Afghans Give Opium to Frozen Kids

[Liberty Belle]

Looks like liberation didn't work out so well for these poor people...


Afghans Give Opium To Frozen Kids

KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 19, 2005



Afghan refugee Khalel, 11, tries to keep warm under a blanket at the Chaman-e-Ozuri refugee camp in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Saturday.

"
(AP) Disease fueled by freezing weather has killed more than 120 Afghan children, with desperate parents feeding their children opium in a bid to alleviate their suffering, the health minister said Saturday.

A total of 128 children have died of ailments including pneumonia, measles and whooping cough, Mohammed Amin Fatemi told The Associated Press. He had no figures for cold-related deaths including adults.

"Many parents are giving opium to the children in the belief it will stop the coughing," Fatemi said. "Maybe for two or three hours it will sedate them, but it is poison for their bodies and can turn them into addicts."

Full article:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/19/health/main675152.shtml

[DenverDem]

1. Opiate addiction is better than the hell we have put them through.

Liberation busholini style.

[blackcat77]

2. Heroin was originally created as a cough suppressant. nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. Right, their home remedy is not as crazy as it sounds

Codeine is an opium derivative, and it's in a lot of prescription cough syrups. (I can't tolerate it, though. It comes right back up.)

Another opium derivative, paregoric, was once a common remedy for diarrhea.