A study on the trends of illicit drug industry in Colombia
Name: Wang Xiaojing Student ID：b07122
Research paper supervisor:Dr.Seku Conde
Minzu University of China
2007-2008 Academic Year
As globalizing, the abusing the illicit drug becomes a world wide problem. An estimated 4.7% of the global population aged 15 to 64, or 185 million people, consume illicit drugs annually.[i]It concerns many issues and harms the health of human being. Therefore, many countries prohibit using illicit drug.
1. Introduction of illicit drug
What is illicit drug? The definition of illicit drug is not uniformed. It depends on different domestic law. But as described in different jurisdictions, the illicit drug should have some features as following:
‧chemical properties of specific drugs
‧the social context in which specific drugs are often taken and the effects described by users
‧the potential harms associated with each drug.[ii]
In general, definition of illicit drugs can be considered as that of drug abuse. Drug abuse has a wide range of definitions related to taking a psychoactive drug or performance enhancing drug for a non-therapeutic or non-medical effect. All of these definitions imply a negative judgment of the drug use in question (compare with the term responsible drug use for alternative views). Some of the drugs most often associated with this term include alcohol, amphetamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, cocaine, methaqualone, and opium alkaloids. Use of these drugs may lead to criminal penalty in addition to possible physical, social, and psychological harm, both strongly depending on local jurisdiction.[iii] Most of jurisdictions have their own list of illicit drug and mostly contains cocaine and heroin.
2. Some social problems on illicit drug
Abusing illicit drugs now relates to many social problems. Such as AIDS expressing, crime increasing and GDP decreasing, those issues have close relationship with illicit drug industry.
2.1 AIDS expressing
There is a closely connection between illicit dug and AIDS/HIV. For example, in Viet Nam the HIV epidemic continues to rise and HIV has been detected in all 64 provinces and cities. The number of people living with HIV has doubled since 2000, with an estimated 260,000 cases by the end of 2005. It is believed that around 40,000 Vietnamese are infected with HIV each year, mostly through the sharing of contaminated needles during the use of illicit drugs.[iv] Injecting drug users are the most affected, accounting for 53% of the total reported HIV cases in the country. [v]
There are several ways to use illicit drugs. Injection is one of the most popular ways to have them. However, the injector sometimes is reused by drug addict from one to another directly. As we all know one of the paths in which to infect AIDS/HIV is through blood. Injecting gives a convenient way to express AIDS/HIV from one addict to another through blood vessel. In Tyndall MW’s research, factors positively associated with HIV seroconversion included: injecting cocaine at least weekly, borrowing used needles etc.[vi] A total of 176 patients (61%) had acquired HIV-1 infection through intravenous drug use.[vii]Even there isn’t any directly injecting, the addict may easily infect AIDS/HIV for the reason of lacking of immunological. Researched by Bagasra O., the biologic effects of substances of abuse, especially their modulation of the immune system, may significantly contribute to the outcome of an infection.[viii]
2.2 Crime increasing
Drugs are related to crime in multiple ways. According to the law, using, possession and dealing those drugs can be defined as crimes directly. Drugs are also related to crime through the effects they have on the user's behavior and by generating violence and other illegal activity in connection with drug trafficking. [ix]In order to support the illicit habit, the users may commit crime to get financial aid. Those activities surround illicit drugs are the causes of crime and are responsible for the worrying rising crime rates. In the words of the Prime Minister, Mr Howard:"Research shows that more than half, and possibly up to 80% of property offences have some drug involvement. Between 45% and 60% of convicted offenders committed property crimes to support drug habits. Some 64% of offenders admitted using drugs (to give them a lift, or courage) to commit an offence." In Australia of 2004, 37% of detainees in the DUMA(Drug Use Monitoring in Australia) program attributed at least some of their offending to drugs (excluding alcohol), with the proportion rising to 45% for those who had used drugs in the previous twelve months.[x]
2.3 High social cost
