HIGH
TIMES MAGAZINE (APRIL 2006)
THE IRAQ WAR: ON DRUGS
Crystal-meth-fed insurgents target US forces.
BY DAVID BIENENSTOCK
Currently entering its fourth year of violent opposition to
the Bush administration’s fading vision (mirage?) of
a unified, democratic, secular nation rising from the ashes
of our Shock and Awe–inspiring invasion, the Iraqi insurgency
makes lethal use of a wide and ever-increasing range of weapons
in pursuit of jihad (holy war) against US-led coalition
forces and other supporters of the new, fledgling Iraqi government,
employing everything from roadside bombs and shoulder-fired
missiles to fundamentalist religious indoctrination and anti-American
propaganda. The insurgency can also lay claim to a seemingly
endless supply of angry young men desperate enough to sacrifice
their own lives as martyrs to the cause of ending the occupation
and creating a new theocracy based on strict Islamic law—a
human supply line of modern-day cannon fodder comprised of
not only native-born Iraqis, but also would-be “freedom
fighters” recruited from across the Islamic world, including
Saudi Arabia, Syria and Kuwait.
Now add another dangerous weapon to the list of enemy combatants
in Iraq: d-N-methylamphetamine, better known stateside as
crystal meth. According to the British Mirror newspaper
and other reputable sources, leaders of the insurgency have
turned to the powerful stimulant as a “courage pill”
to psyche up their followers prior to suicide bombings and
other attacks. Known locally as “pinkies” in Basra—a
large city in southern Iraq particularly hard-hit by the insurgency—the
pills reportedly have earned a reputation for making the often
young and always zealous Iraqi rebels “fearless”
in the face of the US forces’ superior equipment and
firepower. Members of radical cleric Muqtadr al-Sadr’s
infamous Mahdi Army, which briefly controlled the holy city
of Najaf, as well as a bug chunk of Baghdad, and remains deeply
influential among the nation’s disaffected youth, reportedly
were willing to stand in the open during their brazen attacks
on US armored vehicles while high on the drug, seemingly oblivious
to steady return fire in their direction.
Of course, the Iraqi insurgents aren’t the only ones
making the most of modern pharmacology in their pursuit of
a more perfect fighting force. In 2003, lawyers for a US Air
Force pilot who released a bomb over Afghanistan—accidentally
killing four Canadian soldiers involved in training exercises
on the ground—claimed that the incident resulted from
the pilot’s impaired judgment after being pressured
into taking amphetamines prior to the mission. In response,
the Air Force acknowledged supplying dexamphetamine as a "fatigue-management
tool”—relying on the prescription drug informally
known as "go pills” to keep pilots alert during
long combat flights—but claimed all such pill-popping
is strictly voluntary.
“There have been decades of study on their efficacy
and practicality," Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Jennifer
Ferrau reassured reporters regarding the pep pills. "The
surgeon general worked very closely with commanders on this."
Still, while undoubtedly safer and cleaner than whatever supply
of crystal meth the insurgents have managed to cook up for
themselves, the Physician's Drug Handbook notes a few side
effects for dexamphetamine that are not exactly ideal traits
for fighter pilots in the air: "Symptoms of overdose
include restlessness, tremor, hyperreflexia [overactive or
over-responsive reflexes] confusion, aggressiveness, hallucinations,
and panic."
Such temporary side effects and any potential long-term health
consequences naturally don’t hold much concern for the
average suicide bomber—sent into battle simply to wreak
havoc and spread destruction, carrying a head full of visions
of exultation in the afterlife—including, of course,
the now-famous 72 virgins in heaven promised to be waiting
for every martyr who dies in the throes of jihad.
With its quick boost of confidence, energy and focus, crystal
meth can only add fuel to the fanatical fire that’s
been burning in Iraq since the American invasion. The drug
represents an ideal war-zone elixir for all the same reasons
it’s become the scourge of the American heartland—namely,
meth’s cheap to manufacture, long-lasting, powerful,
and can be easily synthesized from a variety of commonly found
and perfectly legal antecedents without any need for cultivating
or smuggling. An experienced meth chef can quickly transform
a hotel room or any similarly equipped domestic setting into
a clandestine production laboratory capable of cranking out
enough bathtub speed to supply a battalion of Iraqi insurgents
without breaking a sweat.
