Kalistan

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La Moda talks to ODEN Cartel Chief Viscount Andrew Rohrbach
"The Princess is getting better every day," says husband of Regent
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
January 8th, 5687


Viscount Andrew Rohrbach, Director of ODEN-K tours the Cannabis warehouse at Port Davon, Kaliburg following 5685 Harvest

Viscount Andrew Rohrbach, who is the Director of ODEN-K and husband of Her Highness, The Princess Regent Nicolette Ananto-Collins, and adoptive father of Her Imperial Majesty, Empress in Waiting Carolina-Katherine Michelle Ananto-Connor sat down with La Moda to talk about his unexpected first year in office as the defacto Regent Consort. It's been just a year since the Empire of Ananto and Kalistan was tragically robbed of the late Emperor and Empress, and the Minor Princelings, leaving Princess Nicolette as the Regent, and promoting the Minor Princess to Empress in Waiting.

(La Moda's) J(ack) L(awrence): Thank you Lord Rohrbach for sitting down with me and talking today.

(Viccount) A(ndrew) R(ohrbach, Courtesy Count of Luxon): It's my pleasure, Mr. Lawrence. I am glad we could make time to get together.

JL: First of all, as our readers know, its been just over a year since our nation lost our leaders, and two of their three children in that tragic plane crash.

AR: Yes, last week...

JL: How are you and your family doing, as we acknowledge this grim anniversary?

AR: I was deeply affected by the shock of the loss, but I guess I can say I was fortunate enough to be married into this family, so I could recover a little easier, and be there for my wife and our daughter, who was my niece at the time before we adopted her. The Empress in Waiting, she is a kid, and I know she knows how final death is, but she was the center of everyone's attention, and I think the decision to let her go back to school and letting her talk with grief counsellors and work through the finality of it all has really helped her. My wife, well... she took a little longer, and when we were sure Carolina would be ok, our focus shifted onto Nicolette almost exclusively.

JL: Yes, she was was ordered by the Chancellor onto Light Duty. Was that related?

AR: Yes, she was trying to work and trying to be a mom of a grieving 12 year old, and her life changed so rapidly, and she had lost her brother and sister in law and her nephews, and she just sort of shut completely down. She was in shock, for months after the accident. Soon after we got to Kaliburg, we had a scare... things got a little touch and go and we realized we were dealing with something far more serious than just the grief everyone else was working with. The Chancellor ordered her to go onto Light Duty, we got some help with life in Cliff House and some help with Carolina, and I was able to move a lot of my responsibilities around so I wasn't travelling as much. And she went into some pretty serious therapy, and worked through some real serious mental health therapy, some with me, some with Carolina and me.

I think we turned a corner in September, and we were even able to arrange a vacation to Athosia last month which really did her a lot of good. She's still very sad, but I think she's really doing a lot better. The sadness isn't as crippling for her now, and she can actually do a lot more for a lot longer. I think she really would like to seriously get to work by February, and I think as long as we continue on this trajectory, the Chancellor will lift her Light Duty and let her fully take fiat authority.

JL: Is the Princess of the Empire Mary Ananto-DeLaurentis still staying with you both at Cliff House?

AR: Yes, she is really wonderful. She is working with the Empress in Waiting to begin teaching her about administration. Obviously, there is a lot that she can't teach: Nicki will have to teach her that when its appropriate, but the Princess of the Empire spends evenings with Carolina on what she calls "outtings." And those outtings will go to the National Assembly to watch the legislature from the gallery, or to the Government offices to take tours and learn what each of the Ministries do. They sometimes go to the Gaduri Mission, or the Hutorian, the Valruzian or the Lodamese Embassies, and the Embassy staff are always very polite to the Empress in Waiting and welcome her and show her whatever she wants to see.

She is very curious about what things are like in other countries, the differences between our people, and she has really learned so much in the last year: She went from asking questions about if people in other nations eat the same things we do to asking who their country is connected with, and what that country brings them. These are pretty advanced questions for a 13 year old, but Carolina is very serious about learning how the government works: I think when her brother was to become the Empress, the focus was on him, and she was sort of expected to just do something else, but she was always curious, and before her curiosity was sort of treated as something to be humored, now its being actively fed by literally everyone around her, and she's really thriving. The Princess of the Empire is the perfect person to indulge her along these lines.

JL: How is she doing in school?

AR: The Empress in Waiting is doing just fine in school. Obviously, there are some limitations to her social life, but these are talks we are having with the Chancellor about how far we can push the protocol so that she can grow up as normal as possible, and have as many safe and fulfilling interactions with her peers as she can before the door slams shut when she takes the throne.

JL: There were some discussion before the loss of the Emperor and Empress about the Hulanevek Diamond. Are there any plans...

AR: Excuse me. Let's not talk about the Diamond. It's in the Museum of the Empire. That's all.

JL: Alright. Then let's move to something about you. How's ODEN-K?

AR: ODEN-K is doing very well. International sales, especially to Keris and Majatra are booming for some reason. We don't tend to ask, but larger orders, especially for recreational analgesics. This is above and beyond the pharma we provided during the Keris War. I'd say that during the recession, international recreational drug sales were the one industry in Kalistan that was overperforming. I suppose hard times lead to Drug use. We were also seeing increasing sales from our sister organizations in Hutori and Tel Bira. It is what it is. People love drugs. ODEN as a cartel exists to sell them drugs. Their own national laws clearly don't stop drug use or drug importation, and those users and retailers need a supplier, and ODEN is the single largest international wholesaler in Terra. Its a recession proof industry.

