GOOD AND BAD NEWS REGARDING THE WAR ON DRUGS:

The Frankfurter Allgemeine on 30 Nov reported the following “good news”: from Afghanistan, for the first time in years production of opium decreased; the bad news: the decrease had nothing to do with the efforts of President Karzai or the US troops, but merely reflected the gout of opium and heroin in the world market, with the result that prices had fallen so sharply to make alternative crops more attractive to some of the Afghan growers.

There was also good news from Brazil: Rio was chosen the site of the 2016 Olympic games; the bad news: a police helicopter wa shot down by drug gangs in Rio, gangs whose arsenal of weapons is estimated to be nine times (!) than that of the entire Brazilian police force.

Surely there’s a more productive approach . . .