Putting a halt to drug trafficking

BY ROSALIE E. DUNBAR, NEWS EDITOR

According to a United Nations report, the first international control of drugs emerged from the Opium Commission in Shanghai in 1909. More recently, between 1989 and 1999, over 100 countries have established or worked on national drug policies. Some focus on criminalization and interdiction, while others favor "harm reduction"—educational efforts and affirmative alternatives to drug use, without incarceration.

Despite efforts to control the production and sale of illegal drugs such as heroin, anabolic steroids, marijuana, LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, opium, and methamphetamine, the global market continues to be huge. Estimates range from $321 billion to $400 billion per year.

This doesn't include the illegal trade in legal drugs, which at present is harder to track. But here's a statistic to ponder: Insurance companies pay up to $72.5 billion annually because controlled prescription drugs are diverted to illegal uses. Then there's money laundering. Illegal drug trafficking organizations in Mexico and Colombia alone handled and launder between $18 and $39 billion in wholesale drug proceeds each year.

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