>I was a military policeman in RVN. It was always my impression that the
>Vietnamese treated pot much like the French citizenry still treat wine and
>sex.
> It was only when the American
>presence caused pot to become outrageously profitable and puritanically
>obsessed over by American status of force agreements that the indiginous
>acceptance that had existed became twisted into a characature of somebody
>else's concept of morality, legality, etc.
John;
Thanks for the helpful reply -- it was just the sort I was hoping
to get. I found a reference that claims American military personnel
were smoking marijuana in Vietnam all along, right from 1963. Now
I understand why that was possible, and why marijuana is still
available in Vietnam.
Apparently it was the military crackdown on marijuana use that
caused the switch to heroin use after 1968.
Heroin was even more available, pure, and cheap in Thailand, but
its use never reached the proportions among US military as in
Vietnam. The reasons for this are complicated and interesting.
Thanks again.
Peter Brush