Video Essay: Opium's Grip on Afghanistan

[ontariobuds]

@turb1n I am sorry, I didn't understand what you said.

did you say in the end, they are suppliers fo weed?

[67DieHardPatriot454]

you cant blame them they have no doctors medicine or hope. i would get high everyday to if i was afghani. its a fucked up situation with no solution. We have to stop this war culture here in america. and yes Mishutaste they would love to take all our liberties. Just like we do at war believe it or not the government wishes it could silence us using the same measures. So yes i agree and i am something of an expert on the subject. But we will never surrender our guns. thats is the last straw.

[malkamanjali]

Greatest Be Naughty women  benaughtyman.info

[durrrred]

Cool!

[ontariobuds]

I wish I could visit these people with sacs of methadone and suboxone for them. They deserve better than this, opiate addiction is so terrible, it isn't even living. It is hell on Earth. If it was possible for me to go help these people I would do it in a second.

[FXThug]

thats crazy i thought opium is cheap there like corn or smthn.

[Fiberawptic]

A lot of Suicide bombers in Afgan take opium before "seeking martyrdom" if ya know what i mean... Helps them care less about it...

[teapestanlaspatas]

we are realy fucked, this is worst than just poor people......--.

[SCHRUBBE1966]

Half his village is addicted to H. Wonder what his cut is. Maybe we should give all Afghanistan free H. That way they would do whatever America wanted.

[piniatamurderur]

btw my comment is a 3 part so read all of them

[piniatamurderur]

i hope for a bright future for the peoples of the former soviet empire south east asia middle east and mexico since they are the places with most heroin addicts also the reason russia is like this is cuz during a crumbling soviet empire heroin offered a new way of life for the peoples of russia and surrounding areas.

Sorry for all spelling mistakes i was in a rush.

[piniatamurderur]

population is employed( in my geography textbooks i saw a chart on avg death age in afghanistan its in the mid 50s now i no why) Anyways the afghanis peoples only hope is if their living situation changes so they wont need opium or heroin to forget their problems cuz if theres no problems the people wont have to alter their states of mind to find happiness through all the bull shit they live through and thats the reason they started in the first place. This is The only solution possible

[piniatamurderur]

well the Taliban first outlawed opium production but then had to start it up again to pay for weapons for when USA invaded. Most citizens of afghanistan fled to pakistan and iran where opium and heroin use is common they picked up their habits there and were deported back to afghanistan now they just get stoned all day cuz heroin is cheap and afghanistans main cash crop. The only way to stop this is if afghansitans economy gets better to where living standards are good and that most the populat

[rickydepths1]

Planning on sending troops over to Afghanistan....guess who is going to steal some of that Opium/Heroine.

[successconsulting]

Thats a disturbing video....what can we do?

[yoda19hack]

Buy them more opium

[Care003]

i pity this world.

[cool70200]

50% of the people? sheesh

[moondy11]

i just took 30mg of codeine phosphate for my cold. feeling pretty good i must say.

[ChinatownNoodles]

their accent sounds weird... I don't think their pashtus

...lol, not that I speak pashtu

[The1stPoster]

must be pretty good shit, need to get some of that over here.

[vinnyelia]

non toccate i bambini... figli di P..

[Anag2080]

Wow, sad. That poor child :/

[696styx]

Americans are oil and opium addicts

[MishuTaste]

And what nation isn't?

[millgiass]

Shoot, I've never even seen opium or heard about it's avalability. So saying Americans are addicted to Opium is an overstatment. Americans do more pot and coke than anything.

[Caffijuanohol]

Well, in an indirect sort of way Americans (and many other peoples) are addicted to opium in the form of heroin. You can't make heroin without opium, so Americans do create a large demand for it.

[Arjakuru]

It's about the derivatives of opium such as heroine, morphine, oxycontin. A lot of what the pill poppers consider "downers" are derivatives of opium. These are legal painkillers.

An estimated 1.4% of Americans are addicted to heroine alone and many more one the pills. On a population of 300 million people, that's a lot.

[piniatamurderur]

nah US druggies usually only do pot and other minorly addicted im not saying theres not alot of coke use but other places have way more druggies that use coke

[fjy6]

oh god help afg. anather contry thinking how enjoying life, but see afg, they thiking how can be a live. sad sad

[hypnofan35]

This is very difficult to watch. I bet they cannot get cannabis and this could be a big factor. It's not like they're experts on the subject... they're simply addicts. In the USA there are things we are addicted to as well. What's life all about anyway? You feel good or bad or interested or famous, and then you die. Smoke some Cannabis and think about stuff. It makes life "enjoyable"!

