Illicit Drug Trade - Term Paper Example

Illicit Drug Trade Introduction History reveals that drug trade has been taking place for centuries. During the 18th century, the British first got the taste of opium from the Colonial India and at the same time, the French engaged in the trade of hashish with some North African countries. This was the time when the use of opium, Hashish, and narcotics were considered more of a gentleman’s hobby (Chalk, 2011, pp. 95-96). However, this drug trade became illegal or illicit during the 19th and 20th century when China banned the import of opium in their country and Chinese authorities had to face two opium wars that ended up providing too much drugs to their people. It was during the 1970s and 1980s that the illegal drug trade market emerged in the way in which we recognize it today (Goode, 2007, pp. 260-261). According to the United Nations World Drug Report for the year 2010, the illegal drug trade industry has now grown to surpass the amount of 450 billion US dollars a year. This calculation is tentative and based on many assumptions and calculations because of the fact that most of the industry is secret, the production and consumption chains are not clear, prices are sticky and the trade takes place in many different currencies (Fraser and Moore, 2011, pp. 20-23). It is one of the largest illegal industries in the world, even larger than the illegal human trafficking, diamond and firearms trafficking markets. The report explains the same with the fact that drugs could only be consumed once and with the passage of time, each customer demands for more of that drug and on the other hand, humans, diamonds and firearms are not that easily perishable. According to this report, over 250 million people all over the world between the age group of 15-65 use illegal drugs every year (United Nations, 2010, pp. 63-65). This paper is an attempt to explore, briefly, the dynamics of global illegal drug trade and their relation with organized crime in many countries. The same would be done with looking at the case studies from Afghanistan, Columbia, Mexico, and United States. Discussion In order to combat the problem of drug trafficking, almost all countries in the world have come up some of the strongest laws with harshest penalties. For example, in countries such as China, Singapore, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Syria, Vietnam, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Oman, India, Egypt and some other countries, the law explicitly states that drug manufacturing, trafficking, sales or distribution will attract death penalty. In fact, in the year 2010, the law enforcement agencies of Malaysia sentenced two people to death and in the year 2011, the Chinese authorities executed three foreigners because they admitted of their involvement in drug trade (Siegel, 2011, pp. 85-86; Fraser and Moore, 2011, pp. 20-23). The penalty is this regard is mostly depended on many other variables. These include the quantity of the drugs, type, and classification of the drug, the country of export and country of import, customers (teenage children, adults, women, or other), area of sell and distribution, and others. Nevertheless, it is one of the most serious offences in the world yet the drug trade is still on rise (Roman, Ahn-Redding and Simon, 2007, pp. 38-39; Storti and Grauwe, 2011, pp. 41-45). Experts cite two very important reasons behind this increasing volume of drug trade and this thriving illegal business. First, globalization has decreased the distances between countries through information technology and improved means of transportation. Previously remote countries and regions are now in loop, transportation costs have decreased, and research is taking place in order to improve the processes of production and cultivation. These people take advantage of the weak borders and policies of certain governments towards open trade, less barriers and free markets (Mallory, 2011, pp. 267-268; Shanty, 2008, pp. 81-82). Furthermore, gone are the days when these people had the troubles of hiding the stack of their cash, now they simply wire and transfer those funds from many international banks, leaving no paper or even electronic trial at all. Second, people perceive drugs as a way of escaping their stressful lives, psychological strains, mental problems, and physical hard work. Research indicates that drug use increases when unemployment, inflation, opportunities and pessimism about the future prevails in any society (Lyman and Potter, 2010a, pp. 351-353). Most authors have even gone on to cite a third reason for the flourishing global illegal trade and that is weaker governments and low paid officials of law enforcement agencies given the task of combating with the problem. For example, in countries such as Peru, Columbia, Mexico, Afghanistan and several African countries, drug mafias have created states within states. Several cities and regions are under their control where they even control the matters of the welfare of the people of those areas (Goode, 2007, pp. 260-261; Lyman and Potter, 2010b, p. 310). More importantly, the profits associated with the business are huge since it is a high risk and high return business. Furthermore, it attracts some of the some ruthless, aggressive, and brutal drug dealers, mostly with criminal histories. The profits associated with the businesses are so huge that there are evidences that a significant share of these profits go towards harboring and supporting terrorism and even influencing the policymaking by the local governments (Isralowitz and Myers, 2011, p. 460; Fraser and Moore, 2011, pp. 20-23). There are thirty countries where there is such evidence to connect the dots between production, cultivation and trade of drugs to armed conflicts and funding of guerilla organizations and terrorist activities. Furthermore, according to the estimates of United Nations, at least in 100 countries, the production, cultivation, processing, distribution, trade or laundering of profits from drugs takes place in a significant quantity and the countries where these activities do not appear to be having any link with terrorism, they certainly have established connections with violent crime (United Nations, 2010, pp. 63-65). According to the literature, there are many different sources of