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Captain Obvious
09-26-2014, 08:03 AM
I'll have the General Tsao's Chicken with a side of brown rice and crack whore noodles please...

http://metro.co.uk/2014/09/25/restaurant-admits-selling-opium-laced-noodles-so-customers-keep-coming-back-4882058/


The owner of a noodle restaurant has confessed to lacing his trademark dish with opium – so customers would keep coming back for more.

The restaurant owner, known only as Zhang, admitted to police that he had been grinding poppy buds into the food after one of his regular customers tested positive for opium during a routine traffic stop earlier this month.

Codename Section
09-26-2014, 08:17 AM
This is awesome.

Common Sense
09-26-2014, 08:19 AM
Beats tryptophan...

Captain Obvious
09-26-2014, 08:19 AM
This is awesome.

The tobacco industry has been doing this for decades.

PolWatch
09-26-2014, 08:42 AM
it worked for Coke...why not noodles?

Peter1469
09-26-2014, 04:18 PM
They add it to curry in Thailand.

Cthulhu
10-01-2014, 02:22 PM
Well, I wouldn't feel bad if somebody burned his establishment to the ground. He could at least inform people they were getting doped up.

It's one thing to sell someone rat poison with full disclosure.

It is another thing entirely to sell me a doughnut and not tell me there is rat poison in it.

Peter1469
10-01-2014, 02:34 PM
Well, I wouldn't feel bad if somebody burned his establishment to the ground. He could at least inform people they were getting doped up.

It's one thing to sell someone rat poison with full disclosure.

It is another thing entirely to sell me a doughnut and not tell me there is rat poison in it.

When I mentioned the curry in Thailand, they don't use enough to affect you. It is for taste. Lick a pinch in a bowl that could feed 6.

Cthulhu
10-01-2014, 07:05 PM
When I mentioned the curry in Thailand, they don't use enough to affect you. It is for taste. Lick a pinch in a bowl that could feed 6.

It isn't the health aspect that bothers me - it is minimal at best.

It is the lack of full disclosure that bugs me the most.

donttread
10-06-2014, 02:43 AM
I'll have the General Tsao's Chicken with a side of brown rice and crack $#@! noodles please...

http://metro.co.uk/2014/09/25/restaurant-admits-selling-opium-laced-noodles-so-customers-keep-coming-back-4882058/

Opium is used to made a wide range of drugs from Heroin to Vicodin and is also the real reason we are in Afghanistan. "Crack" is a form of smokeable Cocaine which is made from the South American Coca plant.

waltky
05-14-2016, 07:48 AM
Mexico wants to legalize medical opium...
:rollseyes:
Mexico debates legalizing opium poppy for medicine
Saturday 14th May, 2016 - Fed up with drug-related violence, a growing number of Mexican politicians see one potential cure: Legalising the cultivation of opium poppies for the production of medicine.


The debate has emerged in recent weeks after President Enrique Pena Nieto proposed legislation in April to loosen marijuana laws by legalising medical cannabis and easing restrictions on its recreational use. Since then, governors and congressional lawmakers have voiced their support for regulating opium poppies, which are often grown by farmers in poor areas of the country and sold to cartels as the raw material for heroin. The idea was launched by Hector Astudillo, governor of the southern state of Guerrero, which has the country's highest murder rate amid turf wars among drug cartels battling for control of the mountains where US-bound heroin is born.

Astudillo, whose state is the biggest producer of opium poppies, proposed a pilot program for the crop's cultivation for medical uses. Graco Ramirez, governor of the neighboring crime-plagued state of Morelos, which is a transit route for the drug, voiced his support. "In (the northwestern state of) Sinaloa and Guerrero, growing opium poppies is a fact of life and we must take it away from the criminals and give it to health," Ramirez said.

GOVERNMENT PREPARES BILL?

