Policy analysisDrugs and development: The global impact of drug use and trafficking on social and economic development
Section snippets
An understudied barrier to the eradication of poverty and social inequality
The birth of the development movement can be traced to the 1955 conference of Asian and African nations at Bandung, Indonesia that led to the established of the Nonaligned Movement block. As conceived there and afterwards, development is a tripartite project of modernization involving national changes in the economy, social organization, and governance. Since its inception, the international development program has both been driven and hindered by the fact that we live at a time in which large
Challenges of the millennium development goals
There has been a steady rise in aid from developed countries in recent years, reaching over $100 billion in 2005, ostensibly intended to achieve the MDGs. Closer examination, however, reveals that more than half is debt relief on the billions of dollars owed by poor countries which does not tend to increase the amount of money spent on the achievement of the MDGs. Additionally, a large part of the remaining aid money goes into disaster relief, such as aid following the devastating Indian Ocean
Global drug capitalism and the distribution of drug commodities
Emergent patterns of drug use in the contemporary world reflect the social disruptions of the second or contemporary wave of globalisation, including “structural adjustment” strategies promoted by developed nations ostensibly intended to modernize developing nations, and the neoliberal shift from government ownership and direction to the privatization of state industries and a reliance on market forces to control economic development (Appadurai, 2001, Goroux, 2004). One goal of neoliberal
Legal drug use trends
Products manufactured and distributed internationally by the global tobacco and alcohol industries have caused significant health problems in developing nations. The greatest harm is associated with tobacco products and, thus, it is the tobacco industry that will be the primary focus here. As Barnett and Cavanagh (1994, p. 184) aptly observe, “The cigarette is the most widely distributed global consumer product on earth, the most profitable, and the most deadly.” Philip Morris International,
Impacts of drugs on development
Drugs have both direct and indirect impacts on development, across populations, age groups, institutions, and spheres of life. Moreover, because involvement in their production and sale may provide income for poor individuals and families with limited access to alternative employment, drugs pose a paradox for development initiatives. Opium, for example, is the biggest employer in Afghanistan (Barker, 2006). Similarly, in South America, the cocaine trade attracted thousands of families fleeing
Conclusions: establishing millennial ameliorative goals for the appeals of drug use
As Mesquita (2006, p. 66), based on the experience of Brazil, has stressed, “The developing world is extremely affected by the health and social impacts of the illicit drug market.” As argued here, the legal drug market, as well as illicit activities among legal drug corporations and the diversion of pharmaceutical products to the illicit trade, also contribute to significant health and social problems that undermine development efforts. Stressing that both arms of the dual drug market, legal
Acknowledgement
This paper grew out of a speaking tour on global drug patterns sponsored by the School of Anthropology, Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Melbourne. The author thanks Nick Crofts, Director of Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre in Melbourne, for providing materials that were useful in stimulating the development of this paper, Richard Needle, of the Global AIDS Program, for inviting participation in drugs and HIV/AIDS prevention initiatives in Brazil and Vietnam, Pamela
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