Economic Highlights

New Delhi, 19 March 2009

Globalization & Meltdown

DRUGS, GUN-RUNNING TRADE ON RISE

By Shivaji Sarkar

Illicit drugs, arms and terrorism are closely linked, obliquely admits the International Narcotics Board’s (INB) latest report. India and its neighbourhood remain the hottest centres of drug activities, which engage millions of people directly. The worldwide figure may well be around half a billion.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODOC) blames globalization for the weakening of governments, social safety nets, growing unemployment, which all provide easy and quick labour for clandestine activities. Drug sales have not only taken new forms but the UNODOC states that the efforts of past 100 years to control it have only resulted in its further proliferation.

Internet pharmacies and courier services have emerged as an effective route since detection is difficult. Cyber criminals use encryption to further sale of drugs and arms. Counterfeit pharmaceutical drug sales through internet pharmacies alone would touch $ 75 billion in 2010, a US study estimates. The study does not include direct opium and other narcotic drug- related trade. It is restricted to sale and advertising of what the World Health Organisation (WHO) states as “deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled (branded drugs) with respect to identity and source”.  If drugs, gun-running and related activities are together taken into account, it is expected to touch $ 1 trillion figure. There is another almost similar expenditure by the nations for countering illicit trading.

The number of illegal internet pharmacies was 34 in 2006 selling 98 million units of products without prescription.  Such drugs carry the brand names of licit pharmaceutical psychotropic drugs. The substances are altered to make these more lethal. The UNODOC notes that while counterfeiting has become a lucrative international criminal activity, the response of law enforcement has continued to be ineffective, weak and focused on offences such as handbags and watches. “Technology far outpaces the regulatory environment”, the report states.

Criminals now design and manufacture psychotropic drugs with the explicit aim of bypassing the restrictions imposed by international regulations. There has been a rapid growth in the clandestine synthesis of “designer drugs”.

The UNODOC quotes the 15^th SAARC meeting held in Colombo in August last year to state interlinkages between terrorism and trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances. It means apart from being a hazard to health, it sustains a gun-running and low-cost war mechanism. The UNODOC, however, is shy in admitting it. It also ignores the fact that Afghanistan had become the hub of drug production when it was captured by Taliban. 

Narcotic drugs are moved through airports, ports, rail, road, jungle routes and sea routes. Fishing boats that dot Arabian Sea, one of which had brought November 26 Mumbai attackers, are engaged regularly for such activities.

The report cites India’s neighbourhood  - Bangladesh, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Maldives and Nepal - as flourishing centres.  Many of the North-Eastern insurgent groups are known drug traders and gun runners. Even LTTE in Sri Lanka is stated to be involved in it, primarily as a source for purchasing arms. The report notes that, of late, drug sales in Sri Lanka, which was minimal, has increased.

India itself has been accused of being a centre for the production of cannabis –ganja. This is the newest popular substance in the drug market. India has also been named as a transit route for drugs emanating in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In Afghanistan, opium cultivation area has come down by 19 per cent but production has reduced by only 6 per cent. Major part of Afghan opium is routed through Iran to Europe, West Asia and Africa. Even the most conservative state of Saudi Arabia has become a hub for sale of narcotic substances

A major source for narcotic substance, yaba,  to Bangladesh has been traced to Myanmar. A part of it reportedly flows into the North-East as well. Imported or smuggled Codeine-based syrups have become popular intoxicant among the Bangladesh youth. One reason for popularity of such syrups is stated to be imposition of prohibition under the pressure of fundamentalists.

As mentioned it’s just not the neighbourhood but nations across the globe that have become centres of drug trade. While most countries have provided statistics to the INB;  China, Iran, Belgium, Netherlands and the US have failed to oblige.  

In fact, the INB report looks critically at globalization. It notes of greater opportunities for developing countries for integration into the world economy, “but the process is imperfect  and incomplete. The benefits have unevenly been distributed.” It castigates the foreign direct investment (FDI) and transnational corporations for weakening government control over labour issues. It further affects vulnerable population. In many countries, there has been a weakening of social safety nets once provided by the state, the employer and the family and a consequent reduction in social capital.

It also blames without naming WTO that the deregulation and liberalization of commercial practices in the licit drug market has tended to weaken the regulatory powers of governments in terms of public control over trading and access to drugs, their prices and marketing practices. Various free trade agreements in Europe and North America have made it more difficult for governments to monitor the movement of chemicals used in illicit trade. Thus we find that parallel drug manufacturers use this route as often as possible.

Conflicts, poverty, climate change, environmental degradation have resulted in shortages of foodstuffs and inflated prices of raw materials. Worse, according to the Centre for Research of Disasters, Brussels, it has increased displacements of 197 million people in 2007, with Asia being the worst-hit. The conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan has alone sent 11.4 million refugees to Iran and another 3 million remain in Pakistan itself. Syria is hosting 1.5 million Iraqi refugees.

“There is no doubt that where employment is low or compromised, illicit drug crop cultivation and production can (in reality do) provide income. It is also true that the challenge of offering sustainable alternative livelihoods in rural and urban areas has been inadequately addressed”, INB report says. It calls for investment of significant resources to improve infrastructure in rural areas with fragile ecosystem. This has a direct relation to India.

Importantly, the INB Report 2008 was compiled shortly before the global meltdown. Times have changed since and the meltdown would have heightened the impact and given a boost to illicit trading. Surely, future reports would be replete with higher figures. Even then it would only be a tip of the iceberg. The world would need to devise multifarious methods to get to the bottom of the malaise. –INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)