DRUG MENACE IN THE THIRD WORLD
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INTRODUCTION: Drug menace is one of the most serious problems facing the world. In fact, its impact on the third world countries is very pernicious and a grave concern to everybody. DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT: Drug trafficking and transport Are considered to be a greater problem than drug consumption, according to western analysts. The idea is to stop the supply and hence control consumption. In recent years the Golden Crescent area involving Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran has become a major centre of drug trafficking. In South America, drug running has become almost an industry in Columbia. To transfer the costs of war to countries where illegal drugs are cultivated, produced and processed, and to define ‘the problem as an economic one—one of demand and supply—would mean that the consuming countries would have to become the site of stronger, more repressive measures. The recent efforts by the European Community to set up a Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction needs to be emulated by other third world countries where drug menace has assumed overwhelming proportions. CONCLUSION: A lot of strenuous efforts are needed for curbing the drug menace. Hence, the third world countries especially should present a united front in tackling this ever-growing menace. |
In-take of drug use is considered a malignant phenomenon whose nature is best explained by external factors and variables. According to some Western analysts, the core dimension of the narcotics business is the trafficking and transport of the drugs rather than it’s consumption. The US administration places great emphasis on international co-operation. It seems to be oriented primarily towards seeking the support of the world for efforts at interdiction and for the eradication of illicit drug enterprises at points of cultivation, processing and transport. In other words, the “international struggle” is directed against the supply of narcotics and the objective is to enlist the world in a major effort to reduce that supply. The underlying assumption is that reduced supply would then have the desired effect of reducing consumption. The total number of drug users in the world is now estimated at some 185 million people, equivalent to 3% of the global population or 4.7% of the population aged 15 to 64, as per the UNODC Report 2005.
The Golden Cresent an area involving Pakistan, Afghanistan and Eastern Iran is one of the world’s most narcotic producing regions in the world. Burma was the world’s biggest growth area of opium-producing 2300 tonnes annually that accounts for 60 per cent of the world supply. Afghanistan was the second largest producer accounting for 10 per cent of the world’s supply. Even now this country ranks second in this respect with more than 400 tonnes of production per year followed by Laos which produces 275 tonnes.
 From Pakistan, much of the heroin goes to West Europe via the land, sea and air routes to the Middle East, Africa, India and other regions of the former Soviet Union. According to the British Foreign Office, Asia would soon become one of the main consumers of drugs. Pakistan is believed to have over a million heroin addicts. Iran has about 2 million heroin addicts and India more than one million heroin addicts. Poppy growing is one of the few ways of raising a living, and farmers are supported by arms and drugs smuggling networks which enjoy the patronage of foreign governments.
No one can dispute the fact that by encouraging opium trade, much of the financing is done for the arms purchases. Narco-dollars are recycled into the western arms merchants dealing with lethal weapons used by various insurgent groups in the world. Afghanistan, where a long protracted low-intensity warfare has been going on for the last decade, has replaced Myanmar as one of the world’s biggest producer of opium. The crop produced in one year will be worth $24 billion by the time it hits the streets in Washington and London.
The farmers earn around $ 100 per kg., for raw opium while they receive just $0.25 for a kg, of wheat, 15 kilos of opium produced on a typical small plot is much more attractive than any other cash crops.
The US National Narcotic Control Committee estimates that Latin American countries supply one-third of the heroin, perhaps 80 per cent of the marijuana and all of the cocaine used in the US representing more than three fourth of US drug market which is estimated to exceed $ 100 billion annually. The wholesale value of illegal drugs smuggled into the USA is around $25 billion. At retail prices, the US public may spend as much as $ 150 billion in illicit drugs a year. Measured in dollar value, at least four-fifths of all the drugs reaching the US is of foreign origin.
 Columbian cocaine barons like Escobar used their profits to buy large extensions of rural property such as cocoa and banana plantations, horse farms and cattle ranches. In the mid-1980s, it was seen that South American cocaine traffickers probably earned between $5 and $6 billion annually from international sales in the US market. Perhaps, $1.5 to $2 billion flowed back to the cocaine-producing countries. Viewed in terms of repatriated dollars, cocaine exports are equivalent to an estimated 10 to 20 per cent of Columbia’s legal exports Even though the profit potential is immense at all levels of the cocaine industry only 8 to 10 per cent of the profits accrue to the Latin American source and transit countries. The Medellin Cartel controlled by the Escobar gang probably grosses between $4 to $6 billion annually in the cocaine trade.
In the mid-70s, Columbia emerged as the principal country for refining cocaine and for more than a decade has controlled 75 per cent of all the refined cocaine exported from the Andean region into the US. In Columbia, the rise of the cocaine industry paralleled and to some extent compensated for the deterioration of Medellin industrial base, especially its leading textile sector in the 1970s. It is seen that between 1980 to 85, the city had the highest unemployment rate of any major city in Columbia. In these circumstances, the cocaine traffic absorbed many small and medium industrialists who were bankrupt or almost bankrupt, skilled and unskilled workers etc.
According to the Columbian economist Mario Mango in 1987, cocaine traffickers repatriated about $300 million to Medellin. They generated about 28,000 new jobs in commerce, industry and the informal economy.
