Global Research

The tragic video of a two-year-old crying over the body of her mother who collapsed from an overdose at a Dollar Store in Massachusetts has brought attention to the epidemic of cheap heroin in the United States.

Drug trafficking is not just a problem in America’s cities it is the main problem. Turf wars by drug dealers account for most of the murders in the United States. Drug-related shootings are at all-time highs. Crimes by drug addicts account for most of the prostitution, robberies, and burglaries in America. Prisons are packed with heroin users along with psychiatric wards and graveyards.

For eight years President Obama has been the commander-in-chief of U.S. armed forces in Afghanistan, a country that produces 90% of the opium in the world. ¹   With a stroke of his pen Obama could shut off most of the drug supply to 17 million heroin and opium addicts. Instead, his legacy is the same as George W. Bush. He allowed drugs to flow unimpeded out of Afghanistan for both terms of his presidency.

In a September 17, 2016 speech to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, President Obama insisted that it would be a personal insult to him if African Americans do not vote for Hillary Clinton. He said that only she can continue his legacy of support for the black community.

Wait. A legacy of support for the black community. Really?

Unemployment rates have not dropped in black communities during Obama’s presidency. Home ownership rates are lower among blacks than before he took office. African-Americans are experiencing stagnant wages and diminishing wealth just like everyone else. Racial tension is at its highest level ever in the United States. Finally, there is an epidemic of drug use and violence plaguing black and white communities all over the country.

Since Obama is now a lame-duck it is more important to examine the record of his hand-picked successor, Hillary Clinton. What did she do about the drug problem in black communities while she was in office during Obama’s first four years?

While acting as the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was responsible for the activities of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

The mission of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) is to combat international crime and illegal drugs, and their impact on the United States, its citizens, and partner nations ²

Last year the INL received over four billion dollars to distribute among five thousand drug interdiction personnel around the world. ³ In 2013 the DEA reported that over the four years that Hillary managed the multi-billion dollar program at the State Department, the flow of drugs north from Mexico increased:

The availability of heroin continued to increase in 2012, likely due to high levels of heroin production in Mexico and Mexican traffickers expanding into white powder heroin markets in the eastern and midwest United States.⁴

The DEA further reported that during the years that Hillary Clinton was in office so much Mexican heroin flooded into the country that the price of the narcotic dropped to the point that it was easier to obtain than prescription pain medicine.⁵

OK, so Hillary did nothing to stop the flow of heroin from Mexico when she was in office.  But what did she do about the flow of drugs out of Afghanistan?   The UN Office of Drugs and Crime provides the answer.  It reported that opium production in Afghanistan reached a ten-year peak in Hillary’s final year. ⁶

So much for Hillary Clinton’s efforts to stop the flow of heroin into African-American communities in the United States  when she was in a position do something about it.

Hillary’s website describes her 5-point plan to save Americans from drug addiction. It is Band-Aid therapy on steroids.

First, she will combat narcotics trafficking by giving money to public schools for education.  Every parent knows it is much easier to keep bad stuff away from children than to teach them to resist temptation.

Next she will provide two million first responders with $400 injection devices to administer drugs to people who are having overdoses. Keep the cheap dope away from them and they won’t overdose and need a $400 injection.

Next, she will provide free medical services to drug addicts.  Again, there would be no addicts if cheap drugs weren’t available everywhere.

Finally, she will make the criminal justice system focus more on drug rehabilitation than on drug interdiction.  There goes the last hope to address the central issue of restricting the flow of illegal narcotics into the country.

Despite the assessment by the DEA that the largest flow of heroin into America is coming from Mexico, Hillary has ridiculed the idea of building a wall on the border. She proposes to do nothing at all about the flow of opium from the poppy fields of Afghanistan.

That is the legacy that Obama insists Hillary Clinton must continue.

For 7 years, Stephen A. Molling was the Executive Director of a non-profit youth development program in East Baltimore. He has witnessed the devastating effect of heroin on urban families first-hand. He is the author of The Uragon Protocol.

Notes:

¹ UNITED NATIONS Office on Drugs and Crime. “World Drug Report 2016” Page xii
² http://www.state.gov/j/inl/faqs/index.htm
³ ibid
⁴ https://www.dea.gov/resource-center/DIR-017-13%20NDTA%20Summary%20final.pdf
⁵ ibid
⁶ UNITED NATIONS Office on Drugs and Crime. ” World Drug Report 2013” p.30