The Global Drug Trade Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Global Drug Trade - Essay Example The global narcotics traffic once contained to Europe and America, exploded as heroin production shifted to the South-East Asian market. The once straightforward drug route of Marseille-New York shifted to a complex web of global trafficking that â€Å"tied rising First World consumption to spreading Third world production† (McCoy 2003). On the supply end, developing countries were undergoing economic hardship and people were searching for lucrative solutions to supplement their incomes. Organized crime and drug cartels emerged to capitalize on this growing market. Increased production resulted in ``increased trafficking and availability of drugs in developed countries and transit countries, thus contributing to an overall spread and expansion of demand`` (Reichel 2004). By the 1980s, drugs were wreaking havoc on local communities across the globe. In North America, cocaine was the drug of choice, both for South American cartels and global consumers. Panama, Columbia, and Mexi co became huge producers of cocaine with transit routes passing through Central America and into the U.S and Canada. Crack, a cheaper and more addictive version of cocaine emerged and with devastating consequences to poor communities. By 1986, the American â€Å"war on drugs† was in full swing, with the Reagan Administration pouring 1.7 billion into the cause (Frontline 2008). While the U.S struggled to deal with the increasing prevalence of cocaine and crack, Europe was battling against a growing heroin problem. e problem. Switzerland in particular was facing "one of the highest rates of heroin addiction in Europe" (Foulkes 2008) According to McCoy, during the 1980s, Afghanistan became Europe's main opium supplier, due primarily to CIA covert operations that served to transform southern Asia from a self-contained opium zone into a major supplier of heroin for the world market. He states: "CIA intervention provided the political protection and logistic linkages that joined Afghanistan's poppy fields to heroin markets in Europe and America" (McCoy 1991). Although the war on drugs made headway in combating drug use in the North America, by the 1990s, the production and consumption of drugs was on the rise again. This time due, primarily, to the end of the Cold War. TRENDS IN GLOBAL DRUG TRAFFICKING With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the former Soviet countries were in a state of economic collapse. The result was complex but included: "the shipment of