funding and financing for terrorist organizations and their activities. They include state sponsored terrorism, funding from public in the name of religious or ethnic affiliations, extortion, smuggling, laundering, and thefts, money earned from certain businesses, donations from NGOs and others (Abadinsky, 2009, pp. 106-107). During the cold war, in many parts of the states were involved, both domestic and foreign, to support terrorism, terrorist activities and guerilla organizations in many countries. However, as the cold war ended, the spending and funding on the same decreased and when those terrorists group where on the verge of “unemployement” drug trade emerged greatly to become their support (Mandel, 2010, pp. 180-183; Storti and Grauwe, 2011, pp. 41-45). The biggest example of the same is Afghanistan. During the Cold War, America pumped millions of dollars in Afghanistan to provide them with weapons and other resources that would help them fight with Soviet Union. They spent even millions more in Pakistan to provoke religious emotions in the hearts and minds of the people of Pakistan to support them to participate in this war (Maghan, Kelly and Serio, 2005, pp. 241-243). However, as of today, both these countries have retained and even created many new terrorist organizations and these countries remain in the spotlight for terrorism because they found Afghanistan ability to create billions of tones of illegal drugs every year and most of them get shipped through Pakistan. Quite understandably, a significant portion of that money is being used on funding terrorist groups (Roman, Ahn-Redding and Simon, 2007, pp. 38-39). These countries are highly religiously conservative and a dominant majority of the people is Islamic fundamentalist, Islam strictly prohibits any kind of involvement in the drug business. However, the many people in the country continue their involvement, especially in the production, cultivation, and processing stages because of their poor backgrounds and their complete dependence on the drug trade money (Barton, 2007, pp. 96-98). Another very important trend in illegal drug trade is the fact that it mostly takes place from the underdeveloped or developing countries to the developed countries. Many Asian, African, and South American countries that have very low-income levels engage in the production, cultivation, and transportation of drugs because many people in those areas are dependent on those earnings. However, they only end up receiving a meager share in the total revenues and profits as the middlemen takes hold of the bulk of the profits. These drugs are not only served to the local market but at the same time, a significant portion of them reaches to the developed countries (UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, 2003, pp. 80-81; Lyman and Potter, 2010b, p. 310). The case of Mexico presents a perfect example to understand the application of the economic principle of competition in drug trade and its adverse impacts. Economics tells us that no industry operating in a free market would be able to earn above average profits until and unless it creates strong barriers, the cost of surpassing those barriers is more than the benefits that one could reap within the required period of return. This is true because every now and then when a producers charges above average prices or makes above average profits, it attracts new players in the industry to demand a share in those profits thus forcing the players to bring the profits at an average level (Siegel, 2011, pp. 85-86). As mentioned earlier, that illegal drug business is such that it entails great profits because of its high risk and high return nature. Furthermore, experts explain this by using the term “crime tax” which is levied on the customer that buy these illegal drugs and pay extra ordinary high prices (tax) due to the illegality of the products (UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, 2003, pp. 80-81). The fact is that when the society witnessed soaring profits from the illegal drug industry, new mafias, criminal groups, and underground organizations also entered into the industry to get their due share. When companies and firms engage in price wars, advertising, quality improvements, diversification and other strategic tactics to beat the competition, these drug cartels, as expected, engaged in violence to kill the members of other gangs and destabilize their operations (Isralowitz and Myers, 2011, p. 460). On January 12, 2012, the Mexican authorities found two dead bodies near a shopping mall in Mexico. These killings were a series of murders over the past five years that have now surpassed the level of 48000. Most of these murders a part of the drug war, where the drug mafias and cartels are trying to maintain their dominance over specific operations and regions and in an attempt of the same, they kill the members of other groups (Gomez, 2012). Furthermore, primarily due to these drug mafias, many areas of Mexico, Columbia and other countries from the South American countries have become no go areas. Furthermore, the economic, social and political impacts of the involvement in drug trafficking is eye opening. These countries are still low-income countries despite of the tremendous potential in their economies, in terms of investment and unemployment (Lyman and Potter, 2010a, pp. 351-353). However, investors are not ready to put in their money in these countries because of the security threats and political uncertainty. Furthermore, not only these countries produce and export drugs but they are consumers of those drugs themselves. In fact, domestic consumption of drugs is much easier and less costly thus encouraging people to engage in the same (Roman, Ahn-Redding and Simon, 2007, pp. 38-39; Lyman and Potter, 2010b, p. 310). Quite understandably, countries in which being addicted to drugs is becoming socially acceptable, the employees in the country work far less below their potential and help these mafias in concentrating the wealth in their hands to further exert their influence. Furthermore, deforestation is another emerging phenomenon in these countries for the sake of plantation of crops. Despite the cries of environmental groups, the political influence, which these drug mafias buy with their immense wealth, allows everything to turn