Text 8906, 73 rader
Skriven 2010-06-24 12:48:02 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
   Kommentar till text 8905 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: Trult great news from Peru
==================================
Replying to a message of Robert Bashe to Ward Dossche:

 RB> Ward Dossche wrote to All on Tuesday June 22 2010 at 23:47:

 WD>> For the 4th year in a row the coca crop production of Peru went up.
 WD>> The increase from last year is 6.8%.

 WD>> Peru is now the 2nd largest coca producer in the world.

 WD>> The chief of police acknowledged a sense of frustration that efforts
 WD>> to erradicate this crop are futile.

 RB> Ever hear of a demand for which there's no supply if the price is
 RB> right?

 WD>> Hasn't he heard that the President of Peru is elected as the chair of
 WD>> the coca growers association?

 RB> What else are they supposed to grow as a cash crop? The soil's
 RB> generally too poor for corn or wheat, and tobacco is also a lost
 RB> cause.

The terrain mitigates against row and field crops - and mechanized farming of
almost any sort.  I suppose you could grow corn with a single-bottom plow and
a mule, but not enough to make it profitable; one might be able to feed one's
family
though.  The climate and elevation also mitigate against the common 'cash
crops'
that can (give proper terrain, soil and climate) be grown in huge open fields.

 RB> That leaves gold and silver to live on - but the Spanish took
 RB> most of that back in the good old days of the conquistadores.

 RB> So Peru has cocoa and Venezuela has oil. And both are in high demand.

Peru has coca, too.  AFAIK cocoa is mainly grown somewhere else. <g>

 WD>> Well ... justice in Peru? I'm interested to see what will happen.

 RB> Has nothing to do with with justice, more with economics. Kill the
 RB> demand and nobody will plant or harvest the crop. Make it illegal
 RB> (thus desirable - the "forbidden fruit") and highly profitable and
 RB> all you do is increase the demand and make a lot of money for the
 RB> crooks.

Would you explain that to our 'drug warriors?'

 RB> Drugs are a social and economic problem, not a legal one. My solution
 RB> is still to sell the stuff in clean (standardized, uncontaminated)
 RB> form, properly taxed like alcohol and cigarettes, in drugstores and
 RB> supermarkets. The criminals would be out of business in six months,
 RB> just like the bootleggers after prohibition was repealed.

Unfortunately that would also throw the drug warriors of this country out of
work -
and that'll never happen.  No bureaucrook will permit his or her job to be
abolished,
when prohibition was repealed all those prohibition agents converted to
anti-drug
agents - and that's when the government made marijuana, a plant that grows wild
all over the US midwest, illegal - despite the fact that physicians had been
*prescribing* cannabis for many ailments; the AMA didn't realize that cannabis
hemp, and marijuana were all the same thing until after the legislation was a
done
deal.

Incidentally, DuPont Chemical strongly supported making marijuana illegal
becausee
it eliminated a strong, cheap, competitor to its then brand new synthetic -
nylon.

--- FleetStreet 1.19+
 * Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:300/3)