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Quick Hits (page 4)

Opium and Afghanistan

By: Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair

Though Britain has been blaring its support for America's "War on Terror," there is public disquiet in the UK at one aspect of the new era of freedom now prevailing in Afghanistan: the renewal of opium cultivation, banned with unprecedented and near total success by Mullah Omar in July of 2000.

In order to receive US aid, Hamid Karzai's coalition had to make a pro forma announcement in January that opium cultivation is still forbidden, but the extent of this renewed commitment to abstention from Afghanistan's prime cash crop was almost simultaneously displayed in the unceremonious ejection of Afghanistan's drug control agency from its offices in Kabul, with the drug czar's desk being kicked physically into the street.

A couple of weeks ago the London Guardian reported in a headline that "MI5 [Britain's counter-intelligence agency] fears flood of Afghan heroin." The ensuing story by Nick Hopkins and Richard Norton Taylor led with the news that "Police and intelligence agencies have been warned that Britain is facing a potentially huge increase in heroin trafficking because of massive and unchecked replanting of the opium crop in Afghanistan The expectation is that the 2002 crop will be equivalent to the bumper one of three years ago, which yielded 4,600 tonnes of raw opium."

The Guardian went on to report a new assessment by the UN office for drug control and crime prevention, based in Vienna, that after the war the West stands to lose the "best ever opportunity" to suffocate the illegal trade. Afghanistan is the source of 75% of the world's heroin and 90% of Britain's supply.

Opium poppies are primarily grown in the south and east of Afghanistan, the regions domination by the Pashtuns, the ethnic fraction that sustained the Taliban until such support became an obvious poor bet.

In political terms, it's a safe forecast to say that no serious effort will be made to interfere with the opium crop. To do so would be to deal the Karzai regime as a serious a blow as did Mullah Omar to loyalty to the Taliban when he banned opium cultivation (an act variously explained as a last-ditch attempt to get recognition from the West, or as a price support tactic, restricting supply).

These developments lend a certain irony to the enormously costly ads bought by the US government on Superbowl Sunday to inform America's consumers of illegal drugs that to buy cocaine or heroin is to help terrorism. To the contrary, at last so far as Afghanistan is concerned, to buy heroin and morphine is to provide a sure market for Afghanistan's farm sector, which employs as many as 200,000 in the fields harvesting the opium from the poppy heads. A sure income to the opium farmers means a cut for the rural barons whose support in essential for the future well-being of America's selected government, headed by Karzai.

Meanwhile, readers here in the US of the magazine Vanity Fair can marvel at the tact displayed by Maureen Orth in her article in the March issue on "Afghanistan's Deadly Habit," about "the symbiotic connection between drugs and terrorism." The impression given by Orth is that only with the coming to power of the Taliban in 1996 did the opium industry "grow so quickly that in 1999 Afghanistan produced 5,000 tons of opium, more than 70 per cent of the world's supply."

It is true that deep into the article Orth makes very fleeting reference to the CIA's possible role in the late 1970s and 1980s in the expansion of opium cultivation in Afghanistan.

The facts are easily available (and cited at some length in that very fine book Whiteout, The CIA, Drugs and the Press, coauthored by Jeffrey St Clair and Alexander Cockburn). One of President Jimmy Carter's White House advisers on the drug trade said later that "We were going into Afghanistan to support the opium growers in their rebellion against the Soviets Shouldn't we try to pay the growers if they will eradicate their production?." Musto went public with his concerns in an op ed in the New York Times in 1980.

Reports issued by the UN and Drug Enforcement Administration in the early 1980s stated that by 1981 Afghan heroin producers may have captured 60 per cent of the heroin market in Western Europe and the United States. In New York City in 1979 alone, the year the CIA-organized flow of arms to the mujahiddeen began) heroin-related deaths increased by 77 per cent. There were no Superbowl ads that year about doing drugs and aiding terror. You could say that those dead addicts had given their lives in the fight to drive back Communism.