in their way. They select vulnerable, extremely poor, and addicted farmers for the purpose of labour in the fields. In fact, evidence suggests that many of these mafias also employ prostitutes for encouraging them to work better. Anyone who prematurely decides to quit the job suffers with severe consequences that may include death as well. Crime has soared in these areas and virtual system of bonded labour has emerged in these areas. United States has long taken the “victim position” in the international drug trade because of its largest budget in the world for combating the problem and largest population impacted by the same. The United States authorities calculate that alone in the year 2007 and only through the Mexican border, more than 2.2 million kilograms of cocaine and 11.6 million kilograms of marijuana entered into the country illegally. Cocaine (from Mexico and Columbia), Herion (from Burma, Columbia, Mexico, Afghanistan and others), Methamphetamine (from Georgia, Florida, Califroina and Mexico), Marijuana (domestically grown and from Canada, Mexico and others), MDMA or also known as Ecstasy (XTC) (from Western Europe, Canada and South America) and others are the major illegal drugs trafficked in US (Lyman and Potter, 2010a, pp. 351-353). Furthermore, authorities estimate that over 3 million US dollars pass from Arizona to Mexico as drug money. One of the biggest problems facing United States in this regard is that every year thousands of illegal immigrants come into the country with no or fake bio data, thus providing just a perfect opportunity to the drug mafias for their transportation and dealings. Statistics indicate that over two thirds of the total drugs, which enter into the United States, are through the US-Mexico border (Roman, Ahn-Redding and Simon, 2007, pp. 38-39). Conclusion Illegal drug trade in the world is on rise and every month, thousands of new teenagers get the first taste of their illegally bought drug. There are no doubts in the fact that illegal drug trade has brought advantages for many countries as well. For example, much of the foreign exchange and international trade of Afghanistan depend on marijuana. In Bolivia, cocaine production is one of the biggest contributors to the national economy (Maghan, Kelly and Serio, 2005, pp. 241-243; Lyman and Potter, 2010b, p. 310). In fact, in the late early 1980s, when the business of illegal trade was thriving, the government authorities welcome the move because it eased some of the pressure on the Central Bank regarding foreign exchange. The money that poor rural farmers of Afghanistan, Bolivia and many other such countries have earned from drug trade was spent on their necessities such as food, clothing shelter and on luxury goods such as television, furniture, radio, automobiles, and such commodities (Mallory, 2011, pp. 267-268; Shanty, 2008, pp. 81-82). Therefore, the purchases of such commodities end up creating economic multipliers for the entire economy. Therefore, many farmers have improved their quality of life and the same for their coming generations. Nevertheless, there is a darker side to this as well. The involvement in corrupt and illegal practices acts like a one-way street from which there is no exit. Therefore, many of these farmers and distributors end up going deep into the undercover world of crime, violence, and corruption thus comprising their future, integrity, and moral values (Isralowitz and Myers, 2011, p. 460). The world has already spent billions of dollars in name of “war on drugs” and it aims to continue to this spending in the coming years. However, the increased volume of trade and consumption makes us believe that it is all in vain. The fact is that the Global Commission on Drugs that released its report in the year 2011 clearly stated that the war on drugs and the approach that it has taken has been an utter failure and it has had devastating impacts on many stakeholders (Mallory, 2011, pp. 267-268). Therefore, the paper suggests that time has come to divert these investments from law enforcement agencies to investments in the third world countries and increase the volume of investments on educating children and the coming generation about the dangers of drug and becoming a part of the drug trade. Rather than focusing too much on the intermediaries, who are violent criminals and experienced in organized crime, the focus should now be on the first producers and end consumers thus making the entire drug chain ineffective (Abadinsky, 2009, pp. 106-107; Fraser and Moore, 2011, pp. 20-23). References Abadinsky, Howard. 2009. Organized Crime. Cengage Learning. Barton, Lee V. 2007. Illegal drugs and governmental policies. Nova Publishers. Goode, Erich. 2007. Drugs in American Society. McGraw-Hill. Chalk, Peter. 2011. The Latin American Drug Trade: Scope, Dimensions, Impact, and Response. Rand Corporation. Fraser, S., and Moore, David. 2011. The Drug Effect: Health, Crime, and Society. Cambridge University Press. Gomez, Adriana. 2012. 47,000 people killed in drug violence in Mexico. Retrieved on January 15, 2012: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j_yUrl_wju_86CkY9xjQAXwVrDAA?docId=1b85ac28f39447fcb553c21e59971494 Isralowitz, R., and Myers, Peter L. 2011. Illicit Drugs. ABC-CLIO. Kelly, Robert J., Maghan, J., and Serio, Joseph. 2005. Illicit trafficking: a reference handbook. ABC-CLIO. Lyman, Michael D., and Potter, Gary W. 2010a. Organized Crime. Pearson Education Canada. Lyman, Michael D., and Potter, Gary W. 2010b. Drugs in Society: Causes, Concepts and Control. Elsevier. Mallory, Stephen. 2011. Understanding Organized Crime. Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Mandel, Robert. 2010. Dark Logic: Transnational Criminal Tactics and Global Security. Stanford University Press. Roman, Caterina Gouvis., Ahn-Redding, H., and Simon, Rita J. 2007. Illicit Drug Policies, Trafficking, and Use the World Over. Lexington Books. Shanty, Frank. 2008. Organized crime: from trafficking to terrorism. ABC-CLIO. Siegel, Larry J. 2011. Criminology. Cengage Learning. Storti, Cláudia Costa., and Grauwe, Paul De. 2011. Illicit Trade and the Global Economy. MIT Press. UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention. 2003. Global illicit drug trends. United Nations Publications. 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