JUST SAY NO TO CONSISTENCY

Put That In Your Pipe And Smoke It

Sometimes, news dispatches speak volumes:

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan The government of Helmand province, the biggest
opium-growing region in the world, will allow this year's poppy crop to
bloom and be harvested because Afghanistan's new regime is too weak to stop
it, a key provincial official said Monday.

"This year we're not able to destroy the crops. If we try to enforce a ban
on the farmers, it wouldn't be good for us," said Haji Pir Mohammed, top
deputy to the provincial governor.

VIENNA (Reuters)--The UN Narcotics watchdog said Wednesday that the
cultivation of illicit opium poppy in Afghanistan could be on the rise and
that a stable peace there depended on solving the country's drug-control
problems.

The United Nations' International Narcotics Board said in its annual report
that Afghanistan remained a key source of opiates, although Myanmar
replaced it last year as the biggest opium producer.

"We are seriously concerned that illicit cultivation of the opium poppy in
Afghanistan is again increasing, and we want to see international
cooperation to prevent Afghanistan again becoming the world's largest
producer of opium," INCB President Hamid Ghodse said.

"I cannot believe for one minute that peace, security and development in
Afghanistan can take place if the drug problems are not simultaneously
dealt with," Ghodse said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters)--President Bush Monday gave Afghanistan a waiver from
a U.S. blacklist of drug-producing countries to ensure that it can receive
American assistance.

Bush told Congress that Myanmar will be kept on the list, making it
ineligible for U.S. aid due to a failure to stop the production and
trafficking of illegal drugs.

Afghanistan and Haiti were cited for failing to stem illegal drugs, but
Bush granted them waivers from penalties in the interests of U.S. national
security.