JL: Where would you say ODEN makes the majority of its money from? Domestic users or International Users?

AR: International users, certainly. The international appetite for drugs from ODEN dwarfs our local consumption. Look: If you can walk into any dispensary you like in Kalistan and buy safe, clean and also, I will add, potent drugs for almost nothing, the whole, you know, chic thing about doing something illegal goes away. I can sell a gram of cannabis here in Kalistan for about 25 cents. Cannabis is actually cheaper than tobacco which we have to import a lot of to keep up with demand. And we get it from Growers at cost +2 percent. Our markup to Kalistanis is virtually nothing. That same gram will go in a country where weed is illegal for anywhere from 12 to 20 Imperial--We only sell it to them for half that, but still. And we grow this stuff in Kalistan by the ton and its the best cannabis on the planet because we've been growing it for thousands of years in this nation and sort of know how to do it a lot better than a bunch of stupid potheads in their little grow kits in the closets of nations where its illegal.

That's just marijuana. Don't even get me started with opium and heroin, coca and cocaine, shrooms and acid. I mean, there's just not even any comparison. Average consumption of substances has been way down for a very long time in Kalistan, but internationally, there is an insatiable demand, because its so hard to come by and certainly nearly impossible to do so legally in many of these regressive nations.

JL: So consumption is way down in Kalistan then?

AR: Yes, way down. You can only take so much LSD. We see periodic spikes: About a decade ago it was cocaine and MDMA. Heroin use is way down, but raw opium consumption is fairly steady. Cannabis and alcohol run about even, and consumption is pretty flat. The other weird ones, your Ketamines and DMTs and synths, those are always niche markets: we usually have excess supply of those and send them with international traffickers to pass on to their customers as sweeteners. Tobacco consumption is lower, because prices are a bit higher. Wine and rum specifically are always high and along with cannabis, these are our big three here in the Empire. Opium is a distant fourth. We keep the highest quality stock for the Anantos, but there is a fairly large market primarily centered in the upper classes in general.

JL: What sorts of drugs do you personally use in your home?

AR: We have become t-total in Cliff House. It's important I think for Nicki's health that we just sober up, so she's not dealing with that as well. But we do keep a supply of raw opium at home, which is necessary for informal audiences. The Empress in Waiting has not been introduced to that part of her office yet, but the Princess Regent has abstained now for more than six months.

JL: Are there any plans to expand ODEN?

AR: There are always plans to expand ODEN.

JL: Will other nations be joining soon?

AR: I said there are plans to expand it, as in we are ready to expand it, we want to expand it. Countries should see it as being in their interest to expand ODEN: The Treaty specifies non-compete, non-importation into ODEN nations, so if Tel Bira wants to produce meth, and set the price internationally, they do that, and we don't: We only require that it be high quality and pure, and carry ODEN markings that identify it as the Cartel's product, and that we can obtain the product from them for our own markets at the same price we would set if we made it ourselves. I treat Tel Biran authorized distributors as if they are Kalistanis and sell them what they want at Kalistani prices, and they get a guaranteed market and a guaranteed price in exchange.

So if a nation doesn't want Kalistani drugs supplying their users, they can try to create laws, but let's be honest, we know how effective laws are at preventing drug trafficking. The other way they can do that then is to join ODEN. We don't export to unlicensed purchasers of member nations. Some drug dealer from Hutori can't come to Kaliburg, to the ODEN warehouse, and pick up 8 tons of marijuana: We'd need authorization from their Government before that sale was ever even considered. For a non member: It's easier to buy weed in Kaliburg than it is to buy coffee, because they just show up with a boat and cash and go away with the drugs, no questions while to get a cup of coffee, they'd have to present themselves to customs, and then get a cab, and it is just a big mess after that. We definitely hope other nations will join ODEN and get their drug problems under control, but that's their problem, not ours. We're just selling weed. By the bale...

JL: Has any nation ever had a problem with the fact that ODEN is supplying most of the world's recreational drugs? Has anyone ever sued Kalistan over ODEN?

AR: I don't know.

JL: Lord Rohrbach, with respect, you are the director of ODEN in Kalistan. You don't know?

AR: We don't acknowledge international lawsuits over anything. So if there has been any law suits, they haven't been brought to my attention. It's immaterial anyway: Within Kalistan, Kalistani law is what governs our interactions, and ODEN is the organization that is charged with all legal drug sales within the Empire of Ananto and Kalistan, and internationally, according to the law we actually pay attention to. We are extremely tightly regulated by our Government and the Ministries of the Interior, or Health and Social Services, and of Justice to ensure that we do our job and vigorously go after independent actors who are trying to build a black market. Drugs are available very inexpensively in legal ODEN dispensaries, which further suppresses any black markets that might form. There's no incentives to try to cheat this system and a lot of disincentives within Kalistan. At that point, my concern about the law ends. What other non-ODEN nations want or do is of no consequence to me or this Organization. Nor does ODEN have any responsibility for what happens to these drugs once they leave Kalistan. That is between the buyer and seller at that point.

JL: Well, I think we're out of time, Lord Rohrbach. It has been a pleasure.

AR: Of course. The pleasure is all mine. Peace.