A Study On The Global And Regional Progression Of Drug Trade
Author: LawSphereX
Category: General Law
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A STUDY ON THE GLOBAL AND REGIONAL
PROGRESSION OF DRUG TRADE A. Bhuvaneswari, Vels Institute of Science Technology and Advanced Studies Prof Dr. S. Ambika Kumari, Vels Institute of Science Technology and Advanced Studies
ABSTRACT
The evolution of drug use and trade, both in India and globally, has been shaped by historical, cultural, and economic factors. In India, the acceptance of substances like opium and cannabis dates back centuries, with shifts in usage patterns influenced by colonial policies, international conflicts, and socioeconomic developments. The introduction of synthetic drugs and the global rise of recreational substances have amplified the challenges posed by drug trafficking and addiction. Historically, India’s role as a producer and transit hub has been pivotal, with its borders particularly with Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, and Bangladesh—being exploited for illicit trafficking. Globally, regions such as Afghanistan, East Africa, and Europe have become central to the production, transit, and consumption of narcotics, creating complex networks fuelled by organized crime.
Efforts to combat drug trade, including the NDPS Act of 1985 and international treaties, have established stringent legal frameworks to deter trafficking. However, issues like weak governance, organized crime, and shifting drug markets continue to undermine these measures. This article underscores the urgent need for a holistic approach, encompassing strict legal enforcement, international cooperation, and public awareness, to mitigate the socio-economic and security impacts of the drug trade. Keywords: Drug, Drug trafficking, Organized crime, NDPS Act.
Introduction
History reveals that the people of India were accepting of the usage of drugs like ganja and charas. It was never considered a malignancy that needed to be eradicated. 1 Nowadays, smoking marijuana is on par with smoking tobacco. The synthetic pharmaceuticals are currently in charge of all markets, including those in India. Synthetic drug kinds like amphetamine and methamphetamine are currently the most widely used narcotics. Popular party drugs include designer substances like MDMA, Ketamin, GHB, Rohypnol, etc. Additionally, a wide range of hallucinogens like Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD), Dimethoxy Methylene Amphetamine (STP), DimethylTryptamine (DMT), Mescaline, and Phencylidine (PCP) are also smuggled into India in addition to the perennially popular opium and morphine, which fall under the category of narcotics.
Recreational drugs are more damaging, hazardous, and occasionally even lethal. These poisons have the ability to not only destroy lives but also to topple governments and start wars around the world. There are now countless millions of lives at risk. In 900 years, Arab traders arrived in India and brought with them opium, a narcotic that was originally intended to be used as a medicine to treat illnesses like pain, but which later became addictive. Then, people began taking this medicine as a tablet or along with water2. Opium was first grown in the country's western coast later in 1300, but when demand escalated and the farmers could no longer meet it, the drug was brought from the middle of the world. Evolution Of Drug Use And Trade In India When the British arrived in India in 1720, they saw this product as a lucrative market and began selling opium to other nations.
The first customer was China, which imported around 14 tonnes of the narcotic that same year. However, China did not outlaw the importing of opium in the year 1729, only the smoking of it. The British East India Company took over control of the cultivation of opium in India when the Indian government banned it in 1793, therefore opium exports continued to flow. The British increased their opium farming business as a result of the enormous profit this brought them. When China outright the use and importation of opium in 1799, illicit importation, trafficking, or you may say smuggling began. When China protested this importation, the First Opium War, which involved the British army as well as the Indian 1https://indianexpress. com/article/research/cannabis-in-india-a-rather-long-story-with-its-highs-and-lows-
6592020 accessed on 06.06.2022.
2http://www. cbn. nic. in/html/opiumhistory1. htm accessed on 06. 06. 2022. army, was fought in 1839 to 1842. After China was conquered, opium commerce between China and India persisted. Then again, in 1857, after losing the Second Opium War, China finally legalised the commerce in opium. The Opium Act, 1877, which encouraged the regulation of opium poppy cultivation, production, domestic sale, and export conditions, was passed by the Colonial Government in the same year. The Opium Act, 1878 was introduced later in 1878 to regulate the domestic use of opium on Indian streets. In accordance with this act, a person who wants to use opium must first register as a user before they can obtain the substance. Whereas eating and drinking are still permitted but the smoking of opium is prohibited.