The only possible way to curb the trade is to offer farmers enough income to grow something else, at a reasonable level of profit. Decade after decade there have been effort. Mohammed Mossadegh tried crop substitution in Iran in the early 1950s and was soon toppled with the help of the CIA which found some of its allies among the big land barons running the opium trade. In Afghanistan, Noor Taraki's short-lived new Afghan government attacked the opium-growing feudal estates and got loans for crop substitution.

Orth does say frankly that "the Taliban ban on poppy growing was the largest, most successful interdiction of drugs in history." And in history's dustbin is where that interdiction speedily ended up. Will the US press for crop substitution? Probably not, always for the same reason: to suppress drug cultivation means putting money in the pockets of peasants and that means expensive aid programs and also enormous political risks of offending important, if unpalatable, allies.

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Tan 'n' Trends

Growin' Our Own (page 4)

The Rolling Stones Tour Dec. 12, 1969 "And They Did Let It Bleed"

By: Pistolero

The Rolling Stones Tour Dec. 12, 1969 Prelude

All the local San Francisco and San Jose (KSAN) radio stations were giving updates every couple of minutes on the concert. First it was going to be held in San Francisco, then Sears Point Race Way. They both fell through and a frantic search was on for a place to hold the concert. Finally after two days of searching a place was found at an old race way in "Altamont" California. It was an all day free concert featuring The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Santana and The Flying Burrito Brothers.

Getting There

My wife, a good friend and I made the trip. The closer you got the traffic started to back up a little. It turned into a party atmosphere on the freeway. Bus loads of people, people passing joints from car to car and to people in buses. Bumper to bumper the closer you got. We came from the south San Jose area so it was an easy trip but very exciting. You could feel the electricity in the air the closer you got. We parked on the side of the freeway about a mile from where the concert was. Because of all the cars parked on the side of the freeway we knew there was nowhere to park ahead. So we hitched rides and walked further up the road to the concert area. Its a good thing we parked where we did. There was nowhere to park near the entry area. Where we went in the barbed wire fence had been pushed down and every one was going in that way. There were about 15 Calif. Highway Patrolmen standing there but they weren't hassling or bothering anyone. People were smoking pot and naked people were walking by them and they just laughed. After we crossed the downed fence the rolling hills opened up into a kind of of bowl shaped area. If you went to the back you were higher up. We went to the front of the stage area about 15 feet from the stage. As the day wore on things started getting out of control.

The Concert

Drugs everywhere, people passing joints or hash pipes. The masses were very stoned. The Hells Angels had been given a couple of thousand hits of Orange Sunshine acid. There were two Angels right in front of me and these guys were fucked up to the maximum. They were taking a hand full of this acid and then a hand full of reds, man were they fucked up. This one Angel turns around and looks me square in the eyes (took him a second to focus) and reaches into his pocket and pulls out a hand full of acid and throws it at me. Well, I'm hit in the face with about 200 LSD tablets. I'm combing the shit out of my hair. I gave a bunch away and I put about 20 hits in my pocket. The whole time joints were being passed around through the crowd, you never had to wait more than a minute for a joint to come by. Things started pretty smoothly but as the day progressed it took a bad turn. The Hells Angels were showing everyone they were in charge. Between the beer and the reds and the acid some of them were a mess. It started to get a little violent. Pretty soon the bands couldn't play a complete song because something would happen. People kept crowding the stage and the Angels were pushing them back. I don't think too highly of Grace Slick - that bitch was telling people they were getting hurt because they didn't know how to act. I guess that's why Marty Balins was knocked out with a pool cue, huh? Ignorant bitch. Keith Richards came close to getting it also. He drew back his guitar like he was going to hit an Angel....they would have killed him if they would have caught it but their attention was on a fight going on on the stage. I heard later that Sonny Barger, president of the Angels, stuck a pistol into Keith Richards side and told him to play or die. The music was great when it was playing, the bands were super. Neil Young with Crosby, Stills and Nash. Santana was great. They were a new band at this time but after Altamont they took off like a rocket. The Stones were super, if you could overlook all the crap happening around you. It took the Stones too long to come on stage, the natives were getting restless. Timothy Leary was there somewhere but I cant remember seeing him. If you watch the movie "Gimme Shelter" when they go to the Altamont part there is a big blonde girl dancing with no top on...biggun's. We were about 6 feet from her.

