Drug trafficking analysis in UAE - Thesis Proposal Example

Financial cost on society and individuals is one of the significant problems of drug abuse. For example, in 2002, drug related cost was estimated at $180.9 billion consisting of various costs of health care and loss of labor according to the national drug control policy office. In 2004, it took US$3 million to set up a sub-office on drugs and crime in the UAE. UAE has been the target by exceptionally determined criminals who have access to adequate capital and labor to produce and smuggle voluminous amount of prohibited substances.

Drugs originate from south Asia and pass through the emirates to Europe and North America, the heavy consumers (Shindagah, 1998). States in the gulf remain key destination markets for opium and psychotropic substances. Other countries such as Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iran continue to be the hotspots for drug manufacturing as indicated by international narcotic control board report (Reinil, 2009). Narcotics are the most trafficked drugs in UAE and are estimated to be worth US$500billion annually, according to Sherman and Tree (2010).

This amount is estimated to be double that of the automobile industry (Scott, 2005) Ports are the most notorious places and foremost hotspots and avenues of drug trafficking due to the voluminous imports received daily, with Small scale dealers mostly caught at airports. The commonly used tactic of drug trafficking continues to be through the internal human body carriage. However, smugglers are always changing their tactics and the current trend as indicated by Reinil (2009) is the use of Christmas cards.

One of the biggest tasks is to prevent the flow of heroin from Afghanistan, which produces 90 per cent of the worlds supply. According to Jamieson and Research Institute for the Study of Conflict and Terrorism (1990), most of the drugs grown in Afghanistan pass through the emirates before being shipped to their final destinations. There is a rising use of