Manuel Mondragon y Kalb, the national commissioner against drug addiction, said that his agency is "deeply studying the use of opium gum as medicine, its transformation into morphine and its derivatives as painkillers." While Mondragon did not indicate whether the government was drafting some kind of legislation, El Universal newspaper said Wednesday, citing presidency sources, that the government was working on a proposal to send to Congress by the end of the year. Pena Nieto's spokesman, Eduardo Sanchez, told AFP that he had "no idea about this information" in the newspaper while Health Minister Jose Narro told reporters that Congress must first focus on the marijuana bill.

One backer of such a measure, Senator Miguel Romo, of Pena Nieto's centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), said opium poppies are regulated in "a very efficient way" in some countries where it is legal for medical uses, such as Spain. Australia, France, Turkey, Hungary and India also grow opium poppies legally for the pharmaceutical industry under international licenses. Senator Roberto Gil, of the conservative National Action Party, said that it "is stupid" that Mexico cannot use opium poppies for medical purposes when it is one of the world's major producers of the crop.

HEROIN TOO PROFITABLE (http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/mexico-debates-legalizing/2785026.html)

waltky
05-26-2016, 01:39 PM
Mansour's death could fuel opium trade...
http://www.politicalforum.com/images/smilies/confused.gif
Taliban instability could fuel opium trade
Wed, 25 May 2016 - The death of the Taliban leader Mullah Mansour could lead to increased instability in Afghanistan, and provide a boost to the opium trade, says Justin Rowlatt.


Mullah Mansour, Afghan Taliban leader and the commander of a militia of thousands of men, died a lonely death. He was rattling across the arid wastes of the Baluch desert in Pakistan on Saturday morning in that most Afghan of cars - a battered white Toyota Corrola - when the missile, fired from a US drone, struck his vehicle. All that was left was a charred and twisted wreck beside the desert highway. US President Barack Obama described his death as an "important milestone", but disentangling what it actually marks is not straightforward. The most obvious question is what it will mean for the Taliban.

The Pentagon said it had targeted Mansour because he had become "an obstacle to peace and reconciliation". But it isn't clear that the new leader will be any more open towards the peace process. Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhunzada was Mullah Mansour's former deputy, and the official line from the Taliban is that his approach is going to be very similar. What's more, his appointment doesn't rule out the possibility of a battle for succession. Mansour struggled to contain the splintering of the movement into a series of factions that followed the death of Mullah Omar, the founder of the Taliban.


http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/17E24/production/_89782879_001247020-1.jpg

That would increase instability in Afghanistan, fuelling local conflicts and entrenching the insurgency. Then, there is the question of what it means for US relations with Pakistan, which are regarded as crucial to the effort to fight global terrorism. The drone attack suggests the US has lost patience with the Pakistani authorities, which have failed to bring the Taliban to the table, while allegedly harbouring the movement's leaders. So the killing of Mullah Mansour may actually set back the efforts to negotiate a peace settlement.

On Monday, the US ambassador was summoned to the Pakistani Foreign Ministry to be harangued about what it described as a "violation of Pakistan's sovereignty". The official Pakistani line is that the attack will be an obstacle to future talks. The third question is the one most likely to affect those outside the region: the impact on the drugs trade. It would be tempting to conclude that removing Mansour will make the battle to eradicate opium more straightforward. Mansour helped oversee the transformation of the Taliban from a movement of pious fanatics, largely funded by true believers from abroad, into something very different.

MORE (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/the-reporters-36370553)

See also:

Pakistani Minister Accuses U.S. of ‘Sabotaging’ Peace Talks by Killing Taliban Leader
May 25, 2016 – Islamabad’s outspoken interior minister has lashed out at the United States for the drone strike that killed Taliban leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansour in Pakistani territory, accusing it of “sabotaging” peace talks with the terrorist group.


“You can’t expect the Taliban to come to the negotiating table after killing their leader,” Chaudry Nisar Ali Khan told a press conference in the capital. “You can’t initiate peace talks and hope for its success, when on the other side you are following the policy of aggression.” Khan recalled that Mansour had thrown his support behind a Taliban delegation which held a dialogue with Afghan officials, hosted by Pakistan in Muree, near Islamabad, last year. “We were seeing some hope, but this incident occurred, sabotaging the dialogue process,” he said, referring to Saturday’s drone strike on a car in which Mansour and a driver were traveling in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province.