The Royal Commission recommended in 1893 that excessive use of the drug Opium was harming people's health and should be prohibited. On the other hand, if we consider this medication's benefits, it is extremely effective in treating a wide range of dangerous disorders and should only be used medicinally. However, Britain hosted The Hague International Opium Conference in 1912, and at this convention, Britain signed a treaty stipulating that wherever they conquer or control, opium use will continue to be legal in both manufacturing and trade. The use of opium in quantities more than a "Tola," or 10 grams, was proclaimed unlawful to possess in India in 1920. The Dangerous Drugs Act, 1930 was passed by the colonial administration in 1930 and it imposes a complete prohibition on the use of opium, however this was only in a limited sense because it was allowed for therapeutic purposes.
In the meantime, Sikh militant activity had been connected to the drug trafficking case in Punjab in
1980. The criminals frequently used the border between Wagah and Attari to transport drugs.
The Samjhauta Express was created to travel between Amritsar and Lahore on a regular basis in order to facilitate the regular trafficking of illegal substances from Pakistan to India. Amritsar became into the heroine's primary hub. A movie called Udta Punjab, which was based on the same idea, was all about how many people's lives are being negatively impacted by the high rate of youth drug misuse in the Punjab region. Following Independence, the Indian government passed "The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act" in 1985, repealing all previous laws limiting the use of opium. This act prohibited the production, sale, importation, exportation, and consumption of all goods. Only the cultivation of opium of the medicinal grade, as well as its export and import, were permitted.
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act of 1985 received some relief in 2014 when the Indian government allowed the use of morphine for medical purposes. This made it much easier for doctors to get opium when they needed it for medical purposes. PROGRESSION OF DRUGS TRADE IN OTHER COUNTRIES In 1730, 1796, and 1800, the Qing Dynasty's government issued decrees forbidding the use of opium. Drug addiction was banned in the West during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Beginning in the 18th century, British traders from the East India Company started selling opium to Chinese traders illegally. By the start of the 19th century, a black market in drugs had developed in China. As a result, by 1838 there were between four and twelve million Chinese opium addicts.
In response, the Chinese government imposed an import opium prohibition, which sparked the First Opium War (1839–1842) between the United Kingdom and Qingdynasty China. The Chinese were easily defeated by the British, and the Treaty of Nanking that followed the war's conclusion required the Qing government to permit British merchants to trade opium that was farmed in India. British traders boosted commerce with the Chinese because it was profitable to trade opium and smoking it was becoming more widespread among Chinese people in the 19th century. In 1856, the Second Opium War began, and this time the French joined the British. The Tianjin Treaty, which put an end to that fighting, mandated that the Chinese government open further ports to Western trade, including opium.
3 The British government implemented the 1868 Pharmacy Act to limit the sale of opium in response to the country's growing opium usage. After 12 international countries signed the International Opium Convention in 1912, control of opium in the United States remained in the hands of individual states until the Harrison Act was introduced in 1914. 4. The Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution banned alcohol in the country between 1920 to about 1933. The growth of organized crime, including the contemporary American Mafia, was a result of Prohibition, which was nearly difficult to police and gave rise to huge commercial opportunities in the production, smuggling, and sale of illegal. 5 Drug use grew at the start of the twenty-first century in North America and Europe, with
3 "History of the Opium Trade in China". Drug library.org accessed on 06.06.2022.
4"Illegal Drugs in America: A Modern History". Deamuseum. org. Archived from the original on 2004-12-04. 5 The National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse reported to Congress in 1973, “Drug policy as we know it today is a creature of the 20th Century. Until the last third of the 19th Century, America’s total legal policy regarding drugs was limited to regulation of alcohol distribution, localized restrictions on tobacco smoking, and the laws of the various states regulating pharmacies and restricting the distribution of ‘poisons. ’” See “Drug Use in America: Problem in Perspective,” Second Report of the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse, p. 14 (1973). marijuana and cocaine in particular experiencing an uptick in demand.
As a result, trans Atlantic drug trafficking has become easier because to growing coordination among transnational organized crime groups like the Sinaloa Cartel. Hashish use is another illegal substance that has grown in popularity in Europe. Legislators around the world generally view drug trafficking as a serious felony. The quantity being trafficked, the type of substance being trafficked, where it is sold, and how it is disseminated, as well as its classification in the country into which it is being brought, all have an impact on the penalties. The consequences for trafficking may be more severe than in other cases if the narcotics are sold to minors. Many nations have harsh penalties for smuggling drugs. Long jail terms, public flogging, and possibly the death penalty are possible punishments (in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and elsewhere).
