Interdiction and Eradication of Drugs in the U.S - Essay Example

Interdiction and Eradication of Drugs in the U.S. Introduction Information on drugs is so vast that it is difficult to cram all of them in this limited study. This research paper will directly go into the subject matter without dealing with the notoriety of drugs in general. The war on drugs as is known signifies the severity of the problem facing the nations. This study will focus on the state of the war on drugs in the U.S.A. which according to the Washington Post's report on August 19, 2007 is already lost in spite of billions of dollars having been spent in the last 36 years ever since President Richard Nixon launched the war. The irony is that consumption of drugs has been on the increase, criminals are making more money from their annual turnover ranging from $ 400 to 500 billion. According to a confidential report from U.K. Government, only 20 percent out of 700 tons of Cocaine and 500 tons of Heroin illegally produced is being seized by enforcement forces. Supply being plentiful, prices are reported to be ruling low at $ 70 per gram today as against $ 184 in 1990. (Glenny 2007) This report is not alone. Similar observations. abound in the other Governmental reports and NGO studies Therefore the study gains significance in the wake of such reports to examine strengths and weaknesses of the Governments' policy initiatives towards interdiction and eradication of drugs. More so, because of opinions advocating legalizing the drugs besides the fact that policy initiatives focus on eradication of poppy cultivation without offering viable alternatives to the farmers concerned. Drug Policy The President rolls out National Drug Control Strategy for each year incorporating three key strategies namely (1) Stopping the Use before it Starts; (2) Intervening and Healing America's Drug Users; and, (3) Disrupting the Market. The Drug Budget for FY 2008 is $12.961 billion short of $0.167 billion from last year though it is compensated by additional request for $ 266 .1 million for emergency spending in Afghanistan.(National Drug Control Strategy). The Rand Report 2005 says that every year 16 million Americans forming 7 percent of the country's population above the age of 12 consume about $60 billion worth of illegal drugs. And invariably the surveys on Americans have reveled that "drugs'" is one of the major ten problems of the country. (Caulkins P et al 2005 p 13) About 3 million drug consumers are affected by serious drug related problems and about 17,000 people have died due to problems illicit drug use in the year 2000 as against 20,000 in the year 1990. In 2003, 28,723 people have died for the same reason. (McVay) President's Drug Policy of Feb 2007 says that contrary to the reports in many quarters that drugs abuse has not been checked, performance records show a positive trend towards drugs control for the past six years ever since the present incumbent took office. As against the targeted reduction of drug abuse by 10 percent within 2 years and 25 percent within 5 years, administration claims to have achieved 11 percent and 23.2 percent respectively. And this was achieved by strategic benchmarking of each month's consumption. Figures beyond five years are even higher and in terms of number of youth who gave up drug use, it is 840,000. The lessons learnt during the last six years of the President's first of its kind National Drugs Control Strategy evidence that a sound policy can bring out results. Demotivating young users, identifying chronic consumers, maintaining vigil against steroid use for performance enhancement, and monitoring the use of other drugs such as Marijuana, Methamphetamine, Amphetamine, pain relievers like OxyContin have been the features of the broad spectrum strategy of drugs control. Basically these will fall under the key elements of the above said prevention of drug use before its commencement by the potential users, intervention and healing of the people already on drugs, and disruption of the market for illegal drugs with the sole aim of reducing drugs consumption in the country. (Policy 2007) The major insurmountable problem has been the source of Afghanistan for poppy based drugs cocaine and heroin. Afghanistan, the country successively under the seize by Russians, Talibans, and finally rescued by America with an American sponsored local Government has been the fertile ground for terrorists still to thrive. They fund the local farmers to cultivate poppy and use the drug sale proceeds for terrorist activities and the entire Afghanistan economy is rendered dependant on poppy cultivation due to lack of initiatives by the local ineffective Government crippled by the de-facto ruling of the terrorist networks headquartered therein. This state of affairs for the past twenty five years has pushed that country to emerge as the world's largest supplier of poppy based opium to almost 87 percent, profits from which itself is amounting to 50 percent of the country's GDP as estimated by the U.N.for 2005. Corrupt Government and elected Afghan officials also add to the crisis. CRS Report for Congress updated till 25 January 2006 admits to the US failure to check Afghanistan's