Supply and demand
It is estimated that in 2020 approximately 1 in 11 adults aged 16 to 59 have used drugs in the last year (Stripe, 2020). This is an increase of 8.6% since March 2010 (Stripe, 2020). With this amount of people using drugs, it makes you wonder, where are all the drugs coming from? In this blog article, I will address where the supply of some illegal drugs come from and what criminal groups or even terrorist organisations are behind them. The production of drugs come from a variety of different places around the world, with drugs like opium coming from countries like Afghanistan and drugs such as cocaine come from countries like Colombia (Panlogic, 2021). With the productions of these drugs at an all-time high, the purity of drugs has increased as well. With increased demand, the competition between organized drug gangs has increased as well leading to more deadly conflicts between these groups. There is corruption throughout the entire drug supply chain, and this allows drugs to pass through airports and ports and reaching the users here in the UK (Panlogic, 2021).
It comes from where………?
Cocaine: different drugs are manufactured from different countries. However, most drug users do not even know where the drugs they are taking come from. The cocaine that is used on the streets of Britain can be traced back to the cartels of South America, who are notorious for their cruelty and brutality (McSweeney, J. Turnbull and Hough, 2008). In the mid-1990s drug gangs such as the infamous Medellin cartel took over the cocaine market of the world, led by the notorious Pablo Escobar, the Medellin cartel and its rival the Cali cartel were the powerhouses of cocaine distribution and production (Becker, 2013). Today most of the words supply of cocaine is still produced in South America, with countries like Columbia still leading the way (McSweeney, J. Turnbull and Hough, 2008).
Heroin: An even more fascinating fact is that more than 90% of the world’s heroin supply comes from Afghanistan and can be narrowed down to the Helmand province, which is in the southern region of the country (Swartz, n.d.). During the Afghanistan conflict, terrorist groups were reliant on the opium trade to help finance their insurgency. Both the Mujahidin and the Taliban used the heroin trade to fund their conflicts; but this was lowed due to the economic sanctions placed on the country (Swartz, n.d.). However, it would be weak border control of the Pakistanis that would result in the drug being grown in huge numbers and smuggled out (Swartz, n.d.). Even though the recent conflicts have lowered the price of heroin, it is being smuggled around the world in huge numbers and with the many supply routes the trade has, it has been nearly impossible to seize them all (Swartz, n.d.).
Cannabis: It is the UK's most popular illegal drug, with 30.7% of the adult population using it at some point in their lives. (Chatwin and Potter, 2014). It is now thought that cannabis is being produced on a mass scale throughout the UK. It is also thought that this accounts for more than half of the cannabis that is consumed in the UK (McSweeney, J. Turnbull and Hough, 2008). Evidence also suggests that cannabis gangs use modern slavery to help them to grow cannabis in bulk in illegal farms. They are notaries for their exploitation and bad treatment of adults and kids and anyone else unfortunate enough to find themselves working on one of these drug farms (Panlogic, 2021) (University of Cambridge, 2020).
Conclusion
As stated at the beginning of the article, the purpose of this article is to help people understand where some of the drugs they might take are coming from and the people behind them. I have just scratched the surface with the information I have given in this article. The corruption behind the drugs trade is immense. The rise in popularity of drugs has also fuelled the demand for them. However, most people who take these drugs have no idea who they are funding and what kind of atrocities they are assisting in. With the drugs trade becoming more lucrative the groups behind them are becoming more powerful. On its current path, the drugs trade will claim more and more victims until a suitable solution is found, but this is looking highly unlikely.
Bibliography
Stripe, N. (2020). (Drug Misuse in England and Wales). [online] Ons.gov.uk. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/drugmisuseinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2020 [Accessed 1 Mar. 2021].
Panlogic (2021). (Drug Trafficking). [online] Nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk. Available at: https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/what-we-do/crime-threats/drug-trafficking [Accessed 1 Mar. 2021].
McSweeney, T., J. Turnbull, P. and Hough, M. (2008). (Tackling Drug Markets and Distribution Networks In The UK: A Review of The Recent Literature). [online] . The UK Drug Policy Commission. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mike-Hough/publication/291837349_Tackling_drug_markets_and_distribution_networks_in_the_UK_a_review_of_the_recent_literature/links/5b89100da6fdcc5f8b737e27/Tackling-drug-markets-and-distribution-networks-in-the-UK-a-review-of-the-recent-literature.pdf [Accessed 1 Mar. 2021].
Swartz, B. (n.d.). (Afghanistan Connection: Heroin Production, Distribution, and Consumption. [online]. Available at: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1442&context=etds.
Becker, S. (2013). (The Effects of the Drug Cartels on Medellín and the Colombian State). [online] Available at: https://bir.brandeis.edu/bitstream/handle/10192/25053/BeckerThesis2013.pdf?sequence=1.
Chatwin, C. and Potter, G. (2014). (Blurred Boundaries. Contemporary Drug Problems), [online] 41(4), pp.536–550. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0091450914567120 [Accessed 4 Mar. 2021].
University of Cambridge. (2020). (Cannabis Farms are a Modern Slavery “Blind Spot” for UK Police, Study Suggests). [online] Available at: https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/cannabis-farms-are-a-modern-slavery-blind-spot-for-uk-police-study-suggests [Accessed 4 Mar. 2021].
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