Drug Content

It’s nothing new- a college student pops a Ritalin (methylphenidate) or some other stimulant or cognition-enhancing drug so they could jump start their brains to study for a test or complete a project, but this has lead to bigger problems.  While this has been going on for quite some time, it’s obviously gotten a lot worse.  Let’s discuss stimulants, which are drugs that increase a person’s alertness and awareness, but also will get one high (produce euphoria).

Drugs such as Ritalin (methylphenidate) and Adderall (Amphetamine Salts) are known as “smart drugs,” and over the years the use of these drugs have increased amongst high schoolers who want to pass certain tests, etc.  These drugs are normally prescribed to children, teens and young adults to treat ADD (attention-deficit disorder) and ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder), but I’d have to say that the ratio of students that are prescribed these medications aren’t only taking them for their conditions.

When one takes a stimulant medication, they’ll have extra energy (provided from the drug) to do other activities that they normally wouldn’t do.  For instance, an individual on a stimulant medication will clean their room, but go over it numerous times so that it’s perfect.  This extra boost is due to the increase of norepinephrine and dopamine in the brain.  While this results in a boost in one’s energy, it also produces euphoria (feeling “high”) and a greater sense of well-being.

There was a survery that focused on three drugs: Ritalin, Provigil, and beta blockers (used to treat cardiac conditions, as well as reduce anxiety).  Ritalin is used by more than 60 percent of people that stated using them for cognitive reasons, while 44 percent used Provigil (modafinil), and some 15 percent said they had used beta blockers.

With these numbers rising every day- I think we can say that caffeine is no longer the main concern in this category.  Just think of all of those A+ students back in middle school and high school…  Makes you think huh?

Afghan police confiscated a large stockpile of hashish– which weighed as much as 30 double-decker London buses, stated NATO’s International Security Assistance Force on Wednesday.  Information came from the inside as an Interior Ministry police unit received a tip on Monday about a drug stockpile in the Spin Buldak area of the Kandahar province.  Police found 261 tons of hashish that was hidden in several 6-foot-deep trenches.  The DEA is officially calling this the world’s biggest drug bust.

 
In Southern Afghanistan, there were 260 pounds of hashish destroyed, which were all hidden in 6-foot-deep trenches.

The hashish found in southern Afghanistan was worth more than $400 million– which would have resulted in the Taliban receiving about $14 million in profits, stated NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.  The hashish was immediately burned when it was found.  Hashish is a concentrated form of marijuana.

U.S. Gen. David McKiernan, commander of ISAF stated: “The Afghan National Police Special Task Force has made a huge step forward in proving its capability in curbing the tide of illegal drug trade in this county.”  “With this single find, they have seriously crippled the Taliban’s ability to purchase weapons that threaten the safety and security of the Afghan people and the region.”

The takedown for this drug bust is “pretty huge”– U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, Garrison Courtney said, and it also appears as the world’s largest in terms of weight.

“I can’t think of any other time I’ve ever heard of that large of an amount in one hit,” Courtney also stated.

While hashish is a popular drug, it most certainly isn’t Afghanistan’s biggest drug problem.  Opium is the country’s drug of choice, and they produced 9,000 tons of it last year, which is enough to make over 880 tons of heroin– 93 percent of the world’s supply.

Officials have increased warnings that farmers who are no longer growing opium poppies in their fields because of successful eradication programs are turning to cannbis, which is the plant used to produce hashish and marijuana.  This is giving the country a second drug problem to contend with.

Deputy Interior Minister Lt. Gen. Abdul Hadi Khalid said that three men were arrested in the raid.  He also credited the international community for helping to train the Afghan special narcotics forces.  Khalid also stated that 21 of the country’s 36 provinces are now opium-free, but that efforts to eradicate in Kandahar, Helmand, Farah and Uruzgan provinces did not go well this year because of continuing violence there.

The Interior Ministry said police grabbed about 5.6 tons of opium in a separate counternarcotics operation, which has an estimated value of $30 million, and also arrested 13 suspected drug dealers in the Helmund province.

U.S. lawmakers offered to ease conditions that were connected to a $1.4 billion drug-fighting plan for Mexico and Central America after the Mexican government called it a threat to sovereignty on Sunday, officials said.  Mexico rejected Bush’s Merida Initiative Act (which is an act that demonstrates the United States’ commitment to partner with Mexican and Central American governments to contront criminal organizations whose actions plague the region and spill over into the United States), which allows the U.S. Congress to monitor how and where the aid– which includes helicopters and encrypted communication devices– is used.

 
Marines guard packs of cocaine at a naval base in Manzanillo back on November 5th, 2007.

U.S. lawmakers also want to include human rights oversight in a three-year package, which Mexico immediately declined.  Mexico is also upset by plans to reduce the dollar amount of aid from the original proposal.  But at a meeting between U.S. and Mexican lawmakers in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey on Sunday, both sides agreed to try and save the drug plan and soften the conditions.  One way could be by turning the conditions into recommendations rather than requirements.

U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations stated, “I am confident … (the U.S.) Congress will provide support for the Merida Initiative in a matter that addresses our shared interests and concerns,” in a letter to his Mexican counterparts.

The U.S. Senate wants the plan, which does not involve cash, to ensure that any Mexican soldiers accused of crimes be tried in civilian courts.  The plan also wants Mexican federal officials to take on state and local anti-drug roles, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy says.

The government of Mexican President Felipe Calderon says it rejects any conditions because Mexico is undergoing its own police and judicial reform, and that its army is waging a deadly war with heavily armed drug gangs fighting over smuggling routes to the United States of America.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in drug violence this year across Mexico in cartel turf wars, a faster rate than in 2007, when around 2,500 people died over the entire year.

Senator Rosario Green, a former Mexican foreign minister stated, “there is a good disposition (on the part of U.S. lawmakers) to modify the language in such a way that it is accepted on this side.”  The Merida Initiative would have offered Mexico $500 million during the economic year that ends September 30th, and $50 million to Central America.  But now U.S. lawmakers want to cut Mexico’s share to as low as $350 million and offer up to $100 million to Central America, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.