Opium: Iraq's deadly new export

[Phrogman]

Real bad news here...I wonder how many troops and contractors will be coming back addicted to Iraqi heroin?



Amid the anarchy, farmers begin to grow opium poppies, raising fears that the country could become a major heroin supplier

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Farmers in southern Iraq have started to grow opium poppies in their fields for the first time, sparking fears that Iraq might become a serious drugs producer along the lines of Afghanistan.

Rice farmers along the Euphrates, to the west of the city of Diwaniya, south of Baghdad, have stopped cultivating rice, for which the area is famous, and are instead planting poppies, Iraqi sources familiar with the area have told The Independent.

The shift to opium cultivation is still in its early stages but there is little the Iraqi government can do about it because rival Shia militias and their surrogates in the security forces control Diwaniya and its neighborhood. There have been bloody clashes between militiamen, police, Iraqi army and US forces in the city over the past two months.

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m33111&hd=&size=1&l=e

[villager]

1. another surge-y victory!

And it gets more and more Vietnam-like by the minute...

Except so far, the popular music still isn't as good...