PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Poppygate
by glenn greenway Tuesday, Mar. 11, 2003 at 1:32 PM
glenncg@isrv.com

Poppygate refers to the impeachment of President Bush based on his 'devil's bargain' with Afghanistan's Northern Alliance. Poppy prodution expands 18 fold since US occupation and the price of Pittsburgh heroin plummets while availability skyrockets.

connect_the_dots.jpg, image/jpeg, 841x569

March 11, 2003

Dear Friends,

After 9/11 the American People were told that intelligence agencies had failed to 'connect the dots'.

Acknowledging that I'm not a particularly intelligent agent, when I spotted these two dots I decided to have a crack at connecting them.

-----------------------

Dot 1

Bloomberg News, February 4, 2003; Page A20

On Afghani Opium Production:

2001 - 185 tons

2002 - 3,400 tons

A 18 fold increase under US Occupation!

-----------------------

Dot 2

Pittsburgh Tribune Review, February 9, 2003

On Local Heroin Prices:

2000 - $25 per unit

2002 - $3 per unit

1/10 the price of two years ago, less than the price of a Happy Meal!

-----------------------

I ask that you carefully examine Dots One and Two and try connecting them for yourself.

This exercise in applied dot connecting is called Poppygate.

We need Congressional Hearings immediately!


Thank you.


-----------------------

Excerpt from Bloomberg News referenced above:

UNITED NATIONS -- Afghanistan regained its position as the world's leading opium producer last year, yielding 3,400 tons worth $2.5 billion to growers and traffickers of the illegal drug, the United Nations reported. Afghanistan overtook Burma, also known as Myanmar, as the top producer. Burma became the leader in 2001, when Afghan cultivation plunged 94 percent after the Taliban outlawed the growing of poppies, which are used to make the drug. The ban was extended by the new Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai in January 2002, although enforcement efforts have become ineffective, the U.N. said.


Opium production in Afghanistan, which peaked at 4,565 tons in 1999, fell to 185 tons under the Taliban in 2001 before increasing last year. The price of opium rose to $450 per kilogram last year from $35 per kilogram in 2001, the United Nations said.
------------------------

Excerpts from Pittsburgh Tribune Review referenced above:

Two years ago, a teen had to pay $25 for a tiny bag of heroin along East Ohio or Federal streets on the North Side, two of the city's largest open air drug markets, according to kids and cops interviewed by the Trib.

The customer's race determines the price. In the black neighborhoods of the Hill District and the St. Clair Village housing project, city junkies pay $3 for a balloon filled with heroin. The deluge of cheap heroin now makes the drug $2 cheaper than a baggie of crack cocaine sold in the same neighborhoods.

www.cultural-baggage.com/houstonnorml/poppy_gate.htm

add your comments