I guess there aren't many (currently) pot-smkoing persons on this list. Apparently, pot is the number 2 cash crop in the US, after soy. As a result of Reagun era "war on drugs", pot-growers moved indoors and also in the process created new monster breeds of reefer that render the best hash we had in the 70s "lemonade". There was a fascinating NY Times article in the mid-90s in the subject. Apparently, some counties in the deep south have tossed out elected sherrifs that were hostile to pot growers and installed "friendlier" ones. Look for counties were pot busts went from X to zero in a short time. Actually, there are some technologies used by some pot growers that are probably of interest to Cypherpunks. Apparently, Route 95 is now famous for growers who move up and down between states to their various grow-locations, each one without enough pot to merit long term jail time. If one of the locations are entered, the most sophisticated growers are alerted electronically, and never return to tha location again. One wonders what cryptographic protocols are being used by said growers, and whether growers are able to use them properly. -TD
From: Mike Rosing <eresrch@eskimo.com> To: cypherpunks@lne.com Subject: Re: Fatherland tries to tie pot to 'terrorists' Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 06:13:51 -0700 (PDT)
On Fri, 16 May 2003, Sandy Harris wrote:
In Af, there was hashish more-or-less everywhere, and exceedingly high quality. Everyone from customs officials and military officers to street urchins and respectable merchants offerred it to us. I don't think that, in several weeks in the country, we ever spent more than a half hour in public without someone trying to sell us hash. Friends visited a warehouse with hundreds of kilos in it.
We were not offerred opium.
This is what I've read from people on the ground there now. Basicly, opium is a crop for sale, but hash is the drug of choice.
I'd say that if opium is indeed a major crop in Af now, then the situation was created by some combination of US pressure on other sources, the Islamic gov't in Iran suppressing it there, various groups -- including Bin Laden's lads -- needing money to fight the Russians, Taliban (probably with the help of the CIA and Pakistani Intelligence, who created them) needing money, ...
It grows well there on top of it all, and gets a high value. All the rest is opportunism.
I guess it'd be nice if a lot of that "nice quality hash" made it back to the US. But I suspect our troops will smoke it all first!
Patience, persistence, truth, Dr. mike
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