SAFEGUARDING THE DRUG TRADE?

So 19 luckless members of the Royal 22e Regiment, testing positive for drug
use, will not be going to Afghanistan (Gazette, Feb. 6, "Stoned on guard
for thee"). One cannot help chortling at this news.

While Afghanistan's opium-poppy production shrank to virtually nothing by
the last year of Taliban rule, under U.S. occupation it has rocketed back
to record-breaking levels, and reportedly accounts for more than 75 per
cent of the world's opium production.

How disarmingly naive of the Van Doo brass, then, to tut-tut over a few
soldiers' partaking of drugs. For all we know, it might well come from the
very same people whose activities the soldiers will be duty-bound to
protect, tolerate or discreetly to ignore.

Roman Korol

Montreal