HEROIN IN HUMBOLDT: THE POLICY THAT MAKES IT AVAILABLE

It struck my attention as soon as I saw the headlines in the Eureka
Times-Standard reading: "Drug task force seizes $120K worth of heroin"
(March 15). The headlines were my worst fears coming true, for it is the
proof of what the global media has been screaming for a while: Heroin is
on the way back, and now it is here in our county.

One quickly realized it is the Bush policy in Afghanistan coming home to
roost, right here in Humboldt County. Not only did we miss our chance to
get Bin Laden and stop al-Qaida at its roots. We turned loose another
monster on the globe -- heroin.

Heroin, like morphine, is a derivative of the opium contained in poppies,
and most of the world's poppy crop originates from northern Afghanistan.

When the U.S. ventured into Afghanistan, it was not the capital of poppy
production it once was. The Taliban had eradicated most of it, and
controlled the rest for their personal profits.

No, they are not the philanthropic types. They are control freaks, and
they wanted to have power over the poppy production, limiting it to their
friends who paid them in advance. Yet they did (inadvertently,
perhaps) curtail the majority of massive poppy-growing that Afghanistan
is famous for, and as a result the heroin trade suffered.

Now, six years later, the U.N. announces the largest poppy crop in the
history of Afghanistan is harvested, and the heroin that is the resulting
product is growing cheaper and gaining popularity on a global scale.

Our failure to see the Afghanistan struggle through, and the diversion to
Iraq, has had more consequences than one can easily discern, and the drug
trade is one of those resulting phantom problems sneaking up on America.

The production of heroin and the ensuing addictions leave society paying
for our neglect. This scourge of civilization called heroin is highly
addictive, and drains the moral and character of its users.

Meth has penetrated our county and left its scars, and as heroin becomes
cheaper it will add to the woes of an already overtaxed social system.
More arrests, interventions, more deaths and medical problems,
and additional misery thanks to Mr. Bush's poor policy and total incompetence.

U.N. studies inform us that Afghanistan production levels of opium has
risen for the second straight year (2007) in record proportions, a
staggering 45 percent more compared to the previous year. The
Taliban strongholds of Helmand Province are pushing hard to make money
for the destitute Taliban.

The U.N. report further told us that a $600 million counter-narcotic
program has essentially failed from corruption and incompetence, and
American taxpayers pay for both failures.

"I think it is safe to say that we should be looking for a new strategy,"
said William B. Wood, the American ambassador to Afghanistan, commenting
on the report's overall findings.

So do we, Mr. Wood, and now it is showing up in large quantities in this
rural American county.

Yes, heroin has been here before, but statistics prove that as the poppies
increase, so grows addictions, and heroin is a tough drug to eradicate on
the streets of Humboldt County. Sadly it could have been or could
be stopped at the source, in the land of the Afghans, if only we were not
in Iraq.

Perhaps we should send the cost for this problem to the neocons in D.C.
and tell them to pay the bill for the problem they helped to create and we
have already paid for.

Robert W. Barker is a resident of Eureka.