I absolutely detest when Lebanese go around blaming their social problems on foreign countries. More often than not, its usually finger-pointing at the West for their “socially degrading exports” which, according to these type of activists, is forced down our throat; not that we, as consumers, enjoy them.
What really annoyed me recently was a statement by one of Lebanon’s anti-drug NGOs ” Jeunesse Anti Drogue” (unfortunately my first name is their acronym) to parliament:
During a parliament discussion on the country’s increasing drug problem, Joseph Hawat [president of JAD] spoke about rising figures of drug addicts that are being reported in the Arab world and highlighted Israeli involvement as being a particular threat.
Come on! You mean its not our lax border security, our laissez-faire attitude towards hashish or that its still grown in our backyards that is the cause of the problem? And it seems the comment is based on coincidence:
“Last year, we (JAD) were researching the case of a drug smuggler who was importing chocolate from Egypt that contained LSD and other drugs,” he said, “We traced the drug dealer’s source in Egypt to an Israeli businessman living in Egypt.”
How was it getting into the country? Who was transporting it? How was it distributed once it got here? Of course, I am not expecting any answers. When you start playing the “Israel is behind everything” card you are basically standing up and saying that the problem is too big to handle and we cannot do anything about it. You are effectively saying that you have no control over the situation and cannot do anything about.
This would be a perfect time for the government to step in and take action:
…the [Lebanese] government will allocate millions of dollars for the war on drugs, most of which will be transferred to the JAD.
Why? So they could spend more money on research (read: witch hunt) looking for the Israeli boogieman? Then of course there’s the fact that drugs are part of our war with Israel – hashish for hush-hush:
Hezbollah takes the line that the drugs are being used for a good cause, namely to buy Israeli military secrets. The organization considers the drugs trade to be part of an “indirect war” against Israel, one that certainly came in handy during the 34-day war in the summer of 2006.
For years, Hezbollah has been trading Lebanese-produced heroin and cocaine for Israeli military secrets.
This then raises the question: how serious is the government in their fight against drugs?