"not arresting growers, but supervising quality control"

[Bandwraith at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/17/2003 3:53:48 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
isread at btopenworld.com writes:


> . Two
> possible responses to dwell on here. We might think, well, we're a bit
> more advanced (or civilised/enlightened?) nowadays, drugs are a bad
> thing, thankfully governments nowadays do arrest growers etc. The war on
> drugs is a good thing. This response locates the reader 'here' looking
> back with the benefit of hindsight. Another response is to ponder the
> possibility that, because government-sponsored opium production then, in
> 1903, was a bad thing, well, maybe government actions now, in 2003, are
> (sometimes) questionable. Maybe someone looking back from 2103 will be
> critical of (aspects of) 2003's thinking. This second response
> historicises thinking, and in my view it's what P does throughout this
> essay.
> 

The opening sensitizes me to the fact that the marriage of 
colonialism and capitalism have become cloaked. They can 
no longer be pursued so nakedly as they once were. Is the 
world more civilized or just more dishonest? The means of
production and distribution of opium, except for "legitimate
medicinal uses" have fallen into the black market. This is
a complex issue, or perhaps, an issue  of complexity. For 
example, the illegality of drug trade is as necessary for the 
huge bureauracracy- and its budgetary concerns- devoted to 
its eradication, as it is to the Drug Lords and the need to keep
prices high. They are co-dependents on criminalization.

respectfully
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