Marvin Sandnes Oregon US House Dist. 5

– In 2001 a gram of heroin at North Hi cost $400. This morning a gram of heroin at North Hi.
cost $100 or $80 if a regular buyer.

– This graph is from the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime(unodc.org).
As you can see, the single year the Taliban controlled the crop the planting was 8,000 hectares (1 ha = approx 3 ac). The record crop of 2014, 224,000 ha, has a value of approx. $60 billion. Iraq’s oil is worth approx. $100 billion @ $90 a barrel.

– America consumes 60% of the illegal drugs produced on the planet, but if you check the DEA’s website, right now, they will tell you only 4% of America’s heroin comes from “SW Asia”. Hardly credible considering our consumption and the fact that Afghanistan supplies 93% of the world’s supply of opium.

– The media tells us this epidemic is primarily caused by over prescribing opiate pain pills.
The unodc.org report comes out in early October. The 2015 report showed a 19% reduction in planting. Two weeks later our President announced a re-deployment of 5,000 troops back into Afghanistan and we know where those troops were deployed.

– How much of a stretch is it to connect the price of heroin at North Hi and the level of planting in Afghanistan? Is this connection obvious? Is the epidemic obvious? Why have we not heard of this connection from our MEDIA? Or a SINGLE MEMBER OF OUR CONGRESS? Or our DEA?

– I think the money is so great, the addiction to the money so profound, that our society, our leaders, our press, sacrifice our own children to feed this addiction. Much the same way an addicted mother will leave her child unattended to go out and get her drugs. Will she return when the child needs care or when she secures her drugs?

– This is a crisis and this epidemic of addictive disorder is destroying America.