahs, $120 million for programmes to develop alternative livelihoods for farmers, and nearly $300 million for eradication programmes.” Karzai objects to the aerial spraying of the spring crop, fearing it would alienate rural voters. Whether he’ll still object or his opinion will matter once the votes are counted is the question, after all, the strategy continues despite its failure<\/a> in<\/a> Colombia<\/a>. No word from Habibullah Qadari, a “relative unknown<\/a>” who was appointed by Karzai to head the Counternarcotics Ministry, created immediately after the 2004 presidential elections<\/a>. But according to Rep. Mark Kirk<\/a>(R) of Illinois, who in January 2005 led a mission to Afghanistan and the Netherlands “to advance the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and State Department?s anti-heroin and anti-club drug programs,” it is imperative to act as “Al Qaeda is reaping the profits of heroin sales<\/a>,” despite<\/a> every report I’ve read to date<\/a> stating the U.S. has tread lightly on the issue because they needed the support of the warlords<\/a> to contain remnants of al Qaeda and their Taliban supporters.<\/p>\n

?The good news is our Anti-Club Drug Strategy we signed onto with the Netherlands and Belgium is working. The amount of club drugs flowing into our country and suburban kids using them is declining,? said Kirk. ?The bad news is heroin use is rising among suburban teens and is a popular drug of choice among white, middle class teenagers.?<\/p>\n

Whether Ecstasy remains less popular than heroin (or<\/a> meth<\/a>) with white kids picking their parents’ pockets or more difficult to purchase thanks to the Anti-Drug Club Strategy is debatable, since Kirk’s claim appears to precede available studies and domestic suppliers are on-the-rise<\/a>, but what is clear is that the Netherlands produces 90% of the world’s Ecstasy due its liberal laws yet they have few overdose-related deaths<\/a> because their society “encourages education, prevention and treatment of drug addicts.” And while Kirk appears to support education, this is what his Anti-Club Drug Strategy entails<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Kirk, with help from the Belgian and Dutch Ambassadors and John Walters, outlined the major points of the roadmap agreed upon by the Netherlands and the United States when they met in The Hague to further their common commitment to combat narcotics trafficking, international crime, and terrorism. <\/p>\n

Under the new commitments made today, the government of the Netherlands will increase inspections of cargos bound for North America, implement a new currency declaration law, upgrade property seizure enforcement and establish controls on precursor ingredients. <\/p>\n

The Belgian government will establish its own Synthetic Drug Unit, expand investigation of high-level narcotic bosses (Priority Target Organizations), and expand its specialty of undercover controlled deliveries by police officers to map out the location of trafficking organizations. <\/p>\n

The United States government will add DEA Special Agents stationed in The Hague, provide assistance to Belgium in the establishment of its Synthetic Drug Unit, provide training and intelligence to the Dutch Synthetic Drug Unit, and expand its joint investigations with Dutch police. <\/p>\n

“We are not out of the woods yet, but these commitments by three governments will help protect young Americans from the permanent damage caused by these drugs,” said Congressman Kirk. “However; the only way to truly reduce demand of Ecstasy is to educate our children, parents and communities about its deadly consequences.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I sense the stirrings of a media blitz in the style of the 2002 Super Bowl<\/a> commercials tying drug use with funding terrorists<\/a> and parodied<\/a> by The Detroit Project<\/a>. The ONDCP<\/a>‘s campaign to defeat state ballot issues addressing drug reform initiatives – “now slated for a total value over ten years of some 4 billion<\/a>” – is an excellent example of the gov’t deciding policy then lying to get the public to support issues that are not in their best interests. <\/p>\n

The disastrous results of ONDCP’s propaganda, according to Steve Fox<\/a> of the Marijuana Policy Project<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In recent years ONDCP’s commercials have focused overwhelmingly, almost obsessively, on marijuana. But marijuana is well documented to be far less toxic or addictive than alcohol and tobacco, much less cocaine, heroin or methamphetamine. A scientific review by Oxford University researcher Leslie Iversen in the February issue of Current Opinion in Pharmacology concludes, “Overall, by comparison with other drugs used mainly for ‘recreational’ purposes, cannabis [marijuana] could be rated a relatively safe drug.” <\/p>\n

