Pubdate: Mon, 16 Feb 2015
Source: Daily Cardinal (U of WI, Madison, Edu)
Copyright: 2015 The Daily Cardinal Newspaper Corporation
Contact:  http://dailycardinal.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/712
Author: Hae Rin

LEGALIZING DRUGS WILL SOLVE MORE PROBLEMS THAN IT CAUSES

The illegal drug market causes damage in many developing nations, but 
there are two countries with major drug booms: Afghanistan and Myanmar. 
Both countries have a long history of being ravaged by endless 
conflicts. Amid great confusion, the opium market has bloomed. In 
Afghanistan, many farmers carry massive debts from the drug traffickers 
after receiving their help during the start-up period. Unfortunately, 
most end up never being able to pay the money back as government raids 
often destroy the crops that were promised to the drug dealers as 
payment. If such unplanned obstacles appear, many farmers are trapped 
between two extreme solutions. They either give up their family to the 
drug dealers for collateral, or they have to flee their land. Both 
options are very dangerous, and many find themselves taken as hostages 
or killed. The government intervention of directly destroying the opium 
fields has turned out to be highly ineffective-farmers encounter 
desperate troubles that can only be solved through extreme means. The 
illegal drugs also help give power to militant groups such as the 
Taliban. They control the opium market and continue to strengthen from 
its profit. While the fields are getting destroyed, there are new fields 
created to make up the loss and the efforts of the government only 
victimize the poor. Therefore, the Afghan government is being 
ineffective in solving the problem.

In Myanmar, the situation is not so different. Opium farming is 
considered necessary to increase incomes for the poor farmers. Because 
of ongoing civil wars that have taken away other compensatory options, 
farmers have turned to opium farming for a living. Due to the increasing 
demand from neighboring China, the farmers have more incentive to 
produce the plants for sale. However, there has been a rise in 
opium-related health problems in the country. As the government has 
launched laws against opium production in order to stop the abuse of 
drugs, it has become difficult for people to obtain pure opium. In a 
pinch, people have been consuming opium in the form of injections, which 
has led to the recent rise in the spread of HIV and other diseases 
through the shared needle uses.

However harmful and evil this industry may seem, it feeds many people's 
hunger. According to the latest report from the United Nations Office on 
Drugs and Crime, the rate of drug cultivation and use has been rising. 
In 2013 poppy cultivation in Myanmar rose by 13 percent on the previous 
year, to 57,800 hectares (143,000 acres). The combination of more 
cultivation and higher yields has resulted in a more than 25 percent 
rise in opium production in Myanmar since 2012.

No matter how necessary the production of opium may be for making a 
living, the damages are high. The massive production of opium not only 
damages the lives of farmers, but also the lives of the people addicted 
to the drug. The damage will continue as long as the high demand in the 
market remains unregulated. What could be the solution that can help 
both the suppliers and addicted consumers?

One idea is the possible legalization of drugs-not to encourage people 
to become drug addicts, but to drive the severity of drug problems down. 
Hypothetically, if a government legalizes certain products, then the 
prices usually decrease because there is no need to go to underground 
sources to obtain products.

I think the reason why the cost of illegal drugs are so high is because 
the government made them illegal. Instead of spending money on border 
security and hunting down transporters, governments could focus on 
prevention efforts and financial support of subsistence 
farmers-subsidies, tax reductions, provisions of specific money for a 
fixed amount of time-to allow them to switch into normal farming. The 
legalization of drugs to lower their prices and prevent people from 
committing crimes related to their purchase. I am fully aware that this 
legalization could have some negative effects such as moral decline and 
addictions, however, the current market of illegal drugs reflect how 
unfairly wealth is distributed and how the poor is exposed to more 
dangers and miseries.

The addiction rates in both Myanmar and Afghanistan are already high 
enough to make this a social problem. When the products and policies 
become legal, the money saved on enforcement could be spent on the 
improvement of prevention methods, making it legal for people to seek 
active help to escape addiction and return back to the workforce. Many 
addicts are not offered help as their drug use marks them as criminals, 
eliminating ways to improve themselves and allowing the problem to 
persist. It would be hard for governments to reach these audiences as 
civil wars are making access to these populations difficult. Then, 
non-governmental organizations or international support groups could 
help the farmers and addicted consumers to improve themselves. If the 
addiction rates are high enough to be a great problem, shouldn't that be 
acknowledged lawfully to provide appropriate care? Drugs will never be 
eliminated permanently. They will always be a problem, but we can try to 
reduce the severity of it. We need to acknowledge it before solving it.

I am aware that drug problems are not simple situations, but I think the 
important step in solving them is to break the economies of them. There 
are not many examples of such attempts found around the world-my 
argument may seem unreasonable and unrealistic-but perhaps our world 
needs unconventional thinking to solve unconventional problems.

Hae Rin is a freshman majoring in history.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt