Thursday, November 04, 2004
Super-Coca
The US spends unthinkable amounts of money on its "War on Drugs," and the results are really impressive: untold numbers in jail, lives ruined for victimless nonviolent 'crimes' and billions (trillions?) of dollars spent every year, and no effect on usage rates. Oh, and the drug lords keep getting richer and richer.
And evolution is kicking in. The US's billion-dollar air-assault on Columbian (and other) growers seems to have produced an impressively herbicide resistant coca plant - that's where cocaine comes from. Whether this development comes from natural mutations selected for by farmers, or from a bioengineer's lab is irrelevant: it was bound to happen naturally regardless. And so Uncle Sam will spend another few _illion dollars on developing a new herbicide. Instead of funding job skills training, or healthcare, or (while we're at it) a tax cut. This will happen over and over until this War stops being politically useful. Which it probably won't.
And evolution is kicking in. The US's billion-dollar air-assault on Columbian (and other) growers seems to have produced an impressively herbicide resistant coca plant - that's where cocaine comes from. Whether this development comes from natural mutations selected for by farmers, or from a bioengineer's lab is irrelevant: it was bound to happen naturally regardless. And so Uncle Sam will spend another few _illion dollars on developing a new herbicide. Instead of funding job skills training, or healthcare, or (while we're at it) a tax cut. This will happen over and over until this War stops being politically useful. Which it probably won't.
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