Illegal drugs and drug abuse take almost 250000 lives yearly and adding other lethal addictions such as smoking and alcohol to almost 7 million deaths. Adding to that the diseases and infections caused by taking drugs the number hikes up to as much as 80 million deaths per year.
The total worth of illegal drugs in the world amounts to almost 100 billion dollars. There are almost 10 billionaires and god knows how many millionaires got rich through drugs. After all, how could Pablo Escobar possibly have gotten so rich?
The earliest use of drugs in the world is recorded during the Neolithic period to dull pain and the first use of drugs, opium, in particular, has records of first being used for surgery in India, mentioned in one of the oldest books of medicine the Sushruta Samhita.
The degenerating use of drugs started before the opium war was soon to be a turning point in Chinese History. It started spreading from South East Asia and soon spread throughout the world to be largely centered in The Americas and widely circulated through South America, Middle East, and Africa.
Drugs are circulated through various means of transportation, boats, bodies, trucks, a few unmentionable places in countries such as Luxembourg being the Hub of Europe, and Mexico in North America.
The question is how do we regulate transnational crime, specifically, drug trafficking?
It will be easier if I take the time to define this.
According to the European Journal of International Law ‘Transnational crimes are crimes that have an actual or potential effect across national borders and crimes that are intrastate but offend fundamental values of the international community and according to the world drug reports ‘Drug trafficking is a global illicit trade involving the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws’.
The Global and more pressing issue is that we are unaware of the location of where the drugs are produced. We have a few rough ideas such as certain areas in South America, a few places in Italy, tons of possible cannabis plantations in Africa and this is foregoing the possibility of drugs being grown in greenhouses which will only unnecessarily increase our area of search.
Every country is trying its best to stop drug trafficking, but we do need to recognise that each country has its own policy and laws concerning drugs. However, from the perspective of International Law, there is a specific treaty known as ‘SINGLE CONVENTION ON NARCOTIC DRUGS, 1961’ which highlights on some basic guidelines concerning opioids that all nation states need to follow. The problem is that the UN does not have enough manpower, funds or legal power to ensure that every country is following this set of laws.
The second and by far the most important agenda is concerning ‘transnational’ crimes. Due to the Foreigners’ Act of different countries clashing with international laws and norms, many criminals are able to make use of the law to protect themselves from crimes that they may have committed in a different country and then fled to a different country. Vijay Mallya and Anil Ambani are some of India’s most popular transnational criminals. ‘Transnational’ and ‘international’ crimes are not to be mistaken for each other. Anil Ambani is transnational while Osama Bin Laden is international.
What can we possibly do to improve this faulty system?
Here are a few points: -
1) A universal foreigner’s act that would be accepted by each and every country.
2) Allowance of Satellite images in each and every country’s part accept the security related portion of the country to help the committee in finding the drug ports.
3) More frequent raids and soil testing at the Golden Triangle and Golden crescent.
I’m certainly not one to take drugs. I will definitely stop any of my friends or family from going down the wrong path.
Can you help your friends from taking the wrong road?
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