The drug menace is one of the irritants in Colombia’s relations with the US. The former maintains that the core of the drug problem is derived from the growing US drug consumption. There are approximately 20 to 25 million marijuana smokers, 5.8 million regular users of cocaine and 0.5 million heroin addicts in the US. More than 25 million Americans buy and sell illicit drugs, spending over $50 billion annually in a diverse and fragmented criminal market. This represents a booming market for the Columbian cartels. In spite of the various repressive measures, the problem did not disappear. On the contrary, the problem intensified with the emphasis on cocaine and its processing. The number of cocoa plantations expanded and centres of drug trade flourished as did the economically active population involved in this business.
 As transportation of cocaine was easier (it could travel in small packages and by air compared to marijuana, which was transported in bulk and often required the use of ships), exports increased and led to a parallel dramatic increase in the influence of drug lords in national politics.
Pablo Escobar, the fugitive leader of the notorious Medellin Drug Cartel controls the multi-billion drug smuggling in the world. The Columbian government has offered huge rewards to anyone for supplying information about Escobar. They feel that once Escobar is caught, they will be able to control the major drug trafficking. But, once again Escobar has offered to surrender, provided the Columbian government offers to give a security guarantee for his safety.
 This is at least the fifth time that the drug baron has offered to surrender if given similar security guarantees. With his private army shattered and his family threatened, he is coming under unprecedented pressure to surrender to the authorities and put an end to the deadly protracted war that has been going on for such a long time against the Columbian government and himself. It seems that Escobar is fed up with playing truant and has offered to surrender. With his life at stake there is a little option left for him but to take such a step: One wonders for how long can one continue this fight—being assailed on all fronts: military, legal, financial.
Narco-terrorism is no longer the main worry of the enforcement officials. It has long since been replaced by the drug cartel’s increasing control over judiciary, politics and the economy. This is one of the main reasons why even though officials have been successful in confiscating major consignment of drugs, the main culprits have always managed to escape the dragnet.
Despite the increasing efforts to contain drug production and trafficking, the worldwide production of illicit drugs is still many times higher than the previous levels.
 To transfer the costs of war to countries where the illegal drugs are cultivated, produced and processed and to define the problem as an economic one that of demand and supply—would mean that the consuming countries would have to become the site of stronger, more repressive measures. The Third World countries should present a united front in tackling this ever-growing menace.
 The Internal Market Council of the European Community recently adopted a regulation setting up the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) as a Community agency.
The idea of such a centre dates back to a letter dated October 3, 1989, sent by President Mitterrand to the heads of state and Government and to the President of the Commission. The French President had suggested that the 12 member states and the community initiate a 7-point action programme to combat drugs. The first point of this programme was the creation of a monitoring centre which would provide the member states and the community with objective, comparable and reliable information on the drugs phenomenon.
The French President’s initiative also led to the establishment on December 1, 1989, of the European Committee to Combat Drugs (CELAD) which in turn drew up the European Plan to Combat Drugs which was approved by the European Council in Rome on December 13-14, 1990. The Plan was the first attempt at a coherent programme of action at both national and community level, in the framework of their respective competencies. The Plan covered medico-social aspects (demand reduction), the fight against drug trafficking and international action. This Plan was revised and updated for the European Council held in Edinburgh in December 1992.
Meanwhile, the Commission was invited to conduct a feasibility study outlining the scope of the Centre. The results of this study confirmed the usefulness of the Centre:
- The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction will supply the Community and its member states with objective, reliable and comparable information of the drugs phenomenon drug addiction and their consequences.
- Take no action outside the sole field of information and information processing;
- Abstain from providing information on specific cases or individuals;
- Collect information in the following five priority areas;
- Demand and reduction of demand for drugs;
*National and Community strategies and policies;
- International co-operation and the geopolitics of supply;
- Control of trade in narcotics, psychotropic substances and chemical and pharmaceutical precursor products (as laid down in international and relevant community legislation):
- Implications of the drugs phenomenon in producer, consumer and transit countries (including money laundering) within the limits laid down in the Treaty and relevant Community acts;
- Respect the competences of both the member states and the Community in drug matters, as ‘defined in the Treaty; Receive additional information, provided on a voluntary basis by the member states, on other aspects of the problem (in particular seizures, street prices, etc):
*Rely on and support a network of existing national drug information centres (these centres are to be chosen by the member states): the REITOX networks.
*Respect community and national legislation on the confidentiality of information. In the case of internal administration the centre will:
* Have a management board with one representative from each Member state, two from the Commission and two nominated by the European Parliament.
*Have a scientific committee with a maximum of 18 members (of which one per Member State). Be financed from the Community budget.
- Co-operate with international organisations and relevant governmental and non-governmental bodies (particularly European ones).
- Be open to certain third countries.
- Have a staff(including the director) covered by the staff regulations of officials and other agents of the European Communities.
Padraig Flynn, Commissioner responsible for social affairs and for co-operation in the fields of justice and home affairs, sees the EMCDDA as a good example of community subsidy in practice. The Centre will contribute significant inputs to the information and drug statistics currently available at the member state level and it will do this by synthesizing national data. Such a system should be adopted by Third World countries too.
