Supply and demand

[rahli]

Temporary link

Not sure how long the link will last.

[PhoenixSon]

"Alkaloid is going well, the yields are good, and assays are really good."

lucky bastards

[rahli]

Never my child

A guide for families dealing with drug addiction emphasises that drugs don't discriminate.

same link as firt post

[Torsten]

The poppy industry in tassie is costing the australian taxpayer billions. Huh? Confused yet?

Simple, the afghan Taliban is funded by opium money when they are OUT of power [even though they suppress opium production when they are IN power]. For the Taliban to promote opium production serves a double whammy to the west as ultimately the western drug addicts are paying for the Taliban weapons.

The poor afghan farmer only has two choices. Grow opium and live or not grow opium and starve. The only way to control opium production is by brutal enforcement that rivals the threat of starvation, or to provide the farmer with a similar income. The allies' approach to this so far has been to get farmers to grow other crops, but ecause most opium farmers are in massive debt to their opium buyers this is at best a short term solution.

So why don't we let the afghans grow poppy under license just like it is done in tassie. A little bit of opium is bound to escape onto the illegal market, but surely not as much as the record numbers of tons that have flooded the market since the US invasion.

When we hear of 'opium controll successes' in afghanistan then this is at best to the level the Taliban had it when they PROMOTED it! In fact, if there is one clear result from the afghan invasion then it is the total success of the illegal opium trade from there.

So, rather than spending billions on fighting a war that produces more and more extremists around the world day by day, why not simply give that money to the poppy farmers for the superior product. Surely the afghans produce raw opium cheaper than that hi tech operation in Tassie does.

I am also suprised that we only have 18 months worth of world opiate stock. That really is not a lot.

Another curiosity in that article was that the UN doesn't like the injecting rooms because they use illegal drugs. The way they wrote it implies that if legally produced heroin was made available there then they don't have a problem with it. weird.

[t st tantra]

it looks like a pattern ,like the golden triangle and columbia before,when the usa comes in drug production goes up..........but the usa was built on tobacco and slavery.......the boxer revolution,when americans and other westerners were trying to force china to buy opium.......drugs and weapons[industry] a gangsters paradise.....its a world of legal and illegal mafias.....'reality is what you can get away with!'RAW......supply and demand.......

t s t

[apothecary]

I am also suprised that we only have 18 months worth of world opiate stock. That really is not a lot.

Especially amusing considering illicit stockpiles of opium and opium derivatives is estimated to be large enough to supply world demand at current levels in excess of eight years.

[Torsten]

Especially amusing considering illicit stockpiles of opium and opium derivatives is estimated to be large enough to supply world demand at current levels in excess of eight years.

lol, drug cartels are better organised than pharma cos? I guess that why they call it 'organised' crime

[Rizla]

illicit stockpiles of opium and opium derivatives is estimated to be large enough to supply world demand at current levels in excess of eight years.

Very interesting Sina....that sounds about right, would love to see the source of this (DEA?).

I personally think the USA should buy up a good chunk of that Afghani product and give it gratis to the hospitals in Iraq.

Edited February 19, 2009 by Rizla

[bob-bob]

Another curiosity in that article was that the UN doesn't like the injecting rooms because they use illegal drugs. The way they wrote it implies that if legally produced heroin was made available there then they don't have a problem with it. weird.

The government already supplies synthetic and semi-synthetic opiates in the form of Methadone and Buprenorphine.

Since they are used for the treatment of opiate addiction, you could argue that providing heroin would be a method of

controlling drug addiction.

Firstly, you could almost eliminate the street market for heroin as you could provide it cheaper and cleaner. This would then severely stem the amount of people becoming addicted to the drug in the first place.

Secondly, in a world where it is no secret that groups that are recognized by Governments around the world as terrorist organizations such as the Taliban and the ELN are funded by drug money, it would make sense to at least try to limit the funding received from drug money.

That's just my thoughts on it.

[rahli]

Outrage over Vic poppy trial

Tasmanian poppy growers are outraged the pharmaceutical producer GlaxoSmithKline is looking at growing poppies in Victoria.

The growers and processors are concerned the trial will result in other states trying to move in on the lucrative industry.

Pharmaceutical producer GlaxoSmithKline says it is looking at expanding the crop to Victoria to keep up with the growing demand for opium.

Tasmania is the only place permitted to grow poppies in the southern hemisphere and has held the monopoly on the $200 million a year industry for the last 40 years.

But GSK's Mike Doyle says Tasmania can not meet the increasing demand for the crop, so the company is exploring the possibility of growing in Victoria.

"What we are trying to do is protect our business by making sure we can keep up with global demand for product," he said.

Keith Rice from the Tasmanian Poppy Growers Association says that argument is ridiculous because there is plenty more land available in Tasmania.

"We've always been firmly of the belief there is land available in Tasmania to grow poppies in excess of what's being used at the present time," he said.

"At the moment we're growing in the vicinity of 16 to 17,000 hectares so there is land available without doubt."

The general manager of TPI Enterprises, Peta Sugden, says if Victoria is permitted to grow poppies, other states are likely to want a piece of the pie.

"Who knows where this starts and ends it could well happen across the rest of Australia."

Victoria will have to comply with stringent security guidelines before growing the crop.

Link

[Smiling Cloud]

bob-bob- if governements changed legislation to allow heroin to be provided to addicts (rather than methadone/buprenorphine) I don't think pharma companies would take up the offer. It would be shooting themselves in the foot.

Atm we have a situation where every year there are more addicts that choose to go into a pharmacotherapy program. Unfortunately (or fortunately for pharma companies) these drugs are soooo much more addictive than heroin so people generally stay on the program for a long time. Heroin is still quite addictive so addicts would stay on a heroin program as well but there would not be NEW addicts every year.

If pharma companies provided heroin to heroin addicts the street source would dry up and there would be considerably less NEW addicts. This is not good economics for pharma companies. They NEED an illegal source of opiates on the streets so that people can get addicted to said opiates and then be "cured" with pharmacotherapy programs. Heroin is less addictive than methadone/buprenorphine and so people would have less trouble getting clean.

So a heroin prgram would get rid of the new addicts and allow the old addicts to get clean easier. Of course there are always going to be the handful of lifers but most people eventually get sick of going to the chemist to pick up their dose and other inconvenient regulations.

The only way a heroin program would be taken up by pharma companies is if there was less regulations on it, ie, an addict could pick up a few weeks worth and get as much as they wanted (enough to share with friends and thus providing new addicts) but that is unlikely.

The above is the only reason i can see why we don't already have a heroin maintenance program.

[mu!]

LOL @ the heroin/addiction opinions in this thread

[Torsten]

"Who knows where this starts and ends it could well happen across the rest of Australia."

So????

I don't get it, why do Tasmanians think they are the only ones who should get a license to grow poppies?