Drugs and globalization

Résumé du document

Relations between drugs and international trade are a long story, we could think of the 19th century and the important consumption of opium in Europe, as can be seen for example in the film From Hell. Opium was obviously not produced in Europe for climatic reasons and essentially came from Asia. Drugs have long been trans-national goods. Nowadays drugs still are a major issue in the society but consumption and production structures have evolved and are still evolving. Drug trade is linked to borders, money circulation and easy traveling. All these areas also concern globalization. A simple definition of "drugs" could be: psycho-active substances. Nevertheless it is more complex because some products are legal in some countries and not in others. On the one hand, tobacco and alcohol are legal psycho-active substances in most countries.

Extraits

[...] Most of these substances have links with globalization. Globalization is a phenomenon of liberalization and world integration. It deals with populations, goods and assets. Drug has long been a transnational good: it was traditionally produced in developing countries and consumed in industrialized countries. Globalization surely had an impact on its consumption, production and circulation because it brought major changes to all kind of trades. Thus my paper will try to answer to the question: what has been the impact of globalisation on drugs production and consumption? [...]

[...] Since1993 drug trafficking can be punished with life imprisonment and a fee of one million of Kenyan shillings. But the main problem is to apply these laws. Some politics cover mafias and protect drug production. Judges are also corrupted and thus laws are not always applied. Even if governments decide to tackle drug problem, some structural difficulties make it almost impossible. The Afghanistan case is interesting and discouraging: the UNODC report says that one generation at least will passed before the country could be opium- free. Reducing poppy fields and opium production is very difficult. [...]

[...] All these areas also concern globalization. A simple definition of could be: psycho-active substances. Nevertheless it is more complex because some products are legal in some countries and not in others. On the one hand, tobacco and alcohol are legal psycho-active substances in most countries. But on the other hand the coca leaf is legal in some South America countries but illegal in the Western World. It is difficult to establish a clear list of drugs. In order to have a clear definition of what means in our title, we will focus on artificial drugs, we won't take into account the plants that are consumed in developing countries. [...]

[...] The figures are less impressive in South America but it remains six times more interesting to produce drugs than traditional productions. This has major consequences. Peasants no longer produce vegetables or meat and import their food from industrialized countries. On the long term this will have a major impact, on African growth for example, because a country cannot build its development on drug. In developing countries drugs have been used for centuries. They were used in traditional rituals, shamanism etc. [...]

[...] It is disappointing to notice few hopes for an improvement of the situation. Nevertheless some initiatives such as “swap drug/debt” may have an important future. Studying links between drug and globalisation is interesting because it shows that measures such as structural adjustment plans, inspired by good willing and that have good consequences on economic structures can also have negative impacts on other sectors. Nevertheless the conclusion should not be that liberalization promotes drug production and trade but that all economic measures are complex and can be double-edged. [...]