Hells Angels

All the action was taking place on or next to the stage. We were only about 20 feet from where most of it was happening. From what I had heard the Stones had hired the Hells Angels to act as stage security for the bands as a favor to the Dead who were buddies with the Angels. Payment, I believe, was in the form of 500 cases of beer. I've heard $500 dollars but it was beer. There were a bunch of Hells Angels from the L.A. area visiting in the Frisco area so they all came to the concert. They had two old school buses parked about 100 feet in front of the stage. Some of the guys on the stage were kicking some big time ass. Now some deserved it but some didn't. One of the Angels knocked Marty Balins (Jefferson Airplane) out cold with a pool stick, he had said something to one of the Angels who apparently didn't like it. I'll never forget there was this huge fat guy at least 350-400 pounds stark ass naked dancing around being obnoxious and falling on people, so some of the Hells Angels prospects beat this guy for over an hour using mostly pool sticks. After a while these three guys were flat wore out trying to put this fat guy down. He would lay there for a minute, then get right back up and start dancing again. They finally embraced him and drug him up on stage with them. Hell, they might have made him a member - he could sure take a beating. I've always wondered what the hell kind of drug he was on. Later in the afternoon a bunch of Angels decided to ride their motorcycles down to the stage. Well that went over real good. People were packed so tight by then they could hardly get out of the way. A girl knocked a motorcycle over and it caught fire. Two Hells Angels mamas beat the crap out of her for knocking the bike over. Mick Jagger starts "Sympathy for the Devil".....that's when all hell broke loose. They had to restart the song at least 6 times. Seems like everything just started to fall apart. I think they started "Under My Thumb". There was a hell of a commotion on the right side of the stage, I see a guy waving a pistol in the air and a Hells Angels right in front of him. This idiot had pulled a gun on a Hells Angel and was stabbed to death by another Angel. I saw the whole thing unfold in front of me, I saw the gun...he was waving it in the air. All of a sudden I see a Hells Angel dive off the stage and stab the guy. Then they were on the ground and I lost sight of them, but there was a lot of action going. I saw about five Hells Angels pick the guy up and dump him at the rear of the stage. Pretty soon Mick Jagger is on the PA asking if there's a doctor in the crowd...he was needed at stage side. The guy was either plain stupid or just not right in the head. You don't pull a gun on a Hells Angels without expecting to die or be hurt so bad you wish you were dead. The Hells Angel that stabbed him was found not guilty at trial. The guy shouldn't have been there with gun to begin with. The only reason to have a gun at that place was to hurt or kill someone, or rob them. He just pointed it at the wrong guy. If he would have pointed that gun at me or mine I would have done the same myself. Just because you're a hippie don't mean you're a gutless piece of shit who wont stand up for yourself and family. A lot of newsies and "No" it alls have tried to play the killing as a race thing, They are lying through their teeth. It has to do with a guy pulling a gun and a knife and threatening people - just not Hells Angels. It doesn't matter what color he was....anyone who would have did that would have been killed, wake up. I've talked to a lot of people through the years that were sitting on the hill or way back. They couldn't figure out why the music was stopping and starting so much. They never saw or heard all the action that was going on up at the front near the stage. We started out about 15 feet from the stage and ended up about 50 feet back by the time it was over. The Grateful Dead flew in on a helicopter, saw what was going on and jumped back in and left. I've always been pissed at them for that. The Angels were there because of them. I don't think you can blame the Angels, they only did what they do so well - kick ass and party. If you hire these guys to keep control of a situation......they do. Mick and the Stones got more than their monies worth.

