Quite a Hash We've Made in Afghanistan

Jacob Sullum | November 29, 2007

Crop substitution, Afghan style.

[Thanks to sage for the tip.]

Comments

thoreau|11.29.07 @ 11:21AM|#

In totally unrelated news, the members of Cypress Hill have volunteered to join the armed forces and go to Afghanistan to participate in crop eradication programs. They vow to set fire to each and every leaf in those fields.

|11.29.07 @ 11:23AM|#

Don't ever let 'em tell you that you're ignoring the good news from the war, Jacob.

The Wine Commonsewer|11.29.07 @ 11:25AM|#

I got to paragraph two and just started LOL at the visual of ten foot tall pot plants.

dhex|11.29.07 @ 11:26AM|#

getting high as fuck is usually pretty good news, yeah.

Dumb Blond|11.29.07 @ 11:27AM|#

Keep beating that drum, joe. It will be a horrible, horrible day for you if and when Iraq and Afghanistan ever succeed in joining the civilized world.

BC|11.29.07 @ 11:32AM|#

CAPTAIN: "Did you find that marijuana plantation?"
PRIVATE: "Yea, man, we found it."
C: Did you sustain any casualities?
P: Yea, man. As a matter of fact the whole platoon is wiped out.
C: I'm sending reinforcements.
P: Hey, man, tell them to bring their own waterpipes, man.
C: Is there anything else you need?
P: Yea, I sure could go for a pepperoni pizza...

|11.29.07 @ 11:35AM|#

Keep beating that drum, joe. It will be a horrible, horrible day for you if and when Iraq and Afghanistan ever succeed in joining the civilized world.

Actually, it would be a wonderful day for me, and for everyone else, when the self-directed internal political development of those countries advances to such a point.

It's too bad your sort have set that day back so far with your delusional imperialism. Thanks so very much for the introduction of the acid-attack on unveiled women in Iraq, btw.

Christopher Monnier|11.29.07 @ 11:36AM|#

From the article:

Gen. Khodaidad, Afghanistan's acting counter-narcotics minister, said the government doesn't yet have a good handle on marijuana.

"This is also a big problem for Afghanistan," said Khodaidad, who like many Afghans uses one name. "It is very cheap. Hashish is more harmful (than poppies) to the people of Afghanistan."

Maybe Afghanistan is becoming more American after all...

BC|11.29.07 @ 11:36AM|#

SHIT.
yea=yeah

thoreau|11.29.07 @ 11:37AM|#

In other news, Afghanistan's glassworks industry is reporting record growth, mostly in the "novelty items" category.

Minion of URKOBOLD|11.29.07 @ 11:40AM|#

ONLY WHEN "DUMB BLOND" JOINS THE CIVILIZED WORLD.

AND DOKTOR T WEARS NOVELTY TEETH.

|11.29.07 @ 11:44AM|#

I can remember when the Dumb Blonds were explaining that Iraq was a such a ripe target for regime change precisely because it was, socially, already part of the civilized world. Secular, big middle class, litte sectarian hostility, high levels of gender equality, advanced economy, lots of scientists, engineers and technical specialists...

Srsly, just go back to the Weekly Standard or National Review in 2002-2003. Heck, you just look at what some of our own dumb blonds were writing on these threads back then.

|11.29.07 @ 11:52AM|#

Seattle, late '70s. A beautiful lady I knew brought over some Afghani weed that she had acquired. The stuff was like resin with leaves woven through it. I was somewhat of a connoisseur in those days and I can state unequivocally that that was the most potent reefer I ever smoked. Thai, Norther California sensimilla and Hawaiian can vie for second place. That shit was AWESOME!

|11.29.07 @ 11:54AM|#

Hashish is more harmful (than poppies) to the people of Afghanistan."

And the hashish that the crew scored in Karachi was likely an Afghanistan product as well. I was not a really good boy back then.

|11.29.07 @ 12:06PM|#

And as long as I'm on the subject, a modest proposal -

1) Legalize Marijuana possession, but not cultivation in the United States.
2) Outsource the production to Afghanistan.

Expected benefits -

A) More jail space in America for congresscritters.
B) Reduce deficit from the reefer tariff (hey, we do it for sugar).
C) A free market based economy in Afghanistan that completely bypasses the Taliban.
D) The Columbian drug lords take their biggest hit ever. This will harm them more far more that the interdiction foreign aid, and extradition treaties combined.

Expected drawbacks -

I'll have get back to you on that one.

|11.29.07 @ 12:32PM|#

Isn't the Jack Daniels factory located in a dry county? Or is that Jim Beam?

I can easily imagine the Afghans legalizing the growing, production, and export of mj but prohibiting the consumption in their country.

|11.29.07 @ 12:46PM|#

joe,

Maker's Mark (they have a pretty cool tour, btw).

|11.29.07 @ 12:54PM|#

I can easily imagine the Afghans legalizing the growing, production, and export of mj but prohibiting the consumption in their country.

Didn't the canucks do that with alcohol during prohibition?
[quick google] Yep, they did.

|11.29.07 @ 12:56PM|#

Jack Daniel's is based in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Lynchburg is in Moore County, which is dry. I've been on the tour (part of my family comes from an adjacent--and, incidentally, non-dry--county), and, at the end of it, you get a glass of lemonade. That's lemon juice, sugar, and water, in case you're wondering.