A 25-year-old Australian drug smuggler was hung in Singapore in December 2005 after being found guilty in March 2004. In Malaysia, two individuals were given death sentences in 2010 for smuggling in one kilogram of marijuana. Executions are typically employed as a deterrent, and many people have urged nations to use much more effective means to combat drug trafficking, such as focusing on certain criminal organisations that are frequently involved in the smuggling of other items (such as wildlife) and even people.. 6 Links between politicians and criminal organisations have been established in numerous instances. 7 Afghanistan: Nearly two thirds of the world's illicit opium poppy cultivation acreage is in Afghanistan. By supporting the Taliban and their activities, the opium trade, which originates in Afghanistan, feeds corruption across the entire nation.
The CMF has obtained confirmation of this through drug seizures, concluding that the drugs came from Taliban-controlled regions in Afghanistan based on the heroin bags' drug stamps and the poppy gum's isotopic analysis8. According to UNODC estimates, the Taliban received between 140 and 170 million USD from the opiate trade in 2009. With an estimated 2 to 2. 5 million drug users in Afghanistan alone, this has social repercussions for the general populace. 6"Organized Crime: The World's Largest Social Network". WIRED. Vol. 19, no. 2. 31 January 2011. 7 Bill McCollum (April 2002). Threat Posed by the Convergence of Organized Crime, Drug Trafficking, and Terrorism: Congressional Hearing. DIANE Publishing. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-7567-2082-7. 8 Jacobsen, Katja Lindskov (2018). "Navigating Changing Currents: A forward-looking evaluation of efforts to tackle maritime crime off the Horn of Africa".
University of Copenhagen: Centre for Military Studies: 30.
Bay of Bengal: Due to its size and location, India plays many roles on the southern route, serving both as a destination and a stopover for destinations further away. According to estimates from the UNODC, India produces 54% of the heroin consumed there, while Afghanistan supplies 46% of it. India's western border with Pakistan makes it particularly susceptible to attacks from the southern route. Many of the heroin seizures take place in the western Indian states of Punjab and Haryana, which are close to this border. Drugs that had been transported via train from Pakistan in 2012 totaled 105 kilogram’s9. The Indian Narcotics Control Bureau reported 4,609kg worth of seizures in 2013 alone. India is a transit country for Southeast Asia, West Africa, and North America, according to data gathered via seizures by various authorities.
Along with being a transit nation for trafficking headed elsewhere, Sri Lanka has seen a rise in the domestic use of heroin. A large portion of the heroin entering Sri Lanka travels on fishing boats or by air, frequently via Pakistan or India. Since Sri Lankan authorities have only made a small number of seizures, it is not always possible to trust the information gathered. From a number of nations, including Pakistan, India, Iran, and the Maldives, smugglers have gone to Sri Lanka. East Africa: Through the Swahili Coast, heroin from Afghanistan enters East Africa from the Indian Ocean. A large number of the East African nations affected by drug trafficking along the southern route struggle with high levels of poverty, weak government, and security issues.
These conflicts and ongoing tensions in the region make these states even more vulnerable to Organized crime and the potential of exploitation posed by these criminal organizations. Heroin seizures have shown increased heroin traffic to the area and continued use of the southern route. In places like Mauritius, South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya, this has increased drug use and drug injection. Opiates frequently go to East Africa on dhows, historic trading vessels that come from Arab and South Asian nations. Up to 1,000 kilos of heroin had been discovered on smuggling dhows. Mauritius: One island nation that drug traffickers frequently use as a pit stop before continuing on,
9 Afghan Opiate Trafficking via train from Pakistan report of INCB in p. 68.
frequently to the coast of Africa, is Mauritius. Due to the multiple societal repercussions it has had on the population, Mauritius has had significant difficulties as a result. In Mauritius and other transshipment states, facilitators are frequently compensated in merchandise, which requires them to sell it to residents. Local consumer markets so grow, driving up demand and drug dependence. The "World Drug Report" frequently shows that drug misuse is a serious issue in Mauritius. 10 The CIA raised concern about the flow of illegal narcotics into Mauritius in a report dated 1986, noting that they were used locally and then trafficked to South Africa11. As a result, this has been a persistent issue that has permeated Mauritian society. These drugs are mainly transported over the Indian Ocean and come from Pakistan, India, and South Africa.
SRP (Southern Route Partnership) Through the UNODC's Global Maritime Crime Programme, a regional organization called the SRP was created to combat maritime crime in the Indian Ocean (GMCP IO). During the UNODC conference of the heads of drug enforcement agencies from the Indian Ocean region in October 2016, the idea of creating the SRP was addressed. States that are directly impacted by the use of the southern route for smuggling are included in the SRP, and anti-drug enforcement organizations from nations including Kenya, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and the Seychelles also get involved. The organization attempts to stop the trafficking of Afghan opiates across East Africa, Iran, Pakistan, and the Indian Ocean.
