Why Does The International Drug-Control System Fail?

Year 2016, Volume: 5 Issue: 2, 63 - 90, 19.06.2016

Behsat Ekici

https://doi.org/10.20991/allazimuth.257678

Cited By: 3

Abstract

The international community has been building a drug-control system for over
a century. The UN-led initiatives drafted very detailed conventions, political
declarations, and plans of action. International institutions and governments
have been allocating vast resources for national, regional, and global counter
narcotics initiatives. Law-enforcement agents, judicial officers, diplomats,
and demand-reduction experts devote enormous efforts to global drug-control
efforts. However, the latest field studies clearly indicate that the global war
on drugs has been lost on virtually every front. Drug consumption and drugrelated deaths have increased over the past three decades. Every year, many new psychoactive substances appear on the market. Precursor chemicals are not efficiently controlled. The drug supply consistently shifts to areas where
law enforcement is weak and corrupt. Drug money has allowed the dark
networks to exert an increasing influence on the governments in Latin America,
Southwest Asia, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and West Africa. The drug
trade undermines global security by financing terrorism and insurgency. In
this context, the United Nations’ goal of a “drug-free world” is far from being
reached. This paper provides an insight as to why the international efforts to
control the drug supply, drug demand, and drug-driven money have failed
dramatically.

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