opium trade by cutting off connections with corruption and warlordism after the Taliban's rule was removed. It says that Afghanistan will soon enter a chaotic situation of lawlessness and once again become a haven for terrorists if no multi-pronged action is taken by the U.S. In fact Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is reported to have said that his country is lost to drugs warlords and fight for drugs is fight for Afghanistan. Although there are concerns that no viable alternatives to poppy cultivation is available to the Farmers, U.N. survey says pursuant to Afghanistan Government's actions of providing alternatives to poppy cultivation, and checking corruption and terrorist linkages, the poppy cultivation has come down to by 21% in the year 2004-2005. But due to better weather and higher crop yields during the season in 2004-05, out put has remained the same at 4100 tons in spite of 21% reduction. (Blanchard M 2006 p 1) U.S.'s specific policy initiatives for Afghanistan called five pillar plan are significant in that counter-terrorism to 9/11 attack measures urge the Government to focus on Afghanistan where opium is produced in a parallel economy which becomes easy conduit for the terrorist funding to launch attack on the U.S. though Afghan opium based heroin does not flood the U.S. market much. But the huge market for heroin has become convenient for the terrorists to launch attacks elsewhere including the U.S. The five pillar plan of the U.S. policy is made up of 1) Public information, 2) Judicial reform, 3) Alternative lively hood development, 4) Interdiction, and 5) Eradication, all within Afghanistan. (Blanchard M, p32-36) Consistent with the five pillar plan, the CRS report says that joint efforts of Afghan and U.S. have campaigned amongst Afghan people about the potential threats of drugs and dangers of trading in them illegally.(Shelby 2004) Islamic leaders attached to Afghanistan's General Council of Ulema have also supplemented the joint efforts by holding public campaigns against the poppy cultivations and drug trade. (Associated Press 2004) This is in addition to the public campaigns of Afghan Government already in place. The Opium Survey 2005 of UNODC/MCN found that Afghan farmers were quite informed that they desisted from poppy cultivation for the fear of eradication and punishment as against the previous survey results which revealed that Afghans believed that Government could not and would not seriously enforce the ban. The latest result evidences the impact of the five pillar plan instilling fear among the farmers. And as part of the second pillar of Judicial Reform, U.S federal prosecutors have also the joined the training programs of Counternarcotics Vertical Prosecution Task Force (CNVPTF) which the Afghan Government and Justice Department have jointly initiated particularly to try high profile cases. While the Kabul Criminal court consisting of three judges assisted by ten investigators and seven prosecutors has started prosecuting cases against narcotics offenders in 2005, the U.S. through its defense department is assisting Afghan Authorities in the building high security prison to house the narcotics under-trials and convicts. A mention about the arrest of the notorious Haji Bashir Noorzai in April 2005 needs to be made because of the Afghan authority's reluctance to arrest him which shows the general apathy and inability to try narcotic offenders independently though the excuse in this particular case is lack of evidence against him. (Agence France Presse 2005) The third pillar being alternative livelihood development, the U.S.has planned to execute it in three phases of improving market infrastructure, give loans to farmers through USAID Programs, giving them immediate cash needs for one year to undertake activities for generating non-opium income, and making an all-round development in six poppy-cultivating regions to be achieved by 2009. This alternative development plan began in 2004 in three phases concurrently has so far achieved 4.5 million working days in 2005 by which $15.7 million salaries have been paid to194,000 persons diverted from poppy cultivation related jobs. Besides 6000 km stretch of canals and other water courses have been desilted to cater to irrigate about 290,000 hectares of land. (USAID 2006) The fourth pillar of the plan is interdiction for which there was no institutional set up in the post-Taliban period. Hence the US Department of Enforcement Administration intervened by initiating "operation containment" which aimed to implement interdiction measures through the cooperation of neighboring countries in Central Asia, the Caucasus, Europe and Russia. This consisted of joint strategy led by the U.S. to deny market access to drug trafficking network and financial support from illicit drugs, chemicals, ammunition and weapons to terrorist groups. This operation containment began in 2002 has resulted in confiscating of 2.4 metric tons of heroin, 985 kilos of morphine base and 3 metric tons of opium gum and 152.9 metric tons of cannabis besides 195 arrests in first quarter of 2005. (Braun 2005). Acetic Anhydride a precursor chemical used in heroin production has also been