The National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the Paris Pact Initiative are just a few examples of partner organizations from other nations and organizations outside the region that have participated in SRP negotiations. Although there isn't much evidence yet of how the SRP has been used, it offers potential as a tool for collaboration12. Global Flow of Illegal Drugs:13 The global pattern of the flow of illegal drugs shows that of all drugs, heroin, cocaine and other forms of new psychoactive substances are trafficked over long distances, hashish is smuggled over relatively short distances, and marihuana/ganja and psychotropic drugs like 10The "World Drug Report" frequently shows that drug misuse is a serious issue in Mauritius. According to a survey from 2008, 2% of Mauritius's population was impacted by opioid addiction, including heroin.
11 Malcolm & Murray in CIA report of flow of illegal drugs in p. 247
12https://www.thehansindia.com/hans/opinion/news-analysis/drugs-and-road-initiative-of-pakistan accessed on 07.06.2022. 13"Balkan Gangs Are Now Leading Global Smugglers, Report" accessed on 08.06.2022.
Amphetamine Type Stimulants (ATS), which are consumed locally, travel over short distances. The country's borders serve as the first point of contact for drug trafficking because about 70% of these narcotics and drugs are transported over land using different modes of transportation. Regarding our country India, many borders exhibit various trafficking patterns, , depending on the nature of the border and its surroundings as well as the production, demand, and supply of drugs which are as follows: India-Pakistan Border The Golden Crescent, the world's greatest producer of opium and cannabis, is vulnerable to the trafficking of heroin and hashish due to its proximity to the India-Pakistan border. India-Nepal Border The two cannabis derivatives that have historically been transported from Nepal to India are hashish and marijuana/ganja.
Recently, there has been a two-way smuggling of drugs and narcotics across the borders of Nepal and Bhutan due to rising demand for cannabis from Nepal and Bhutan in India and parallel increases in demand for codeine-based medicinal preparations and low-grade heroin in Nepal and Bhutan. India-Myanmar Border Due to the proximity of the India-Myanmar border to the "Golden Triangle," rising drug use among the local population in the North Eastern states, political unrest and security issues brought on by the numerous insurgencies in the area, as well as a porous and poorly guarded border, traffickers have increasingly used this route to smuggle heroin and other psychoactive substances into the country.
India-Bangladesh Border The border between India and Bangladesh has historically been a point of entry for the smuggling of a wide variety of drugs, including heroin, marijuana/ganja, hashish, brown sugar, cough syrups, etc. Drug trafficking along the India to Bangladesh border is aided by the country's high demand for cough syrups with codeine, the border's high degree of porousness, and the area's dense population. It becomes crucial to protect the borders from invasions by traffickers or terrorists. At the same time, it's crucial to lower drug demand on local markets. India has taken a holistic strategy to accomplishing this goal by lowering both the supply and demand for drugs and narcotics. Legal Framework For Combatting Drug Trafficking in India The NDPS Act of 1985 governs drug usage and trafficking in India.
14 All narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances cannot be produced, transported, exported, or imported under the terms of this law, with the exception of those used for research and medical needs that have been approved by the government. Any person who violates the law is subject to harsh incarceration, and the death sentence may be applied if the perpetrator is discovered selling narcotics a second time. Additionally, this law allowed for the incarceration of anyone in very susceptible locations for longer than two years. The NDPS Act also allowed for the seizure of goods obtained through illegal drug trade. The Indian government has also passed legislation to stop the illegal trafficking of drugs.
The Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychoactive Substances Act, which was passed by the Indian government in 1988, also permits the imprisonment of anyone who are thought to be involved in drug trafficking. Additionally, a few provisions of the Customs Act of
1962 are in use to prevent the unauthorized export of precursor compounds.
Conclusion
The global and regional drug trade has evolved significantly over the centuries, influenced by a complex interplay of historical, economic, and social factors. From the early use of opium to the modern proliferation of synthetic drugs, the drug trade has become an enduring global challenge. Various regions, particularly in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, play critical roles in both the production and transit of illicit substances. While legal countermeasures such as international treaties and national laws have made strides in curbing drug trafficking, the persistence of organized crime, weak governance, and shifting patterns of demand continue to hinder progress. Comprehensive strategies that address both supply and demand, along with enhanced international cooperation, are essential to mitigating the impacts of drug trade on societies worldwide.
Ultimately, the fight against drug trafficking requires a multifaceted
14 The Narcotic Drugs and Psychoactive Substances Act, 1985.
approach, combining strict legal frameworks, better enforcement, and greater public awareness to safeguard public health and security.