My brother accidentally snorted some fermenting corn mash (the vats are open and aggressively bubbly), so that's one instance I know of someone consuming whiskey on site in Lynchburg ☺

|11.29.07 @ 12:59PM|#

Canada had prohibition, too?

|11.29.07 @ 1:06PM|#

Yes, and before us, apparently.

highnumber|11.29.07 @ 1:42PM|#

Dumb Blond reminds me of a possum - stupid and unpleasant. (Possibly ugly, too, but who can tell.)

|11.29.07 @ 1:44PM|#

Let's not forget blind.

highnumber|11.29.07 @ 1:47PM|#

joe?

JOKE! IT'S A JOKE!

Get it? "Keep beating that drum." Get it? Yeah?

No good?

I'm sorry. I won't eve hit submi

|11.29.07 @ 1:49PM|#

joe, in addition to prohibition, Canada has had at various times liquor laws that would make most Americans' heads spin. Exceptions are Utahns, those from southern dry counties and the denizens of those states with state owned liquor monopolies.

Until the 1970s to buy wine and liquor in Ontario you filled out an order form from a board in the store then went to the counter where your order was rung up and you paid. Then someone in the back pulled your order and you got to pick it up at another window.

That wasn't as bad as it had been in the 30s (according to my exwife's father) when liquor was rationed to two fifths per male buyer a month (I may be wrong, but I think women were not allowed to purchase booze at all). They were issued cards and everything.

I could go on about the laws regarding taverns until the 1970s but as usual I am too far off topic.

Russ 2000|11.29.07 @ 3:09PM|#

Until the 1970s to buy wine and liquor in Ontario you filled out an order form from a board in the store then went to the counter where your order was rung up and you paid. Then someone in the back pulled your order and you got to pick it up at another window.

Sounds like Service Merchandise. Probably cut down on breakage and shrinkage.

robc|11.29.07 @ 3:10PM|#

joe, de stijl,

Both Makers and Jim Beam are in Nelson Co, KY, which is dry, IIRC. As is Woodford Co, which is where a certain Reserve Bourbon comes from. As is Bourbon Co (although Paris, the county seat, may be moist).

robc|11.29.07 @ 3:12PM|#

joe,

A lot of Europe (especially Scandinavia) had prohibition before us too. Its where we got the idea, I think.

robc|11.29.07 @ 3:24PM|#

Huh. Just checked a map from KY's ABC site that showed Nelson, Woodford & Bourbon counties as wet. Huh. Last time I was at Woodford Reserve Distillery it was dry. Things change.

|11.29.07 @ 3:46PM|#

Sounds like Service Merchandise. Probably cut down on breakage and shrinkage.

Well except that Service Merchandise has selection and low prices. And if you don't like the prices and selection at Service Merchandise you can always got to one of their many competitors.

Yea, but other than that just like Service Merchandise. :)

Also, I think making it as unpleasant a shopping experience as possible rather than cutting down on breakage and shrinkage was more the motivation for the business model.

Is Service Merchandise still in busisness somewhere? They've closed everything in central Fla. I'd just assumed they were kaput.

|11.29.07 @ 3:49PM|#

A lot of people seem to have this notion that America is somehow uniquely puritanical.

And a lot of those people live in places (like Canada and Australia) which were in rather recent history much more puritanical.

robc|11.29.07 @ 3:53PM|#

Isaac,

Just a pet peeve of mind, but the Puritans would have never lived in a dry county.

robc|11.29.07 @ 3:53PM|#

mine not mind. Ugh.

|11.29.07 @ 4:22PM|#

Good point.

|11.29.07 @ 4:25PM|#

I recently watched that History Channel thing on the Founding Fathers on DVD.

One of the funny lines was one of their historian talking heads saying something to the effect that with the amount of liquor and beer and wine flowing at the Constitutional Convention the Constitution was drafted by a bunch of drunks.

SIV|11.29.07 @ 9:36PM|#

They have dry counties in Kentucky?

Las time I was there they were retailing Maker's Mark at the distillery ( a beautiful place and excellent tour). You could get a liquor drink at "meat and three" restaurants, something totally bizarre and foreign to a Southerner like me. I was staying in Bardstown which seemed like one giant liquor factory -- reminded me of a refinery town only more quaint and picturesque.

The Wine Commonsewer|11.30.07 @ 12:03AM|#

Ohh! ohh! ohh! Isaac! (hear that in a Horschack voice)

I blogged about that, check out how much they really drank.

....in 1787, two days before their work was done, the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention "adjourned to a tavern for some rest, and according to the bill they drank 54 bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of claret, 8 of whiskey, 22 of port, 8 of hard cider and 7 bowls of punch so large that, it was said, ducks could swim around in them.

Then they went back to work and finished founding the new Republic. Note the 55 delegates and 54 bottles of Madeira. Which founder was slacking?

whole thing is here

robc|11.30.07 @ 12:37AM|#

SIV,

Dry counties in KY?

Bardstown is a giant liquor factory. A few years ago, Heaven Hill had a barn fire and something like 1/6 of the World's Bourbon Supply was destroyed. It was a sad, sad day. So I tried to drink the other 5/6.

robc|11.30.07 @ 12:42AM|#

The map I just linked to is a few months out of date. As of the election earlier this month (not sure when the results take effect) 2 *PRECINCTS* in Louisville are dry. Thats right, we can be wet/dry/moist on the precinct level. Both precincts are poor (& black) neighborhoods. Apparently, the reason they are poor (& black) is the existence of liquor stores in their neighborhood.

|11.30.07 @ 1:12AM|#

TWC,

Beautiful.

Next time I uncork a bottle of ozzie shiraz, I'll tip a glass to you, sport!

bill|11.30.07 @ 3:17AM|#

Finally! I was wondering when this was going to happen. At one time Afghani hash was legendary. Plus they will get much less heat for it. Maybe they will also go in for a big industrial hemp push.