prevented from being transported to Afghanistan through another US led effort called "Operation Topaz". Besides the US has been giving intelligence support, training programs and equipment transfers to Afghanistan since 2003. There is another FAST (Foreign Advisory and Support Team) in place to carry out bilateral investigations aimed at identifying, targeting and disrupting drug trafficking. The last pillar is eradication. As the previous eradication efforts by foreign agencies were violently resisted by Afghan farmers, Afghan Provincial Governors and local leaders who pledged support to President Karzai were motivated to cooperate by dissuading Afghan farmers from poppy cultivation and this resulted in significant fall in poppy cultivation. The 'Poppy Elimination Programs' (PEP) sponsored by US and International teams are currently in place to monitor and advice local counter narcotic activities. The major policy initiative of the U.S. in regards to the narcotic drugs is interdiction and eradication in Chapter III the U.S.Drug Control strategy partially achieved by implementation in Afghanistan. Before examining interdiction and eradication efforts at other places, it is worth looking at the root cause of the drugs proliferation and how it is proposed to be tackled since it will help largely in interdiction and eradication measures. "Stopping the Use Before it Starts". is mentioned in the President's Drug Control strategies. The root causes are the consumers especially young people. The latest drug control strategy of the President spells out that success in achieving the stopping the use before it starts lies in targeting young people who are vulnerable to fall easy prey to the drug pushers. The young people and their parents face severe consequences of drugs use. Federal Drug Control expenditure for the year 2008 is shown below as figure 1 (National Drug Control Strategy, 2007 Budge) Summary, February 2007 Mainly stopping drug use before it starts involves education and community action as spelt in the president's strategy. Though the young people are now capable of taking health decisions, the main pressure for drug use comes from their peers. The social norms-effect that 'every one is using it' keeps them under mistaken belief that drug use is not of serious consequences. The kids in the age groups of 12-17, who had the opportunity to talk to their parents about the drugs, did not pursue drugs use. Those who had not talked to their parents are still exposed to the dangers of drugs use due to peer pressure. Over the years, the drug use has declined which can be attributed to the increased awareness of harmful nature of drugs among the youth as revealed by recent survey data. The President's strategy in chapter 1 states that parents, schools, coaches and other persons having influences over the young people should keep sending them messages about the harmful effects of drug use. It advocates media campaigns for anti-drug use. It is understood that young people receive more messages for drug use than for anti-drug use. Drug testing on students in schools was launched by the Bush administration pursuant to the decision of U.S.Supreme Court in June 2002 authorizing schools to subject students engaged in extra curricular activities to drugs testing. The student drug testing has twin objectives of not only preventing drug use but also rehabilitation of the students already on drugs. It also promotes a culture against drugs use in schools. The students are also prepared for future drugs testing by employers sufficiently in advance since airline pilots, military personnel, transportation workers and others are subjected to drug testing. For example Drugs Testing in Oceanside, California has made students to desist from drugs. Next to students, checking drug use at work places is another part of the initiative of stopping the use before it starts. The Department of labour has implemented successfully campaigns against drugs use in mines, small businesses and labour unions. This policy initiative of stopping drug use before it starts will go a long way in helping interdiction and eradication of drugs. U.S is not only affected by Afghanistan as a source of supply but also by its bordering countries. Interdiction efforts have unearthed 10-15 % of the heroin and 30 % of Cocaine as per the U.N.estimates. The drug traffickers are earning more than 300% gross profit. Unless at least 75% of drugs shipments are intercepted, trafficking and profitability of the traffickers can not be checked. Due to the efforts of the drugs control strategies, 120 metric tons of opiates have been seized in South East Europe, Iran, Pakistan and China. The global interception rates have increased to 24 % of global production in 2004 from 10% ten years ago. Poppy cultivation areas have been reduced by 2% from 195,940 hectares to 151,500 hectares in Afghanistan, Myanmar and Lao PDR.by 2005.Global production of opium was 4620 metric tones out of which 89% came from Afghanistan. It has been reported that thirteen truck load of supply will be sufficient for one year's supply to the U.S. which has shore line of 19,924 kilo meters, 300 ports of entry and 7,500 miles of border with Mexico and Canada. Stopping of drugs at the borders is an enormous task, some times futile because it is like finding a needle in haystack. Another note worthy feature is that drug producers plan production at sufficient levels providing for likely seizures so that reduction efforts become an insurmountable task. It is estimated that that to reduce one percent of cocaine consumption in the U.S,. funds required are as much as $ 34 million if is used for drug treatment programs and it is 23 times more i e $ 783 million if used for eradication of drugs at source.