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A Joint Military Maneuver: Scoring Drugs In Baghdad
Patrolling in Iraq a couple of months ago, Army Spec. Carlos Arellano, a reservist and rapper from California, happened upon what he called "this beauty waving in the wind" -- a marijuana plant just starting to blossom. He resisted the temptation to "confiscate" and smoke the weed, he says, but was pleased to pose for a photo that's just hit the cover of High Times's spinoff magazine Grow America with the headline, "Buds Over Baghdad." This week the pro-pot publication is sending the image to all members of Congress, saying it's proud to finally provide lawmakers with an uplifting picture from Iraq.
"It's a life-affirming shot as opposed to a death-affirming shot," says Rick Cusick, ad director of Grow America. "He's happy to be there with that bud. It's also in counterpoint to those photos of our soldiers holding Iraqis by dog leashes. This is a psychic relief in a lot of ways."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23753-2004Jun7.html
A boom in supply of hallucinogenic tablets has been coupled with the release of tens of thousands of criminals from prison before the US-led invasion to create a huge problem for the fledgling Iraqi police force.
As well as the tablets, drugs like Valium and sleeping pills - in common use in Iraqi jails - are being used.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3156048.stm
"There are few laws in Iraq right now," writes Dave Enders, High Times's man in Baghdad, "so although drug possession was punishable by death before, you can now pass a spliff openly in front of the cops."
Which may not, come to think of it, be exactly the kind of freedom that President Bush envisioned for Iraq.
Enders, a freelancer from Michigan, covers more than just the dope scene in Baghdad. He also writes about U.S. soldiers and the nutty do-gooders who've swarmed into Iraq and about Hamid, "a 26-year-old translator/bodyguard/heavy-metal fan." Hamid was an Iraqi soldier until he deliberately shot himself in the leg to avoid fighting the Americans and now smokes weed and writes protest lyrics set to the tune of "The Wall" by Pink Floyd: "We don't need no occupation, We don't need no CPA. . . . "
"The desire to leave," Enders concludes, "is the only thing US soldiers and Iraqis have in common."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25915-2004Apr19.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23753-2004Jun7.html
A boom in supply of hallucinogenic tablets has been coupled with the release of tens of thousands of criminals from prison before the US-led invasion to create a huge problem for the fledgling Iraqi police force.
As well as the tablets, drugs like Valium and sleeping pills - in common use in Iraqi jails - are being used.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3156048.stm
"There are few laws in Iraq right now," writes Dave Enders, High Times's man in Baghdad, "so although drug possession was punishable by death before, you can now pass a spliff openly in front of the cops."
Which may not, come to think of it, be exactly the kind of freedom that President Bush envisioned for Iraq.
Enders, a freelancer from Michigan, covers more than just the dope scene in Baghdad. He also writes about U.S. soldiers and the nutty do-gooders who've swarmed into Iraq and about Hamid, "a 26-year-old translator/bodyguard/heavy-metal fan." Hamid was an Iraqi soldier until he deliberately shot himself in the leg to avoid fighting the Americans and now smokes weed and writes protest lyrics set to the tune of "The Wall" by Pink Floyd: "We don't need no occupation, We don't need no CPA. . . . "
"The desire to leave," Enders concludes, "is the only thing US soldiers and Iraqis have in common."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25915-2004Apr19.html
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