Drugs and Drug abuse

DRUGS AND DRUG ABUSE

Drugs and drug abuse has been a problem for America for quite a

while now. But is it as bad here as it is in other countries?

By: Heath Roland

Illegal Drug Trade in the Americas

The United States and Latin America are finding ways to use multilateral organisms to confront this and examines as an example the role of CICAD in setting a cooperative agenda to develop an antidrug regime.

Illegal drugs are one of the most salient and multifaceted threats to the Americas. Illegal drug consumption, particularly in the United States, creates demand and fuels criminality. Drug production and trade, in turn, exploit the weaknesses in the capacity of Latin American States, provoking instability and terrible violence.

To date, efforts to eradicate this phenomenon have been less than successful. This illegal industry has been able to adapt to new obstacles put forth by government authorities, keep up with demand, transcend borders, and affect fragile Latin American democratic states.

By failing to control all of their territories, Latin American authorities have allowed illegal drug traffickers to become an existential threat that undermines fragile national institutions and the fabric of the societies that take them in. To eventually defeat a threat of this nature and scope, a very long term cooperative approach needs to be adopted and implemented.

Illegal Drugs In Europe

Young Danes are among the European record holders in binge drinking as well as being the most experienced at trying cannabis. Even though the prevalence rates are substantially lower regarding other drugs.

In Europe, a purported gram of street heroin, usually consisting of 700–800 mg of a light to dark brown powder containing 5-10% heroin base, costs between 30 and 70 Euros, making the effective value per gram of pure heroin between 300 and 700 Euros.

Popular media as well as law enforcement agencies throughout Europe routinely identify members of ethnic minorities, and recent migrants in particular, as responsible for selling a large proportion of the illegal drugs that are consumed in Europe.

Examination of the existing and modest research literature, as well as a careful reading of the official data, does indeed indicate that certain sectors of the drug market are dominated by a small number of specific immigrant groups.

Turkish and Albanian ethnic groups largely control the importation, high-level trafficking and open-air retailing of heroin; Colombian groups dominate the importation of cocaine. However, there are other major sectors of the drug market, notably those for cannabis and synthetic drugs, in which native populations seem to be more important.

Drug Abuse In Russia

In the Soviet era, drug abuse was seen as a crime. Recent developments suggest that Russia may finally be recognizing that it is a health problem with serious social implications.

Russian officials often use strong rhetoric in assessing the impact of nonalcoholic drug abuse on their society. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said that, “The growing number of drug addicts in Russia, including young people, is a direct threat to the Russian nation’s future.”

Similarly, Oleg Kharichkin, deputy director of the Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN), warned, “Narcotics have become weapons of mass destruction in a war. They can be compared to the atomic bomb, poison gases, and deadly viruses. The number of victims in this war is shocking.”

Many ordinary Russians agree that narcotics have become a weapon of mass destruction. In a June 2009 nation wide poll, 67 percent of respondents assessed drug addiction as a “very serious problem.” Eighteen percent of the sample acknowledged have relatives or close acquaintances who had used “narcotics” without a doctor’s prescription, while 5 percent of respondents admitted doing so themselves.

Equating narcotics to weapons of mass destruction or contending that drug addicts constitute a direct threat to the Russian nation’s future is undoubtedly hyperbolic. Yet two graphic examples reflect the problematic state of drug abuse in Russia today. A 2010 report from the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime (UNODC) estimates that Russia has almost as many heroin users (1.5 million) as all other European countries combined (1.6 million).

Illegal Drugs in ChinaChina is one-fifth of the world’s population and a large and expanding economy. Opium has played an important role in Chinese history since before the Opium Wars in the mid-19th century. China’s large land mass, close proximity to the Golden Triangle, and numerous coastal cities with large and modern port facilities make it an attractive transit center to drug traffickers.

China's status in drug trafficking has changed significantly since the 1980s, when the country for the first time opened its borders to trade and tourism after 40 years of relative isolation. As trade with Southeast Asian countries and the elsewhere increased, so did the flow of illicit drugs and precursor chemicals from, into, and through China.

China is a major source of precursor chemicals necessary for the production of cocaine, heroin, MDMA and crystal methamphetamine, which are used by many Southeast Asian and Pacific Rim nations. China produces over 100,000 metric tons of acetic anhydride each year, and imports an additional 20,000 metric tons from the United States and Singapore. Reports indicate that acetic anhydride is diverted from China to morphine and heroin refineries in the Golden Triangle.

The drug problem in China reappeared in the late 1980s. At that time, most drug abusers used opium only, with heroin accounting for a very small proportion and its use being limited to border areas in the southwest and rural areas in the northwest. Beginning in the early 1990s, drug abuse spread quickly. The number of registered drug addicts increased from 70,000 in 1990 to one million by the end of 2002.

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