The causes of illegal drug industry growth in the Andes, Anti-Drug Policies and their effectiveness

Illegal drugs have become a key and conflictive policy issue in the Andean countries. Anti-drug polices are today part of government policy agendas and the object of frequent debate. In 1961 the United Nations signed the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. This was followed by the 1971 Convention o...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor Principal: Thoumi, Francisco E.
Formato: Documento de trabajo (Working Paper)
Lenguaje:Inglés (English)
Publicado: Editorial Universidad del Rosario 2005
Materias:
Acceso en línea:http://repository.urosario.edu.co/handle/10336/3880
id ir-10336-3880
recordtype dspace
spelling ir-10336-38802019-09-19T12:37:01Z The causes of illegal drug industry growth in the Andes, Anti-Drug Policies and their effectiveness Thoumi, Francisco E. Drogas Drogadicción Narcotráfico Narcotráfico Control de drogas y narcóticos Abuso de drogas Drogadicción Drogas alucinógenas Drogas psicotrópicas Illegal drugs have become a key and conflictive policy issue in the Andean countries. Anti-drug polices are today part of government policy agendas and the object of frequent debate. In 1961 the United Nations signed the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. This was followed by the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Drugs and the 1988 Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. In1972 President Nixon declared a “war on drugs” raising drug issues in the policy agenda of the United States and other countries. It is clear that governments’ have been attempting to control and regulate mind-altering drugs use for a long time. Their results, however, have been at best highly questionable. Today cocaine and heroin are widely available, new drugs have appeared in the market, new markets have developed and new criminal and subversive organizations entered the illegal drug business. Advocates of current policies would argue that without them things would be worse. Those who oppose them content that policies themselves are at fault and have contributed to increase the social costs of drug production, trafficking and consumption. The debate about anti-drug policy effectiveness most of the time is emotionally charged and does not advance the understanding of drug phenomena. This essay analyses the nature of the drug policy formulation problem, describes a theory of competitive advantage in illicit drugs, draws some policy implications from this theory, analyses the characteristics of the main drug producing countries that make them prone to develop the illicit drugs industry, surveys the evolution of anti-drug policies in the Andean countries, discuses some of the main challenges confronted by the policies currently used, summarizes the main effects that the illegal drug industry development have had on those countries, assesses the viability of drug policy reform and makes a few suggestions to marginally modify some policies and to improve policy dialogue as a pre-requisite to improve drug policy effectiveness. 2005-04 2012-09-24T14:50:09Z info:eu-repo/semantics/workingPaper info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion 1794-9068 http://repository.urosario.edu.co/handle/10336/3880 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/co/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess application/pdf Editorial Universidad del Rosario Universidad del Rosario. Facultad de Economía reponame:Repositorio Institucional EdocUR instname:Universidad del Rosario
institution EdocUR - Universidad del Rosario
collection DSpace
language Inglés (English)
topic Drogas
Drogadicción
Narcotráfico
Narcotráfico
Control de drogas y narcóticos
Abuso de drogas
Drogadicción
Drogas alucinógenas
Drogas psicotrópicas
spellingShingle Drogas
Drogadicción
Narcotráfico
Narcotráfico
Control de drogas y narcóticos
Abuso de drogas
Drogadicción
Drogas alucinógenas
Drogas psicotrópicas
Thoumi, Francisco E.
The causes of illegal drug industry growth in the Andes, Anti-Drug Policies and their effectiveness
description Illegal drugs have become a key and conflictive policy issue in the Andean countries. Anti-drug polices are today part of government policy agendas and the object of frequent debate. In 1961 the United Nations signed the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. This was followed by the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Drugs and the 1988 Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. In1972 President Nixon declared a “war on drugs” raising drug issues in the policy agenda of the United States and other countries. It is clear that governments’ have been attempting to control and regulate mind-altering drugs use for a long time. Their results, however, have been at best highly questionable. Today cocaine and heroin are widely available, new drugs have appeared in the market, new markets have developed and new criminal and subversive organizations entered the illegal drug business. Advocates of current policies would argue that without them things would be worse. Those who oppose them content that policies themselves are at fault and have contributed to increase the social costs of drug production, trafficking and consumption. The debate about anti-drug policy effectiveness most of the time is emotionally charged and does not advance the understanding of drug phenomena. This essay analyses the nature of the drug policy formulation problem, describes a theory of competitive advantage in illicit drugs, draws some policy implications from this theory, analyses the characteristics of the main drug producing countries that make them prone to develop the illicit drugs industry, surveys the evolution of anti-drug policies in the Andean countries, discuses some of the main challenges confronted by the policies currently used, summarizes the main effects that the illegal drug industry development have had on those countries, assesses the viability of drug policy reform and makes a few suggestions to marginally modify some policies and to improve policy dialogue as a pre-requisite to improve drug policy effectiveness.
format Documento de trabajo (Working Paper)
author Thoumi, Francisco E.
author_facet Thoumi, Francisco E.
author_sort Thoumi, Francisco E.
title The causes of illegal drug industry growth in the Andes, Anti-Drug Policies and their effectiveness
title_short The causes of illegal drug industry growth in the Andes, Anti-Drug Policies and their effectiveness
title_full The causes of illegal drug industry growth in the Andes, Anti-Drug Policies and their effectiveness
title_fullStr The causes of illegal drug industry growth in the Andes, Anti-Drug Policies and their effectiveness
title_full_unstemmed The causes of illegal drug industry growth in the Andes, Anti-Drug Policies and their effectiveness
title_sort causes of illegal drug industry growth in the andes, anti-drug policies and their effectiveness
publisher Editorial Universidad del Rosario
publishDate 2005
url http://repository.urosario.edu.co/handle/10336/3880
_version_ 1645142341861769216
score 12,131701