MAPTalk-Digest Sunday, December 10 2006 Volume 06 : Number 145
001 US SC: Edu: OPED: Who Got Trans Fat in My Water Bong?
From: Richard Lake <>
002 Afghanistan: U.S. anti-drug chief: Afghan poppies to be sprayed with he
From: Allan Erickson <>
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Subj: 001 US SC: Edu: OPED: Who Got Trans Fat in My Water Bong?
From: Richard Lake <>
Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2006 15:01:02 -0800
Newshawk: chip
Pubdate: Thu, 07 Dec 2006
Source: Gamecock, The (SC Edu)
Copyright: 2006 The Board of Trustees of the University of South Carolina
Contact: http://www.dailygamecock.com/home/lettertotheeditor/
Website: http://www.dailygamecock.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2319
Author: Joshua Rabon, Second-year accounting student
Cited: Drug War Clock http://www.drugsense.org/wodclock.htm
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
WHO GOT TRANS FAT IN MY WATER BONG?
Legislation could bring new meaning to phrase 'rolling a fatty' in
time Let's face it, banning trans fats extends government power much
too far into the private sector for comfort and takes nanny state-ism
to a new extreme.
Give people the choice to be fat if they want - at least, that seems
to be how many people on campus feel.
But many of these pro-personal responsibility advocates don't speak
out against anti-drug legislation, and that just doesn't make sense.
Binging daily on trans fatty-loaded McDonald's fries is completely
acceptable, but smoking marijuana in the privacy of your own home is not?
"But drugs are so dangerous." Please. How many people died of heart
disease last year compared to drug overdose?
Drug-related violence, however, is absolutely a legitimate concern -
that can be easily solved with legalizing drugs. Nicotine is highly
addictive, but there aren't gun-slinging gang fights over cigarettes
in gas station parking lots.
By pro-viding regulated access to currently controlled substances,
violence would actually be reduced.
Aside from intentional violence, accidental drug-related issues would
fall as well. No one would have to worry about their neighbor's meth
lab exploding because the substance would be made by qualified
individuals in a controlled lab.
Anyone worried about someone over-indulging and losing their ability
to make rational, intelligent decisions needs to walk down to Five
Points one night, the later the better.
The addictive nature of drugs seems to be one area that clearly
separates the two, but studies have shown eating can be addictive as
well, and don't forget about 100 percent legal tobacco (Source:
Brookhaven National Laboratory).
According to http://www.drugsense.org/wodclock.htm, over $47 billion
has been spent fighting drugs this year. Harvest Hope Food Bank
serves over 149,000 people every year.
People around this country are hungry, homeless and without proper
medical care, and people want to freak out over drugs. Sounds like we
spent that $47 billion wisely.
I'm not advocating picking up recreational drug use at all; in fact,
I discourage it.
If drugs were to be legalized, I wouldn't want to see people lined up
outside stores waiting for their fix PlayStation 3-style.
But it all comes back to personal responsibility. If you think people
shouldn't be told what they can and can't put into their bodies, it's
time to stop letting propaganda and the past make decisions for you.
It's time to stop wasting countless dollars and let people take care
of themselves.
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Subj: 002 Afghanistan: U.S. anti-drug chief: Afghan poppies to be sprayed with herbicide
From: Allan Erickson <>
Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2006 07:47:24 -0800
Newshawk: allan
Pubdate: Sat, 09 Dec 2006
Source: International Herald-Tribune (International)
Copyright: International Herald Tribune 2006
Contact:
Website: http://www.iht.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/212
Author: The Associated Press
URL:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/09/asia/AS_GEN_Afghan_Drugs.php
U.S. anti-drug chief: Afghan poppies to be sprayed with herbicide
The top U.S. anti-drug official said Saturday that Afghan poppies would
be sprayed with herbicide to combat an opium trade that produced a
record heroin haul this year, a measure likely to anger farmers and
scare Afghans unfamiliar with weed killers.
John Walters, the director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control
Policy, said Afghanistan could turn into a narco-state unless "giant
steps" are made toward eliminating poppy cultivation.
"We cannot fail in this mission," he said. "Proceeds from opium
production feed the insurgency and burden Afghanistan's nascent
political institutions with the scourge of corruption."
Afghans are deeply opposed to spraying poppies. After nearly three
decades of war, Western science and assurances can do little to assuage
their fears of chemicals being dropped from airplanes. Because of those
fears =97 and because crop dusters could be shot down by insurgents =97
spraying would need to be done on the ground.
The Afghan government has not publicly said it will spray, and
President Hamid Karzai has said in the past that herbicides pose too
big a risk, contaminating water and killing the produce that grows
alongside poppies.
But Walters said Karzai and other officials have agreed to ground
spraying.
"I think the president has said yes, and I think some of the ministers
have repeated yes," Walters said without specifying when spraying would
start. "The particulars of the application have not been decided yet,
but yes, the goal is to carry out ground spraying."
Gen. Khodaidad, Afghanistan's deputy minister for counter-narcotics,
said the government hadn't yet made any decisions. But a top Afghan
official close to Karzai said the issue was being looked at closely.
"We are thinking about it, we are looking into it. We're just trying to
see how the procedure will go," said the official, who asked not to be
named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Opium production in Afghanistan this year rose 49 percent to 6,100
metric tons (6,700 tons) =97 enough to make about 670 tons of heroin.
That's more than 90 percent of the world's supply and more than the
world's addicts consume in a year.
A U.S. official last month told The Associated Press that if Afghans
don't spray in 2007 "there's going to be a lot of pressure on the
government for spraying ... a lot of pressure from the U.S." The
official asked not to be named.
At the news conference Saturday, Walters tried to emphasize to the
largely Afghan media members in attendance that spraying was perfectly
safe. He said the herbicide glyphosate =97 sold commercially in the
United States under the name Roundup =97 would be used, and that it was
a
safe and common weed killer.
He said the U.S. uses glyphosate to spray marijuana plants in Hawaii
and that it's also used against coca plants in Colombia.
"We are not experimenting on the people of Afghanistan," he said. "We
are not using a chemical that has a history of questionable effects on
the environment."
Walters said he didn't expect the fight against poppies "to be a
one-year success story." A recent U.N. report said it would take a
generation =97 20 years =97 to defeat the drug trade in Afghanistan.
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End of MAPTalk-Digest V06 #145
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