Finally saw the movie. Question about hash

I believe it's implicated the harshness on Billy is because he's American and can be used as a huge story for the turkish authorities.

Early in the film, Tex told Billy the Turks were cracking down on smugglers, so they can show the world they're tough on drugs.








--Douche Nozzle tormentor since 1867--

I traveled to Morocco in the seventies and everybody was smoking hash. I doubt if it was much different in Turkey though I believe Turkey is more known for opium and heroin that it is for hash. Use in the country is common and there is little risk. I remember being offered a bowl of hash at a rug shop. Smuggling drugs out of these countries was and is another matter. This is because of international pressure, especially in the seventies when Nixon started the "War on Drugs". Nixon pressured all these countries to get tough on drug smuggling. In fact it wasn't until 1971 that Turkey outlawed growing opium poppies, which is used to make heroin.

Heroin was and is a problem as it is very addictive. However, most deaths are caused by people getting too strong a dose or using heroin cut with something toxic.

Hash really isn't a big health problem, but up until recently, people thought smoking hash led to harder drugs.

Life is for lovers, and lovers are for life.

It's probably a mixed bag of reasons. Foreign/US-driven pressure on countries like Turkey to crack down on drug smuggling -- in the 1970s the near/middle east was a major source of hashish and heroin.

Domestically I can see Turkish law enforcement being selective and opportunistic, cracking down on people when it was advantageous to do so (political enemies, disfavored ethnic groups, etc).

And at least in Lebanon, hashish and opium were cash crops that helped fund sectarian insurgencies and militias in the 1970s and was also surely "taxed" by the Syrian army. I don't know much about who the source would be for kilo-size bricks of hash in the 1970s, but it wouldn't surprise me if the Kurds were somehow involved for similar "cash crop" kinds of reasons, in addition to their ethnic networks being useful for moving product.

I'd guess if you were an ethnic Turk in his 30s with some working class type job and no political affiliation or organized crime membership, hashish use probably wasn't that big of a deal and may even have been kind of endemic and nearly impossible to make much of a dent in it.

Billy was an easy target -- foreigner, young, and moving enough weight to give the cops a gold star that week.

It kills me how many people are answering this question with only speculation and fantasy. WHY?

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool . . . .