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According to the latest United Nations Human Development Report (1999), international organised crime is now grossing around $1.5 trillion a year, rivalling multinational corporations as an economic power. Translated into pounds sterling, that means international crime is worth around £1,000 billion a year, £2 billion more than the entire economic output of the UK. Chief growth area is the drugs trade, which was estimated to be in the region of £250 billion a year, around 8% of world trade and a bigger global industry than the trade in motor vehicles. The report comments that money laundering from the trade - which the International Monetary Fund reckons is worth 2-5% of the world’s gross domestic product - “hides the traces of crime in split seconds, with the click of a mouse.” It goes on to say: “Global crime groups have the power to criminalise politics, business and the police, developing efficient networks, extending their reach deep and wide.” Proofs of the failure of international drug control programmes can be seen in the tripling in opium production over the last 10 years and the doubling of coca production. Is there anyone out there who seriously thinks that, with these amounts of money sloshing around the globe, there is any chance of a successful ‘war on drugs’, other than the people whose livelihoods depend on pretending such wars are winnable? Is this why ‘wars on drugs’ become ‘wars on drug users’? |
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