But you would never know that from those government ads, which suggest that if you smoke a joint you will shoot your friends, run down little girls on bicycles and end up a homeless derelict. Far more dangerous substances are rarely mentioned in this ad blitz, whose White House origins are typically disclosed in a minimal, easy-to-miss fashion. <\/p>\n

There are clear signs that this distorted emphasis, driven by politics instead of science, is hurting our kids. According to the latest, federally-funded Monitoring the Future survey of U.S. teenagers, adolescent use of marijuana declined slightly last year while use of potentially lethal inhalants and cocaine went up. And teens rated occasional use of marijuana as being more dangerous than trying crack cocaine, drinking nearly every day or taking LSD regularly. <\/p>\n

Amazingly, White House Drug Czar John Walters called the survey’s results “good news for American parents and teens.” One can only wonder what he thinks bad news would look like. Sen. Tom Harkin ( D-IA ) is preparing to introduce legislation requiring all government-purchased ads to state that they were bought at taxpayer expense. Such truth-in-labeling is an essential, if minimal, step in the right direction.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What will also be missing from gov’t sponsored infomericals produced with U.S. tax dollars is the view<\/a> that legalising drugs, including decriminalising the cultivation of opium, would result in fewer partnerships between growers and terrorists while prohibition leads to their creation. And as Sanho Tree<\/a> of the Institute for Policy Studies<\/a> remarked in this interview<\/a>, “There is a glut on the market, prices are dropping, and now the US wants to start eradicating. What will happen? The supply will shrink, prices will go up, and guess what crop people will be planting more of?”<\/p>\n

Hip-hop historian Jeff Chang, the authour of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop<\/a> and proprietor of a blog<\/a> by the same name, is of the opinion that a faith-based anti-gang intitiative should have progressives “shaking in their boots” and that “it could mark a shift in generational politics.” He writes, “The hip-hop generation has been victim first of the politics of abandonment, then of the politics of containment. Here is an attempt at assimilation. They’re saying, we’ll address the hip-hop generation by appealing to their spiritual selves.”<\/p>\n

Is that the plan? I admire Chang’s ability to be positive. My first thought was that the people he calls “the smartest minds in the baby boomer right-wing” are staking out a new victim to feed its white cracker base since a ban on gay marriage is little more than a signature away from being a Constitutional amendment in the voter’s minds. These are stressfull times requiring distraction facilitated by prayer-ins at invitation-only events. <\/p>\n

And Chang reveals a cautious optimism as he goes on to write:<\/p>\n

But here’s the essential bankruptcy in the Bush plan: Faith is necessary but not sufficient, especially faith dispensed from on high. For hip-hop generation youths caught in the cycle of violence, positive messages alone won’t solve the problem. As Bush’s tax cuts and war economics continue to make many youths of color expendable, the level of violence and desperation has been creeping back up in many inner cities. The hip-hop generation needs real jobs and resources in the neighborhoods, community-centered problem-solving, and a long-term commitment to their emotional, mental, and physical health. Anything less is bad faith.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cross this 2002 interview<\/a> of Robert Kaplan by Evan Solomon of the CBC News<\/a> programme Hot Type<\/a> with Capitalism and Crisis: Creating a Jailhouse Nation<\/a> by David Gilbert and, pray tell, what conclusion do you come to?<\/p>\n

Updated @ 14:10 02\/07\/05<\/strong>: Jim Lobe on The Birth of a Narco-State<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The second act has begun and George is reading his part like an Andover cheerleader. What beastly handler decided he should quixotically pose and smirk unwaveringly at Marine Corps Sergeant Byron Norwood’s mother as she became unhinged by the ghost … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdXTf-cR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}