Legalizing Opium CP- Solvency

Legalizing Opium CP- Solvency

Yes, I said "when." Eventually it could happen. Think of states like California. They're facing a $42 billion deficit. They see their $14 billion marijuana crop as a new source of tax revenue. Legalize it. Tax it. Psychologist Anne Wilson Schaef saw the trend coming a couple decades ago: We're a "Nation of addicts ... our society is deteriorating at an alarming rate." Why? We refuse to face the real problem: Demand. Legalizing it will. Till then we're losing the war. In a "nation of addicts" it doesn't matter if drugs are legal or not ... where the drugs come from ... who gets hurt ... nor if we have to waste hundreds of billions fighting ineffective wars to protect suppliers ... a corrupt Afghan government, the source of 95% of the world's heroin ... or Mexico, the main traffic route for wholesalers feeding America's addicts ... or Big Pharma the biggest pusher for prescription drug addicts. When a "nation of addicts" needs a fix, they always find it. If Big Pharma can capture part of the market share that's now going to competing Mexican and Afghan drug warlords, then they can feed their shareholders addiction to earnings, feed their CEOs' addiction for megamillion paychecks, while capitalizing on the American addicts need for a fix. We just need to end our moralistic charade, decriminalize and control all illicit drugs. Plus it'll generate new tax revenues. You can bet this opportunity is being actively explored deep inside Big Pharma, purely for economic reasons, and secretly, of course, like the tobacco industry's studies of carcinogens in cigarettes. So if I were back at Morgan Stanley preparing a securities report on the implications of expanding Big Pharma's market share when more drugs are legitimized, there are three studies that must be highlighted: Like Afghanistan: Narcotics is a cash crop. Unfortunately, Washington and the Pentagon fail to see that we're feeding our disease, matching our addiction to illegal drugs here in America (demand) with the entrepreneurial spirit of Afghan government bureaucrats, farmers, Mexican traffickers and the Taliban (suppliers), while misusing our military. The Washington Post says "the drug war has become the Taliban's most effective recruiter," a source of financing making them "richer and stronger by the day."

Opium Brides – Alt Cause – Sold for Addiction/Opium Bad

Farmers sell their daughters not to survive, but to feed their addiction
Callimachi 9 (Rukmini, AP writer, http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/677255) PJ

In dozens of mountain hamlets in this remote corner of Afghanistan, opium addiction has become so entrenched that whole families – from toddlers to old men – are addicts. Cut off from the rest of the world by glacial streams, the addiction moves from house to house, infecting entire communities. From just one family years ago, at least half the people of Sarab, population 1,850, are now addicts. Afghanistan supplies nearly all the world's opium, the raw ingredient used to make heroin, and while most of the deadly crop is exported, enough is left behind to create a vicious cycle of addiction. There are at least 200,000 opium and heroin addicts in Afghanistan – 50,000 more than in the much bigger, wealthier U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and a 2005 survey by the U.N. A new survey is expected to show even higher rates of addiction, a window into the human toll of Afghanistan's back-to-back wars and desperate poverty. Unlike in the West, the close-knit nature of communities here makes addiction a family affair. Instead of passing from one rebellious teenager to another, the habit passes from mother to daughter, father to son. It's turning villages like this one into a landscape of human depradation. Except for a few soiled mats, Beg's house is bare. He has pawned all his family's belongings to pay for drugs. "I am ashamed of what I have become," says Beg, an unwashed turban curled on his head. "I've lost my self-respect. I've lost my values. I take the food from this child to pay for my opium,'' he says, pointing to his 5-year-old grandson, Mamadin. "He just stays hungry.''

**2AC Answers**

2AC AT: Alternative Crops

Poppy is the most profitable
Chivers 2010 (C.J., May 22, NYT, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/world/asia/23poppy.html, date accessed:6/24/2010) AK

Many Afghan farmers say they grow poppy because it earns them significantly more income than any other crop, and because opium, which is nonperishable in the short term, can be brought to market anytime after harvest, making it an ideal product in the uncertainties of a conflict zone. Still, several farmers said in interviews that they were willing to plant other crops in the fall, perhaps wheat, and avoid the new risks and perennial turbulence of the opium trade. To do so, they said, they would need seeds, fertilizer, agricultural equipment or money. “If the government of Afghanistan will help us next year, we will not grow poppy,” said Obidullah, 50, who said he cultivated about six acres of opium-producing poppy this year. Like many Afghans, he uses only one name.
Only poppies will grow
Gall 6 (Carlotta, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/international/asia/17poppy.html?_r=1, date accessed: 6/24/2010) AK

The farmers in this village say they have little choice. They live on land reclaimed from the desert. Nothing grows in the salty earth except the hardy poppy plant. They have to pump water for irrigation from a well nearly 100 yards deep, they say, and only high-priced opium makes the effort cost-effective. They would lose money if they tried to grow wheat or melons, they said. "If they destroy the poppy we will have to leave the country," said another farmer, Pahlawan, 24, who uses only one name. "What else can we do in the desert?"
Alternatives to opium fail
Dixon 3 (Robyn, LA Times, http://www.opioids.com/afghanistan/opium-economy.html, date accessed: 6/24/2010) AK

We know growing opium is against Islam, but we have to do it," said Ashrafy, 38. "I was the only person left here not growing it, and there was no mullah telling me to stop." The United Nations estimates that half of Ghor's farmers don't earn enough to cover basic needs. So exhortations to plant alternatives seem doomed when a grower can make about $5,200 from an acre of opium but $121 from an acre of wheat. Ashrafy and his brother support 35 relatives, including the widows and children of two other brothers killed in the country's long wars. Last year, Ashrafy grew wheat, but it provided only half of what the family needed. "If I don't grow [opium]," he said, "I'm sure we'll die because we cannot grow enough wheat for ourselves."
Only poppies will grow- 3 reasons
Glaze 7 (John, http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/pub804.pdf, date accessed: 6/23/2010) AK

The high rate of return on investment from opium poppy cultivation has driven an agricultural shift in Afghanistan from growing traditional crops to growing opium poppy. Despite the fact that only 12 percent of its land is arable, agriculture is a way of life for 70 percent of Afghans and is the country’s primary source of income. 10 During good years, Afghanistan produced enough food to feed its people as well as supply a surplus 3 for export. Its traditional agricultural products include wheat, corn, barley, rice, cotton, fruit, nuts, and grapes. However, its agricultural economy has suffered considerably from years of violent conflict, drought, and deteriorating infrastructure. In recent years, many poor farmers have turned to opium poppy cultivation to make a living because of the relatively high rate of return on investment compared to traditional crops. Consequently, Afghanistan’s largest and fastest cash crop is opium. Opium. Opium poppy is a hardy, drought-resistant plant easily grown in most parts of Afghanistan, with a growing cycle that conveniently spreads the farmer’s workload throughout the year. Opium poppy is usually planted between September and December and flowers after approximately 3 months. The flower’s petals then fall away, leaving the plant’s seed capsule containing an opaque, milky sap known as opium (see Figure 1). Harvested between April and July, the plump seed capsules are then lanced, allowing the opium sap to ooze

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