The Pentagon Acknowledges A Drug Problem For U.S. Soldiers In Afghanistan

Pentagon Launches Anti-Spice Campaign -- Navy Times

High-level military officials are sounding the alarm about the dangers of synthetic marijuana that is sold legally as “spice.”

The Pentagon Channel is promising “an in-depth look at spice” through October.

“One bad dose could cost you your life,” Marine Staff Sgt. Josh Hauser, an anchor for a Pentagon Channel news program, said during an Oct. 1 broadcast.

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My Comment: I suspect that the drug problem for U.S. troops in Afghanistan is just the tip of the iceberg .... especially for those who are operating in faraway FOBs. But at least the Pentagon is now acknowledging that there is a drug problem for US troops.

Afghanistan's Drug Problem Is Completely Out Of Control

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Afghan Women and Kids Fight Drug Addiction -- CBS News

Vast Supply of Opium is Problem for Entire Families

(CBS) Najiba's four kids Karima, Marjabin, Naqibullah and Hila range in age from 4 to 13. Like her, they are all opium addicts, reports CBS News correspondent Mandy Clarke from Afghanistan.

"I started taking opium more than a decade ago," Najiba says, "when my 7-year-old son was killed by a truck."

She started giving it to her children to keep them from shivering in the winter. They've all had treatment before, but poverty lead them back to drugs.

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My Comment: This is the society that America wants to save from the Taliban.

Good luck.

Drugs And The Destruction Of Afghan Society

Heroin and opium addicts in the former Soviet Cultural Center in Kabul.
Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

Drugs Hollow Out Afghan Lives in Cultural Center -- New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — The men, hollow-eyed and matted, start coming at dawn, shuffling into the remains of the old Soviet Cultural Center, which in its day staged films celebrating the glories of a new era.

These days, the shell of the abandoned building serves as perhaps the world’s largest gathering spot for men looking to satisfy their lust for heroin and opium. Stooping in the darkened caverns of the place, amid the waste and exhalations of hundreds of others, the men partake of the drug that has begun to wreak its deathly magic in the very country where it is produced.

One such man, who called himself Mohammed Ofzal, struck a match beneath a piece of foil and sucked in the blue smoke that rose from the liquefying little mass. Then he sat back in a crouch, legs shaking a little. His eyes, glazed and half-shut, stared blankly at the floor.

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My Comment: This news report makes the case for the elimination of the drug trade in Afghanistan. I could not have written a better article.