Prodi buys drugs

[Relaxed]

Roman is right -

"After the petals fall the capsules continue to grow for a fortnight longer. Then comes the right time for incision."

So the Flake ad is not endangered.

(source The Cultivation of the Opium Poppy in Turkey)

[liketheroman]

Originally Posted by Relaxed

Roman is right -

"After the petals fall the capsules continue to grow for a fortnight longer. Then comes the right time for incision."

So the Flake ad is not endangered.

(source The Cultivation of the Opium Poppy in Turkey)

Are the flowers not the wrong colour (i.e. not red) so the ad is in no danger

[Relaxed]

You're right again, they are (were) red in the Flake ads, and as we all know papaver somniferum looks like this. So those red ones are just grown by Cadburys to film between - no other use for them!

papaver.jpg

[Karina Walderson]

Ah, but that is opium poppy cultivation in Turkey - we are talking about another part of the world, so do you really think greedy drug barons (or whatever they are called) are going to wait for the petals to fall? Save the Flake advert I say.

Edit:- Opium poppies are both red and white.

[liketheroman]

Originally Posted by Karina Walderson

Ah, but that is opium poppy cultivation in Turkey - we are talking about anoter part of the world, so do you really think greedy drug barons (or whatever they are called) are going to wait for the petals to fall? Save the Flake advert I say.

Dont shoot me down flames anyone and accuse me of being a 'colourist' but I have a vague recollection of the Afghan poppies being kind of purple and white?

[Relaxed]

Well I'm retiring from this part of this thread because I read somewhere that the CIA and suchlike know much more about what I'm doing than I do: and visits to yet more opium cultivation sites, following just a day after vsits to some BNP sites could be regarded as just a bit iffy! Especially since I'm trying to source a machine gun on e-bay....

[Karina Walderson]

If Google is to be believed then they are red and white in Afghanistan, but what difference would it make if they pull the petals off anyway? I think the purple poppies are the Thai opium poppy, but cant be sure without Googling and the memory fades after so many years away from the smoke filled Chinese opium dens I once frequented. Ah, those were the days.

[Fraser]

What is needed, as mentioned in a previous post, is good old fashioned free market capitalism.

Opium is not the problem. Addiction is not the problem. The unreliable strength and price of it is. This is due to the black market status.
Legalise heroin ( and all narcotics for that matter)

A Kilogram of PURE heroin can be maufactured in a lab for £0.06.

Add manufacturer/wholesale/retail tax,duty and vat. You then have a product that is clean , reliable and cheap.

What society cares about is not that someone is a narcotics addict( where would the history of art and literature be!) but that people mug and theive etc.

A heroin habit is no harder to susutain and control than any other when access to clean drugs is available.

This would wipe out the need for afgan opium

[liketheroman]

Originally Posted by Fraser

What is needed, as mentioned in a previous post, is good old fashioned free market capitalism.

Opium is not the problem. Addiction is not the problem. The unreliable strength and price of it is. This is due to the black market status.
Legalise heroin ( and all narcotics for that matter)

A Kilogram of PURE heroin can be maufactured in a lab for £0.06.

Add manufacturer/wholesale/retail tax,duty and vat. You then have a product that is clean , reliable and cheap.

What society cares about is not that someone is a narcotics addict( where would the history of art and literature be!) but that people mug and theive etc.

A heroin habit is no harder to susutain and control than any other when access to clean drugs is available.

This would wipe out the need for afgan opium

My father a GP of 40 years has the same opinion. Regulate it and sell it from nasty government shops not unlike the alchohol 'systembolaget' in Sweden.

However my worry would be industrial productivity slumping and us all becoming poorer. My father did say when he ran a hospital in Africa that he never did operations on a Monday knowing that the staff smoked 'daga' on a Sunday.

Piece of trivia, my father said many people grew marijuana in the city bomb craters after the war.

[Fraser]

Originally Posted by liketheroman

My father a GP of 40 years has the same opinion. Regulate it and sell it from nasty government shops not unlike the alchohol 'systembolaget' in Sweden.

However my worry would be industrial productivity slumping and us all becoming poorer. My father did say when he ran a hospital in Africa that he never did operations on a Monday knowing that the staff smoked 'daga' on a Sunday.

Piece of trivia, my father said many people grew marijuana in the city bomb craters after the war.

Your father knew what he was talking about.
I have known many addicts( through my work i must stress!!) and found it hard to separate between junkie A addicted to heroin ( 24 , unemployable, intellect of daytime tv standard and socially stigmatised) and Junkie B addicted to opiate painkillers and hypnotic sleeping tablets ( 64, unemployable, intellect daytime tv is aimed at , not socially stigmatised)

Only difference is I would legislate the drugs through pharmacy.