Yule Heibel's Library tagged times_colonist →  View Popular, Search in Google

Must-read article about heroin, Afghanistan, war, and Canada...
QUOTE
“Opium is the problem in Afghanistan. A corrupt narco-elite runs the country,” [Amir Attaran] said.

Attaran is a University of Ottawa law professor and development expert who has studied Afghanistan’s drug trade.

He said both sides in the country’s war have an interest in perpetuating the conflict because of their involvement with opium. “You cannot grow opium and traffic it on a large scale in peacetime. You need a fog of war,” he said.

“If you want to understand the conflict in Afghanistan, you have to understand this is a gang war.”

Attaran’s solution: Legalize Afghan opium and sell it for medical uses, joining countries such as India and Turkey that grow legal opium crops for the pharmaceutical market.

The result, he thinks, would be to turn warlords into regular businessmen and reduce the country’s violence and corruption. “I don’t really see an alternative that would succeed,” Attaran said.
UNQUOTE

afghanistan heroin drugs war addiction canada times_colonist

A rather amusing look at history according to Victoria's mainstream media (in this case by Times-Colonist reporter Bill Cleverley). Wow, this is quite the ellipsis...

If there's one thing I'm learning from the whole Johnson Street Bridge issue and process is that one apparently can't trust our media to get the stories right.

johnson_street_bridge media newspapers times_colonist bill_cleverley