Here is also an ambiguous effect on economy. The risk inherent in the illegal nature of drug industry tends to raise the cost of other business. Thus is harm to GDP of a country. Not mentioned the tax leak of those drug industries, the unstable investing environment caused by illegal drug production is a negative effect to social incomes. From the speech of Hon Jim Anderton, Chair of the Ministerial Committee on Drug Policy of New Zealand, in 2006 illicit drug use caused social costs estimated at $1,310 million. That’s nearly one per cent of GDP. Illicit drug production cost the country $519 million. Related crime cost us $414 million. Lost output due to illicit drug use cost $106 million. Another $53 million resulted from drug-attributable health care and road smashes. In order to be more specific, the research is broken down into categories of drugs. Over two fifths of social costs - 42 percent, or $551 million - is caused by illicit stimulants. The researchers said stimulants stand out as the “the second largest source of tangible costs for the user” at $2640 per user in 2006. They caused $551 million of social costs in 2006. That’s over ten million dollars of harm every week. Over a third of the social costs of illicit drug use are caused by cannabis. That’s $444 million of social costs in 2006 from cannabis alone.[xi]
3. A controversial plan: Plan Colombia
Colombia is one of three main territories for illicit drugs industry in the world. Those problems listed above are outstanding in this country. The Colombia government always wants to change the situation. Moreover, they turn to ask for international aids by other country to accomplish the task. In 2000, the Colombia government starts Plan Colombia and USA supported the plan.
3.1What is Plan Colombia?
In order to meet the most pressing challenges confronting Colombia today --- promoting the peace process, combating the narcotics industry, reviving the Colombian economy, and strengthening the democratic pillars of Colombian society, the Government of Colombia developed "Plan Colombia" as an integrated strategy.[xii] Plan Colombia is a $7.5 billion program. Considering the budget, President Pastrana has called on the international community to provide the remaining $3.5 billion to assist this effort. In response to Plan Colombia, and in consultation with the Colombian Government, the United States is providing a $1.3 billion total U.S. interagency assistance package to Colombia. There is $390.5 million of the total mount to support the Government of Colombia's objective to gain control of the drug producing regions of southern Colombia. Although Plan Colombia includes components which address social aid and institutional reform, the initiative has come to be regarded by its critics as fundamentally a program of counternarcotics and military aid for the Colombian government. [xiii]For United States Congress, Plan Colombia presents "war on drugs".
3.2 Different opinions for the result of Plan Colombia
3.2.1 Positive result
After five years’ operating, Colombia government declared that the Plan Colombia worked. By fumigations, drug producing has been effectively decreased. The conclusion depends on the surveys conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime – UNODC, which are the only studies given credence in Colombia.
(Resource: UNODC Website)
According to the survey of UNODC, the coca cultivation was reduced rapidly from 2001 in which the Plan Colombia began.
3.2.2 Negative result
However, the US government addressed the Plan Colombia Drug Eradication Program failed. Adam Isacson who is from Center for International Policy of US said, “ If reducing drug use at home and fighting terrorists abroad are vital U.S. interests in the Americas, our current policy in Colombia is failing. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Colombia still supplies 90 percent of the cocaine and 50 percent of the heroin consumed in the United States.” And this opinion also has supported by a survey yet it is conducted by US government. In this survey, the coca cultivation in Colombia increased rapidly since 2004.
3.2.3 Analysis on survey
Which survey is more credible on earth? Here is also another significant quota to certify the effect of the Plan: price. In the World illicit drug report of 2007 from UNODC, there is a survey “Colombia, monthly farm-gate prices for coca paste (‘000 COP/kg), 2000 to 2006”. This charter shows the price of coca paste in Colombia every January from 2000 to 2006. The price is floating around 2,100 peso. And it dropped to 1,750 peso in 2006. This survey is consist of the research from Transnational Institute of US in June 2007 .The Director of the ONDCP, John Walters, very discretely and quietly revealed that cocaine prices on the streets of the United States had fallen, while its purity was on the rise. The United States measures the success of its drug enforcement policy by the [...]
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