During the 2002 Super Bowl, TheAntiDrug (a White House sponsored campaign) depicted American drug users as knowing instruments of terror. They were quoted saying, “I helped a bomber get a fake passport… All the kids do it,” and other far-fetched and sharply criticized farces.

One of the specific counterpoints was that they drew and unfounded link between recreational pot smoking and terrorism. Afghanistan grows powerful (and expensive) opiates like heroin, not pot. Four years later, it’s a different story, according to a recent article in the New York Times. Certain regions are rid of their blackened opium poppies. But that sticky Cannabis weed has grown in its place.

Before anyone starts clamoring in support for another reason to fight this doped up war of terror, perhaps this time we’ll try to understand the choices we offered the Afghanis. Lamenting — as the commercial does — on the consequences of terrorism and the misguided Americans who fund it only creates an ignorance to what all westerners have done to make the situation possible. And unavoidable. It’s what underlies this whole problem of terrorism…Afghani farmers had no option. They could not subsist on growing what we said we needed — cotton and candy and Chinese puzzle pieces and Polly Pocket? accessories. Because we need those things to be cheap, too.

In our hyper-efficient world, their survival is lost in the shuffle for profit. We’re the world’s casino — the dealer — and we’ve stacked the odds. Against that kind of bet, if you were gambling for food on your family’s table, wouldn’t you keep a couple of cards up your sleeve too?

NYT - Cannabis Thrives in an Afghan Province