The U.S. supports an ailing Afghan-led reconciliation process between Kabul and Taliban figures who agree to renounce violence, abandon their alliance with al-Qaeda, and abide by the constitution of Afghanistan. But both the U.S. and Afghan governments charge that Mansour was in no way promoting dialogue. Mansour “was neither encouraging people to talk nor supporting the talks nor supportive of reconciliation,” Secretary of State John Kerry said early this week. “If people want to stand in the way of peace, continue to threaten and kill and blow people up, we have no recourse but to respond, and I think we responded appropriately.”

An Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman described Mansour as “irreconcilable.” Khan complained that the killing of the Taliban leader “has put Pakistan in a very difficult situation.” “This act is totally illegal, unacceptable and against the sovereignty and integrity of the country,” he said. Khan claimed that the U.S. only notified Pakistan about the strike seven hours after it occurred. Asked about that claim Tuesday, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said he would not discuss “operational details” of the incident. But he added that “these are very narrow windows in any case, and it’s not just with friends and allies or partners or whoever, but in any of these instances, it’s absolutely vital to keep operational security.”

Asked whether Pakistan wasn’t informed beforehand because it could not be trusted, Toner reiterated that “operational security trumps a need to inform other governments.” ‘The world will turn into a battle zone’ Khan at his press conference said the U.S. sought to justify drone strikes by declaring that it will target its enemies “wherever they are.” “But we have a problem with this logic, because if every country starts working on this approach then the world will turn into a battle zone,” he added.

MORE (http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/pakistani-minister-accuses-us-sabotaging-peace-talks-killing-taliban)

waltky
05-29-2016, 06:29 AM
Afghan police helpin' opium growers...
http://www.politicalforum.com/images/smilies/icon_omg.gif
The opium farmers with the police on their side
Sat, 28 May 2016 - The opium growers with the police on their side


This year, Afghanistan is expected to produce more opium than the world consumes. Although billions of dollars have been spent trying to eradicate the crop, in some places the trade seems more institutionalised than ever, with local police openly supporting farmers. Mazar-e-Sharif is one of the safest and best-run cities in the Afghanistan - a model of good governance - yet just half an hour out of town in a small village of mud-walled houses it is obvious what the main cash crop is. I stop at a big poppy field right beside the road. It must be 100m square. Thousands of swollen poppy heads nod gently at me in the dawn breeze.

Across the field, five or six men are working, scraping the bulbs with a sickle-shaped tool. They look up, but they don't seem concerned. The villager who is guiding me gestures to indicate I can go into the field. The plants are waist high and brush against me as I walk. The heads are bigger than I expected, about the size of a large plum. Most have a blackish purple dribble on the side. Each afternoon the workers score the bulbs with a series of tiny scratches. Overnight the sap suppurates out to form a dark scab. It is hard to believe this is the source of so much misery and conflict in the world.


http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/28DB/production/_89795401_img_6031.jpg
A farmer holding an opium poppy

For a moment I'm back in a history class in my school in north London, rain lashing down on the windows, learning about the opium wars. I remember people I knew from that time who became addicted to heroin. Two are dead now. I touch the opium with my finger. I expect it to be sticky, but it is actually surprisingly moist. The reddish black colour is a thin skin. Underneath, it is white and the texture of pus. I sniff it. It barely smells at all - perhaps a hint of grass cuttings or crushed leaves - but in this form, the legendary intoxicant is almost odourless. I rub it between my fingers. It darkens and becomes more gummy.

Curiosity overcomes me. I raise my finger to my mouth and dab my tongue, just for a moment. It tastes horrible, bitter and metallic. I am startled by a shout. One of the harvesters, his salwar kameez brown with opium stains, has been watching me. He saw me taste the drug. "Don't do that. That stuff is very bad for you," he says. "Haven't you ever been tempted to try it?" I want to know. "I know that if I start using it, I'll get addicted and my future will be destroyed. The people who use it - I've seen them in the cities lying down, their family life is destroyed, their children don't go to school," he tells me. "But you're helping produce the stuff. Don't you feel guilty?" I ask. I'm not surprised by his answer. "I've got no choice," he says. "I've got no job and you get good money with the opium."

