Making limonada?

Besides the possible short-term benefits to Mexico from the mega-disaster in the Gulf,  Mexican exports may be in higher demand because of another, less noticed, commodity shortfall:

Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UNODC, told the BBC that Afghanistan’s 2010 opium output could fall by up to 25 percent, thanks to the disease, a fungus that could have infected about half of the total poppy crop.

Bilal, a farmer in Helmand’s Nad Ali district, said the disease had drastically cut his opium output.

“We are in the very last days of the harvest, maybe in two or three more days we’ll be done. We’ll have less output this year,” he told AFP. “I don’t know what the disease is but we’ll have little output (as a result).”

Opiates and oil — two commodities the United States (and the “developed world”) can’t figure out how to do without, though it tries and tries and tries.  Control of the sources  for both leads to highly uncivilized behavior by the countries that claim they are the epitome of civilization.  Both tend to focus inordinate attention on the Middle-East, with only a “by the way” mention that Mexico has these commodities for sale — a higher price and perhaps not as high-grade as the Middle Eastern products, perhaps, but they’re both available.