[tuigopfiets]

Are they proud on 2:17?

[curlingiron7658]

Jesus, people are so selfish. I can understand someone getting addicted, but to get your kids addicted is just sickening. I dont see why we try to help these people, if this is what they spend their money on.

[MishuTaste]

If Muslims are so obsessed with morality, why are they involved with the drug trade?

[megatron0357]

hiprocracy...has no borders

[vigan563]

Its not Muslims you stereotype its Afghanistan.

Why do christians like to bomb and invade other countries when theyre so obsessed with peace ?

thats what your saying, i just took america as an example.

[MishuTaste]

Afganistan is full of Muslims, like the Taliban, who are violently opposed to any kind of immorality. If that's the case, why aren't they stopping the shipment of opium to other nations? They're real good at condemning our 'sinful' American lifestyles. Why won't they stop the sin of drug abuse?

[vigan563]

THE MUSLIM PEOPLE THAT SMUGGLE DRUGS OR DO ANY OTHER CRIMES DO NOT REPRESENT THE MUSLIM RELIGION.

Those who do, i know we've seen people saying that theyre killing people for God, but theyre crazy, theyre going completely against God.

And i think im allowed to say that this Terorrism thing has been way too exagerated. It made you categorise muslims just like that you see ?

U watched video of villages in afghanistan selling opium, and you went against theyre RELIGION automaticly. Thats us and a

[MishuTaste]

Afghanistan is such a miserable place to live, I think we could probably punish the terrorists by leaving them alone. Personally, I would like to spend all the war contract money on infrastructure: building new roads, bridges, dams, & fixing potholes. I think the terrorism thing has been exaggerated to the extent that the government wants to disregard our American civil liberties---which is a major part of our identity as a nation.

[vigan563]

Here i agree with you.

[fullmetaljaco]

@MishuTaste if afghanistan has become a country like this the guilt is mostly american. it was not a nation in these conditions before americans helped the talibans in their run for power, then slaughtered the population and emptied every afghan economical resource, so don' t do the hypocrite.

[MishuTaste]

@fullmetaljaco I wasn't the one that decided to invade that country. How much influence do you have on your national leaders? If I had my way, I would've let the Russians take over.

[fullmetaljaco]

@MishuTaste you are right, excuse me if i didn t behave politely with you. surely the fact that a difference between leaders and population actually exist makes the true democracy powerless. i am italian and the leader of my nation is actually a mafia-thief-pedophile, and nobody can say anything here. the fact is that the leader do the war, the people die for it, and in the end bush can count billions in his pocket thanks to the oil, afghans starve for nothing and marines die. so why obey?

[MishuTaste]

@fullmetaljaco We both want justice in the world, unfortunately, it's hard to convince other people to do good things. I think we can improve the state of the world by making others AWARE of things that are wrong and show them how they can change it. Over here, people will vote for a Republican or a Democrat w/o putting much thought into it. Personally, I lean toward the Libertarian view of politics---although I don't totally agree with all they say.

[2fan]

you don't know shit boy so shut the fuck up .. you dont know anything about afghanistan n taliban and why america is in there in the first place so it's better to shut your holes and keep your assumptions to yourself before you make a fool of yourself

[MishuTaste]

Who the f**k are you?!

[zentonil]

Freud actually gives a very convincing theory in his "Civilization and its Discontents." He argues that aggression can never be diminished and therefore will find a suitable channel to vent itself from an individual, like electricity. Christianity and Islam (for example), which advocate brotherly love and peace on earth create an Us vs Them mentality where normal conflict that should come between fellow believers is attributed to the Other, ie. foreigners, infidels, ect...

[696styx]

"I told you never to fuck with mu Opium!!!

[guanst]

This people don´t know something else,they never went out of this,the gov must do something,but they just don´t care because drugs are a great business,and they need zombies to do the hard work.What about CRACK and PACO in America?

[guanst]

yeah! create more zombies,good,good,ahj.ahj,ahj.

We can put some babies to grow drug too,ho,ho,ho!

[PartVIII]

natural selection.

[MishuTaste]

Yeah, tell me about it.

[obiyoukenobi]

boy, this is sad

[pumasporvida]

It is..really, just to think that the adults provide that to the children, it is sickening. As a mother I can't even fathom doing something like that to my children.

