Drug crisis grips Baghdad

[arcos]

Drug crisis grips Baghdad

A drugs epidemic and accompanying crime wave is sweeping Baghdad.

A boom in supply of hallucinogenic tablets has been coupled with the release of tens of thousands of criminals from prison before the US-led invasion to create a huge problem for the fledgling Iraqi police force.

<snip>

"One type of tablet is called Lebanon - when I take it I see Lebanon. I've never been there, but it's in the tablet," he told Outlook.

<snip>

The cafe owner said that the explosion in drug use was due to the anarchy that had hit some parts of the capital after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

"You didn't see gangs of children on the streets before the war," he said.

<snip>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3156048.stm

[Dr Fate]

1. Perhaps Rush should buy a vacation home there...

since he loves "freedom" and getting fucked up out of his mind so much.

[bigluckyfeet]

2. Makes you Wonder

Who is doing the supplying?

[Character Assassin]

3. It's quite likely that any pharmaceutical-grade hallucinogens are Russian

The mob in Russia, since the fall of the Soviet Union, has bee a BIG player in extasy/LSD/whatever flooding in to Europe.

Lots of folks in chemistry and manufacturing needed jobs and money when the Empire crumbled, and they're still at it.

[tlcandie]

4. Yup... just WHO is doing the supplying? IT's a war on drugs ya know!

Reminds me of US... gangs of children seen there now :(

[bluestateguy]

5. Chickens come home to roost

The PNACers wanted to make the Middle East more like America, and it looks like on this count they have succeeded

[Whoa_Nelly]

6. Growing number of street kids in Baghdad

Growing number of street kids in Baghdad

The World Today - Thursday, 11 September , 2003 12:28:09
Reporter: Gina Wilkinson
HAMISH ROBERTSON: In Iraq itself, child welfare groups are warning that the number of children living on Baghdad's streets has more than tripled since the end of the war.

State-run institutions for orphans and other children suffered extensive looting during the war and most no longer offer shelter to vulnerable young people.

And experts say that an increasing number of homeless children have begun sniffing glue and other solvents, as a temporary escape from the harshness of life on the streets.

<snip>
Zehmen says she uses glue and solvents every day and that she supports her habit by begging dollars from American soldiers. She says she knows glue sniffing is dangerous, but says it helps her feel better, for a while at least.

more of interview...
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2003/s943904.htm

H.B.Fuller Company out of St.Paul, MN has been notably involved, chastised, and held accountable for the sale and easy availability of Resistol in many third world countries. In Latin America these children are often referred to as “resistoleros”, and are so named by the glue of choice to sniff, Fuller’s Resistol brand. Many advocacy groups, especially the Coalition on Resistoleros, have damned the Fuller company for not pulling that particular adhesive from sales on the Latin market due to the brain damage and deaths associated with the easy availability of this product. As to appear compensatory, the highly toxic solvent ingredient toluene was replaced by the less sweet smelling chemical cyclohexane in a spurious effort to keep Resistol on the market. It was reasoned that the more noxious odor would deter the children from abusing the glue. The company has further complied with the demands made on it and produced a water-based glue and completely pulled its addictive and dangerous product off the market in Latin America, yet it still is available as it slips through the cracks from the larger industrial level users back into the hands of the street children.

I have to wonder that although Fuller made an "effort" to comply with the glue sniffing addiction problem in Central America, have they still been marketing and allowing easy availability of this product elswhere in the world, such as Iraq? It is a product most commonly used by cobblers for shoe repair.

[FDRrocks]

7. Yikes!

The accompanying picture is very, very sad. Very interesting article.

They have hippies in Iraq:

"One type of tablet is called Lebanon - when I take it I see Lebanon. I've never been there, but it's in the tablet," he told Outlook.

But WHAT THE HECK are they taking?

"I dream of sex. When you take a tablet it makes you desperate. I attack women.

"You get a friend or a neighbour, or you get a weapon and kill someone, but you are not aware of your actions."

I've expiremented with pretty much gamut of common drugs up to the level of hallucinogens that are commonly available in the country in the past, usually with groups. I have never seen anyone do stuff like that!

[thebigidea]

8. sounds like nonsense to me

the arab world is hardly a stranger to the wonders of reefer, also... the "some marijuana" mention in the article cracked me up.

[psychopomp]

9. Pathetic

The chaos continues to unravel civil society in Iraq. Where are the drugs coming from?