DRUG PRODUCTION OF OLYMPIC PROPORTIONS

If we are to believe Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canada and
Afghanistan are really joined at the hip. That was even more apparent
when Afghan President Hamid Karzai addressed a joint sitting of our
Parliament in Ottawa.

The diminutive leader is generally acknowledged to be little more
than the mayor of Kabul -- with the rest of his country being
controlled by either poppy-growing warlords or gun-toting Taliban.

Despite all the words of bravado this past week, let us not forget
the warning of philosopher and writer George Santayana: "Those who
cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Let us not
forget that ethnic Pashtun tribesmen have successfully repelled every
occupying army for centuries, dating back to the formidable forces of
Alexander The Great around 300 BC.

Their opium poppy market has increased some 59 per cent in the past
year to its greatest ever yield, while right here we reluctantly
admit that our most lucrative cash crop is B.C. Bud.

Think of the advantages to our beleagured taxpayers if all that drug
money was used to sponsor the 2010 Olympics.

Bernie Smith,

Parksville.