[joesproudwife]

I work with refugees here in Canada. We have many many Afghan families. One little boy told me a while back how he missed his country because he liked climbing the bags of "sugar" his family collected from their flower farm.

[ufoutlier]

Very interesting. Opiates are a real problem, but Suboxone seems to be a miracle cure for addictio n!~

[CyrusNixes]

Suboxone is an amazing way to get your life back, but getting off that stuff can be just as hard as getting off of the real opiates. I would know, I'm still trying to get off it and it's been years.

[xxxDollarGeneralxxx]

damn shame...crack and meth does people the same way..rather smoke than put food on the table for the kids

[BinkieMcFartnuggets]

But what about Morphine's grip on Afghanistan?

[clearwater04]

uh all you did was change the name ap this is the same as the heroin vid. why don't you do one about how they can't grow anything else there but mostly drugs?

[screenname1066]

Question--does this video motivate you to keep troops in Afghanistan, in order to (try to) help people there--if so, how effective can we be given out-of-control drug use here (in U.S.)?

AND/OR--does this distract from, or highlight the issue of growing opium poppies in Afghanistan, and how that ties to intrntl. drug trafficking.

(shouldn't we be able to spot/stop shipments of bulky goods like opium, given current military presence there? Why haven't we?)

[truthsabre7]

What a disgrace. Where is the religion of peace?

[megatron0357]

just because u profess a religion doenst mean u are following its ideals...nor does it mean you are knowedgeable about that religion. i know many a christian, muslim who really are ignorant on their religion. such is the way of the world.

[fcabido]

i thought drugs are awesome and should be legalized ask the college profs why this is different?

[tankard120]

se ensinar a levar no rabo eles vão! desculpas de mau pagador, e os governantes que apadrinhar estas atitudes deviam ser decapitados sim .

[caoti123459]

why the person addicted? they just don't have another choice for easing pain. opium just can make their dull and so time passing

[AfricanMadman]

Wow.....

And look at what we're about to do in California...

[lilJohnDillz]

they are legalizing marijuana not opium in California. your an idiot

[AfricanMadman]

Why I'm a idiot?

There's been alot is shit-talk lately, what's your fucking problem?

And a drug is a drug, weather it's blow, weed or this junk their smoking in this video. that was my point on this video... But no, you have to be witty and say something demeaning to me to prove what? NOTHING!

Just do me a favor and not reply on my comments, EVER! Can you do that?

[lilJohnDillz]

your an idiot because your wrong, and that 'junk' they are smoking in this video has more medicinal and cultural purposes then you think.

and if you truly believe that cocaine, marijuana and opium are the same thing then you have proven to me how stupid you really are.

[numbahwhun]

wow someone who actually formed an independant thought! there might still be hope

[andersonpm5]

get you baby high ..nice !

pepole are shocked that shit like that gose on there, but the same shit happens in our back yards all across North America

[skymunro]

The largest opium field in the world is owned by Bayer Aspirin...The criminal isn't the plant itself, its the pharmaceutical companies which exploit these people...Its not the opiate (poppy) that is the only guilty contributor..Its the barbiturates which we get from our doctors that end up killing most of us..

[Loverleezack]

So perhaps the governements need to put some laws down on how that is to be handled, but they wont becasue the gvmnts in these places are currupt. But those drugs are needs by the pharmecutical companies, I know personally I have used morphine in the hospital and it I needed it. So what is the solution here? Pointing fingers? That doesnt accomplish much.

[skymunro]

The government within our own country is corrupt. The dichotomy of our health cares infrastructure is set up that way. We put a dope head on Methadone regiments to ween the individual off of heroin. Its one crutch substituting another...As an individual who hasn't put a needle in his arm since 4/26/2004 all this is my observation. I believe you to have misconstrued my point.

[Loverleezack]

oops...I just reread your original comment in context with the reply to mine, I did misunderstand where you were coming from, sorry. I had thought you meant that pharmacies shouldn't use these plants to make drugs in the first place :S

[sanwamble]

We're fighting to give democracy to these people?

Oh man I feel duped.!?

We should just stay in Iraq or go home altogether!

America can only help people not change their way of life!

[VinceOmega]

Come on son, smoke. SMOKE!

[TheLiberalssuckdick]

fucking addicts.

That's all they know how to do.

the liberals in the US can only smoke marijuana everyday and complain to everybody that they want it legalized.

[snowfan]

more of the same... boring

[ChristinaWatkinson]

1:05 he is so hot