Drug use seen on rise in Iraq

[Kellanved]

BAGHDAD -- Drug trafficking and drug abuse, crimes once punishable by death or long imprisonment during the regime of Saddam Hussein, are infiltrating postwar Iraq, where porous borders and a lack of security make the crimes hard to control, according to Iraqi and foreign officials.
...
Gangsters are bringing in illegal drugs from Central Asia through the Kurdish area in the north, and drugs are also moving into Iraq through the southern port of Umm Qasr, said Bernard Frahi, chief of the operations branch of the UN's office of drugs and crime in Vienna.
...
Drug abuse cases have grown by 75 percent from February to July of this year, said Dr. Hashim H. Zainy, director of the IBN Rushd Hospital, the nation's biggest psychiatric facility. "I still think it's underreported," he said, because of the lingering fear of prosecution and the social stigma in a Muslim society attached to drug and alcohol abuse.

The drug problem threatens to further frustrate Iraq's transition from a pariah, dictatorial state to what coalition officials hope will be a democratic and stable nation. While doctors and police officers acknowledge that drug abuse and trafficking certainly occurred during Hussein's rule, they say it was largely contained by airtight borders and severe punishments for drug criminals.

...
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2003/08/28/drug_use_seen_on_rise_in_iraq/

[kidrocks]

1. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll hits Iraq.

Everyone knows that with "freedom" you get all this. It's the American way of course. And Iraq is no different now that Bush has liberated the people to partake in all the luxuries that are part of many attachments that come with "freedom". Drug trafficking, drug abuse, and crime has shot up tremendously in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq. Yes, the gangsta's have moved in the neighborhoods to to stake their claim to the American dream of getting rich.

Psst, want some "babushka"? Well prostitution is just around the corner my friend and the "mafia" is not too far behind. Yes, with "freedom, you get all this and more. Praise for President Bush is in the mouths of the gangsters of Iraq, make no mistake about that. Yes, "bring em on" is the American way.

All Iraq needs now is many McDonalds. You know, to quench the "munchies"!

[Sushi_lover]

3. oh wait till we let them put the child prostitutes

right outside our army bases like we had them in the Phillipines

there's our Democracy as a shining example to the rest of the Middle East.

[newyawker99]

6. Hi kidrocks!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Sushi_lover]

2. "Whiskey, sexy, Democracy"

uh huh. You're cool as MTV now guys.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

4. We sure did "liberate" Iraq...

now didn't we???

[Cocoa]

5. drugs coming from "Central Asia"

meaning Afghanistan, where our adventure there liberated the opium industry.

Talk about synergy.

[snooper2]

7. Cool!

I wanted to open a headshop in downtown Baghdad. :)

I hear you can grow just about anywhere.