The State We're In, 16 January 2010: The trade in illicit drugs around the world is stronger than ever. We zoom in and zoom out on the global trade in conversations with a former street dealer, a drug mule and an addict. We also speak to an expert who consults with governments around the world about what they can do to fight back.
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The dealer
Glenn Cobbins dealt drugs for thirty-five years on the streets of Columbia, Missouri. Expert Ian Oliver in Edinburgh tells Jonathan what dealers like Glenn mean to the drug trade around the world.
The dealer's deal
Faced with a choice of treatment or prison, Glenn took treatment. He tells Jonathan what it took to come clean and stay clean.
The mule
Maxine Munroe was offered 100,000 pounds to take a suitcase of pornographic films to the United Kingdom - an offer that seemed too good to be true. It was. She was sentenced to ten years.
The addict
When Barry Woodward first tried heroin, he had no idea that he would become an addict in only six months. And that it would take him nearly fifteen years to get reclaim his life.
A helping hand
When a drug mule dies transporting narcotics, Orlando Tobón is there to help. He contacts their families to send the bodies back home. And when he can’t do that, he helps lay them to rest with dignity and care.
Lead photo: An Afghan man checks poppy fields in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan - EPA/STR
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When you try hard drugs you kind of expect the side effects. Heroin is a very addictive and dangerous drug, there are people in Texas drug rehab that can confirm it with their life stories. Too bad in most cases we have to learn our drug lessons the hard way.
As a police officer, I learned quickly that the War on Drugs has been the most destructive, dysfunctional and immoral policy since slavery and Jim Crow (laws designed to keep blacks 'in their place.')
To reduce crime, death, disease all drugs should be legal & reguated by the government, not sold off street corners by teenagers. That is immoral.
"To reduce crime, death, disease all drugs should be legal & reguated by the government, not sold off street corners by teenagers. That is immoral."..........So when a teenager can't legally buy heroin or meth, don't you think he or she is going to buy it from someone else who legally bought it and then sell it for a profit to a child? When the teenager becomes addicted to the heroin and meth and has no resources to pay hundreds of dollars in order to ease the pain of addiction, don't you think he or she will steal and kill someone else in order to get the money? { Your logic is poor, mate and your introduction as being a police officer reflects your lack of experience with criminals and motives; and, drugs and addiction in the real world.
Ian Oliver said "19th century" instead of "20th century" when he was clearly discussing the latter--talking about drug paraphernalia being sold through mail-order catalogs. The 1900s were the 20th century. The 19th century consisted of the 1800s. Now we are in the 2000s, the 21st century.
Dr. Oliver gave plenty of evidence (apparently without noticing it) that the enormous profits that corrupt police and politicians is the reason that the drug trade cannot be won. And that is directly because of the laws that make it so profitable. Then he denies that legalization is the way to combat it. He advocates continuing the same ineffective methods--legal interdiction, education--that have not worked at all! He admits that during the days when it was not illegal that it was hardly a problem. Now, with laws that make it so profitable, it is a major problem. Weird. Why does he advocate exactly what the drug lords want? In the movie "Key Largo" two mobsters were discussing things that would take their minds off the coming hurricane. One suggests "Let's bring back prohibition!" The end of prohibition knocked the props from under the bootleggers. Would drug use increase? Doubtful, but even if it did would that be worse than the corruption of police, inner cities, whole countries?
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