Find out more (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36378228)

waltky
10-24-2016, 03:23 AM
Another record poppy crop in Afghanistan...
http://www.politicalforum.com/images/smilies/icon_omg.gif
Afghan opium cultivation jumps 10% this year: UN
Mon, Oct 24, 2016 - Afghanistan saw a 10 percent jump in opium cultivation this year, a sharp rise owing to favorable weather, growing insecurity and a drop in international support for counternarcotics operations, the UN said yesterday.


Cultivation dropped last year owing to drought conditions, but it has been on the rise in the past decade, fueling the Taliban insurgency and spurring a growing crisis of drug addiction despite costly US-led counternarcotics programs. High levels of cultivation this year meant the total opium production soared 43 percent, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, citing better yield because of favorable weather conditions. “The cultivation has increased by 10 percent this year compared to the same time in 2015 — from 183,000 hectares to 201,000 hectares,” Afghan Counter Narcotics Minister Salamat Azimi told a joint news conference with the UN. “Ninety-three percent of the cultivation has taken place in the southern, eastern and western parts of the country,” he said.


http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2016/10/24/P04-161024-314.jpg
A farmer harvests opium sap on April 19 from a poppy field in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan.

Officials also cited falling international donor support and growing insecurity as the main reasons for the increase in cultivation. Afghanistan saw a drop in opium cultivation last year for the first time since 2009, a UN report said, citing drought conditions as a key reason for the decline. Poppy farmers in Afghanistan, the world’s leading producer of opium, are often taxed by the Taliban, who use the cash to help fund their insurgency against government and NATO forces. “Most of the wars in Afghanistan are financed by income from poppy. Anywhere you see poppy in Afghanistan you see fighting there,” Afghan Deputy Minister of Interior for Counter Narcotics Baz Mohammad Ahmadi said.

International donors have splurged billions of dollars on counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan over the past decade, including efforts encouraging farmers to switch to other cash crops such as saffron. However, those efforts have shown little results. Addiction levels have also risen sharply — from almost nothing under the 1996 to 2001 Taliban regime — giving rise to a new generation of addicts since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2016/10/24/2003657836

See also:

Opium production up in Afghanistan, eradication down
Oct. 23, 2016 -- Opium production in Afghanistan is up 43 percent over 2015 levels with very little eradication efforts in place, according to the latest Afghanistan Opium Survey.


Opium is used to produce heroin. The use of this illegal drug is on the rise in the United States with stronger enforcement taking place for abuse of prescription opioids. Data released Sunday by the Afghan Ministry of Counter Narcotics and the U.S. Office on Drugs and Crime showed a 10 percent increase in the amount of land used to grow poppies, from which opium is extracted, Al Jazeera reported. Eradication efforts have dropped 91 percent since last year.


http://cdnph.upi.com/sv/b/i/UPI-2941477229226/2016/1/14772316798924/Opium-production-up-in-Afghanistan-eradication-down.jpg

The increase in production is due to better farming conditions which have resulted in a higher yield, BBC reported. Producing opium is a crime in Afghanistan, but remains a robust cash crop for impoverished farming villages. The commodity is taxed by the Taliban, which uses the money as a major source of income for its military activities. The report, released Sunday, shows "a worrying reversal in efforts," said UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov. Afghanistan has a stated government policy that prohibits opium production, but is often accused of looking the other way.

Earlier this year, one farmer said the local government was aware of his crop, but knows it is the only way anyone can make "decent money." Afghanistan's southern region produces 54 percent of poppies. Helmand province produces the most, with more than 160,000 acres of land in cultivation. That area has also seen a resurgence in recent years of Taliban presence. Last year, when eradication efforts were much stronger, seven insurgents and one law officer died when eradication teams were attacked. That region saw clashes between the Taliban and NATO-led forces before NATO withdrew in 2014.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2016/10/23/Opium-production-up-in-Afghanistan-eradication-down/2941477229226/?spt=sec&or=tn