Meanwhile, the legend of drug-crazed Muslim terrorists run
amok dates back all the way to the famed hashashains
of the 4th Century, the secret, mystical Islamic sect controlled
by Al-Hassan ibin al-Sabbah—a powerful warlord who commanded
an elite band of devout Shiite warriors dedicated to overthrowing
the existing order of the day through a series of daring political
assassinations, usually by dagger in daylight. The hashashains
became so notoriously proficient at executing this plan of
attack that they eventually gave rise to a new word—assassin.
As the story goes, al-Sabbah would recruit likely candidates
for his fighting forces and then feed them enough hashish
to either lose consciousness or enter a waking dream. While
still under this spell, the uninitiated would be transported
to a secret garden hidden inside the walls of a castle, where
actors playing the role of ghosts would rouse them with graphic
descriptions of the eternal delights awaiting those who died
in the service of Allah and al-Sabbah. Next, a number of beautiful
women would appear in the lush garden—willing partners
called houris—and offer themselves up to the
hashashain-in-training for orgiastic lovemaking sessions
that would last for hours, all the while whispering lurid
tales of the exponentially more overwhelming delights awaiting
these young men in paradise, should they die as martyrs on
the field of battle.
By the next morning, another fearless and loyal hashashain
warrior would be born—not only willing, but in fact
eager to fight and die in the name of Allah after having been
shown the open doors to paradise. At least that’s how
the story goes, first attributed to Marco Polo, and coincidentally
a favorite little history lesson of Harry J. Anslinger—the
man most responsible for the American prohibition of marijuana
in 1937 and in many ways the grandaddy of the War on Drugs
that continues on to the present day, with neither victory
nor an exit strategy in sight.
The first commissioner of the Treasury Department’s
Federal Bureau of Narcotics and a long-serving precursor to
our modern-day Drug Czar, Anslinger loved telling and retelling
the story of the hashashains because it so fit perfectly
with the notorious scare tactics he used to discredit and
demonize cannabis—a relentless campaign of blatantly
racist misinformation that also regularly featured ax-wielding
Mexicans crazed on marihuana and lust-crazed black
men driven to violent rape by a single joint. Unfortunately,
the strategic thinking of the generals commanding the Drug
War hasn’t improved much in the nearly seven decades
since Anslinger managed to get the Marijuana Tax Act passed,
effectively banning the herb in these United States.
Take, for example, our most recent efforts to attack the alleged
crystal-meth epidemic in America—a war against a homegrown,
manmade drug that would never (or barely) exist if it weren’t
for our war on other drugs, most obviously cocaine and marijuana.
“The scourge of methamphetamine demands unconventional
thinking and innovative solutions,” Attorney General
Alberto Gonzalez noted last summer in announcing the administration’s
new anti-meth proposals—including plans to limit sales
of cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, the active ingredient
in illicit crystal. Sounds good, until critics on both sides
of the debate examined the details and quickly concluded that
the mild measures would have almost zero effect in slowing
the supply of meth on the street. Senator Charles Grassley,
a Republican from Iowa and the chairman of the Senate Caucus
on International Narcotics Control, went so far as to accuse
the White House of “listening more to Wal-Mart than
to the economic and social problems” caused by meth,
implying that the nation’s largest retailer lobbied
successfully against tougher restrictions to prevent lost
sales.
And so, as America’s drug warriors search in vain for
a way to stem the spiking meth trend at home—an epidemic
entirely within our own borders and inside our own communities—you
have to wonder how we can possibly expect to have any way
of keeping the stuff out of the hands of Iraqis in the middle
of a war zone? The short answer: We can’t. Now isn’t
it about time to declare victory and hightail it home?
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