Getting Home

When it was over there was a mass exodus for the freeway. We hitchhiked back to our car. Everyone was riding on car fenders or 15 people to a car until they came upon theirs. Seems like we lost our friend in the mass exodus but we weren't too worried, we knew she would show up. We waited for about an hour and she never showed up so we left and went home. About 10 minutes after we got there she shows up all stoned to the max. She said she got lost and got a ride with people we knew. Now it was time to try the Orange Sunshine. No way I was going to take it at the concert, there was way too much shit happening. The acid had been made in Berkeley for the Hells Angels to take to Altamont. All I can say is that it was pretty good shit. The three of us tripped the rest of the night and early morning hours. It was a hell of an experience I wouldn't have missed for the world. They say four people died and one was born. If you look up the stats for any city the size of the Altamont gathering you will see a lot more killed and a lot more born. I've heard that at one time during the day there were over 300,000 plus people at the concert. All the "NO" it alls said this was the end of the hippie movement, what bullshit, it couldn't endure. It had 4 to 5 good years and then it all came tumbling down. All that peace and love stuff couldn't endure. It was a "Pipe Dream." In the late days in Frisco there were more rip offs and thieves playing like hippies than hippies themselves. It was a drug culture that had one hell of a party. We met a lot of great people and had a lot of fun. Truly a once in a lifetime deal. Our favorite places to go were Monterey and Santa Cruz Calif. It was only a 45 mile drive, best places to party there were around...but that's another story.

Post Script

Thru the years I've read a lot about what supposedly happened at Altamont. Most of what I've read was pure bullshit. I was there, I was close enough to see it all and I did. Most of the articles written about Altamont were written by people who weren't even there. They used second hand information and were biased from the get go.

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Pipeline (page 4)

Amsterdam Lifestyles and Coffee Shops 1971 Compared to 2001

By: Amandalynn Carver

Willie Wortels Workshop, Haarlem, Netherlands When I went to Amsterdam in 1971 I went to a club called the Paradisio. There was a window with a uniformed police officer who took my cover charge, which was about $1.00, and gave me a ticket. Inside were many rooms with people from all over the world smoking and selling hash. Weed in Amsterdam in those days was a rare find as plenty of hash came in from Morocco, Lebanon, India, Afghanistan, Nepal and some other far away exotic places. I bought some Lebanon Red, Nepalese Cobra Heads and a few other samples.

To give you an idea of prices in 1971, I ended up buying a half kilo of Lebanese Red for U.S. $125. The Moroccan man had a few round white muslin sacks of it which all weighed about one kilo each. We went to his apartment where he heated up a huge curved knife on his stove. He cut the round pie of hard pressed hash down the middle and blue gray smoke curled off his knife. We all jumped over the smoke and caught the vapors so we could test its potency. After about five attempts with his re-heated knife he successfully cut through the 2-1/2 inch thick hash pie. It tested out as you can imagine. I couldn't believe getting this much hash for about $7 an ounce. Comparable prices at that time in the Bay Area for hash were anywhere between $80 to $120 an ounce.

Cobra Heads were from Nepal and looked like hand rolled black Tootsie Rolls with one end crimped to make the face of the cobra. Cobra heads were my favorite and cost about U.S. $5, which was cheap back then, for about 1/3 ounce of high quality hash. This year in Amsterdam nobody knew what I was talking about when I asked for Cobra Heads.

Amsterdam Today

Today Amsterdam is different. There are at least 100 places where you can purchase small quantities of hash and cannabis in coffee shops. These 'coffee shops' can vary from family restaurants to bars to meeting places and just plain old small shops. There is a menu on the table with selections and prices. You can light it up as soon as it's in your hands. When I was walking down the narrow streets I kept dropping chunks of hash on the end of my orange cigar ash. We would gather round to catch the concentrated smoke and we smoked our way around town using this process.

The money used in the Netherlands is the Guilder which costs about $.40 in U.S. money. You can buy hash or weed which is now readily available due to the extensive farming of weed by the locals. Today you can get a gram or eighth for about $5 to $25 depending on what quality you want. Some shops have freshly harvested mushrooms in clear plastic containers set in coolers. These are very fresh, like what you can buy at your local grocery store. However these mushrooms are very different as they're ready to eat and make you laugh until your sides and smile are hurting. For $10 you get four to a pack and eat them slowly in the shop, on the street, train, at your hotel or wherever you want. People did take notice of our small group laughing for no apparent reason, but it's all legal, or just overlooked by the police. There is no war on drugs over there as they have reached the conclusion to separate soft drugs from the hard drugs. I'll have more information on how they differentiate between the two in a future article.

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