MacRaven - Dave Haxton's Weblog

Thu, 09 Jun 2005

Scientists: Insect Would Kill Coca Crops

Hmmm, I wonder if these South American scientists have talked with any of their counterparts from Australia? If they do, they should remember to ask about the cane toads that the folks Down Under imported and released to solve a particularly intractable problem.

There are times when I think the "War on Drugs" poses more of a threat to civilization and human freedom than drugs themselves ... but in all fairness to the drug warriors I must admit that harebrained "solutions" like this seem to crop up with amazing regularity these days. We seem, as a species, to be incapable of learning from history, even recent history.

AP - A group of Colombian scientists believe they've found a way to wipe out cocaine production: unleash an army of hungry moth caterpillars. But critics of the proposal say the chance for "ecological mischief" is high.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

/Agriculture | 4 writebacks | permanent link

On 6/10/2005 00:29:38
orangeguru wrote

I think it's a war on drugs that haven't been created or patented by Pfizer and others. Overall I think it would be much more efficient and CHEAPER to legalize ALL drugs and sell them via some sort of medical channel. But I am just a liberal european ...

On 6/10/2005 11:09:10
Starlight Bunnybutt wrote

orangeguru: I saw this special called "If Drugs Were Legal" that I think the BBC did. The "future" had pharmaceutical companies creating legal designer drugs that they sold to supposedly pay for R&D for lifesaving medications. Mostly they focused on drugs like cocaine, heroine, and amphetamines, and on middle class white users under 30. I thought it was a good discussion for a tv special, but I thought that there were issues left unaddressed. You should google for it, see if the beeb is offering it for dl or something. (I heard they may be doing that.) The entire "War on Drugs" has been primarily a war on drug users, with mandatory minimums on crack making it a fairly transparent racist war on young black men. I'm not certian that across the board drug legalization would be the best thing for the users of said drugs as it would drive the street price down to nothing and make every drug far more accessable, but it would certianly save the government billions of dollars in enforcement and prison systems. The argument could be made that this money will be immediately spent in treatment, but as I've yet to see the government bend over and cough up large sums of cash for treatment, I'm not so sure. Would legalization reduce crime? Probably. Street prices bottoming out means that there's no need to protect "turf" to secure the proceeds from sales. No need to risk life and limb smuggling drugs in, no need to deal with criminal foreign cartels to secure drugs. No need to steal to support a habit. However, some drugs make the user violent, mostly amphetemines and PCP, so battery, rape, and homicide rates might go up proportionally. I recommend also Dan Baum's book "Smoke and Mirrors", which is an excellent history of how the War on Drugs came into being, and all the people who've had a hand in fudging the numbers to keep it going.

On 6/10/2005 13:35:15
Dave H wrote

Smoke and Mirrors

Love that book - if you haven't read it, it's a real eye opener on the history of the 'Drug War'. I just find it sad that we've come so far so fast down the road to a totalitarian state: a mere century ago telling an American what he could not smoke, eat or drink would've probably gotten you shot, with his legal handgun! Thanks for the comments and Be well, Dave H.

On 6/11/2005 21:50:26
orangeguru wrote

Thanks for the suggestion!

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