(Common Sense for Drug Policy) The policy initiative of the U.S. concerning interdiction and eradication is spelt out in Chapter III titled "Disrupting the Market" for illicit drugs under the National Drug Control Strategy February 2007. The policy claims to have achieved near-disappearance of once popular drugs in the U.S. namely L.S.D. Its use has fallen by two thirds since 2001 as a result of destruction of world's leading production unit of MDMA (Ecstasy) in 2000. LSD consumption has further been brought down by the efforts of law enforcement agencies with the cooperation of Netheralnds by disrupting several LSD trafficking organizations in the recent past. The policy initiative in this direction has planned to earmark $ 1 billion as a counternarcotics measure on international level to be implemented by the Department of State and Drug Enforcement Administration. Vigilance at the Borders has been the major strategy towards interdiction. The South West border of Mexico where trafficking organizations manage to send all possible contraband to the U.S. Mexico is already plagued by drug trafficking and associated violence. As this is the immediate source for supply to the U.S. streets, Governments of both the countries have resolved to tackle the challenge together. As a result of joint efforts, Mexican Government has extradited 63 criminals to the U.S in 2006. Mexican Army has destroyed nearly 30,000 hectares of marijuana cultivation in 2006. Mexican Government continues to seize drugs that flow to the U.S. as per the commitment made by its President Felipe Calderon and his predecessor Vincent Fox. Mexico extradited 16 major drug traffickers to the U.S. which is a strong evidence of its support to the U.S. in its efforts towards interdiction of drugs. See figure below relating to Mexico's efforts towards eradication. (Source: Crime and Narcotics Center, 2006) Apart from eradication and interdiction, the strategy of the President for 2007 says that denying the drug peddlers their profits which is the prime motivator, will achieve the country's objectives. Money laundering is the route by which these traffickers legalize their profits. It is reported that a bulk of money made by drugs sale is carried in cash into the United States for money laundering. Vigilance on the part of law enforcement can make serious damage to the traffickers by seizing the money carried. The Drug Enforcement (DEA) has thus denied about $ 1.6billion in revenue and seized U.S. currency to the extent of $341 million in 2006. Coordinated efforts with Mexico, Equador and Panama achieved more than 130 arrests and seizure of more than $ 52 million in cash and financial instruments as of October 2006. North West is another important border with Canada where in similar joint exercises have yielded fruitful results. 13 helicopters linked to the transportation of illicit drugs have been downed. 48 offenders have been arrested. U.S and Canadian authorities have jointly intercepted 860 pounds of cocaine, 8000 pounds of high potency marijuana in addition to the seizure of $ 1.5 million U.S. currency and three aircrafts. Columbia successfully demobilized an army of 31,000 members of United Self-Defense Forces of Columbia which was a conduit for drug trafficking. Moreover 102, 000 hectares of illicit crops have been diverted for cultivation and 23,000 hectares of crops have been eradicated in Columbia in the recent years. Peru is another country which is the second largest producer of cocaine. As a result of its President's commitment for steps against coca cultivation, 12,000 hectares of coca have been eradicated in 2006 and with the U.S. assistance, Peru has been scanning shipment containers for presence of narcotics at the major ports resulting in seizure 12 metric tones of cocaine in 2006, three times the seizure in the previous year. Bolivia has been the third biggest source for cocaine due to its Government's own policies in favor of coca production. However due to persuasion of the U.S. Government, Bolivia has eradicated 5000 hectares of coca in 2006. Similarly Equador and Venezuela are the major transit points for drugs coming from Andean Ridge. Cocaine amounting to 34 metric tones has been seized in Equador during 2005 as against mere 3 metric tones in 2004 as a result of concerted efforts by both the U.S. and Equador Government Agencies. From Sept 2006, U.S and Equador have started joint patrolling in order to prevent narcotics related movements along coast. Although the drug traffickers are shifting their transit points to less vulnerable places due to the last four record setting years of drug seizures, total cocaine seizure sin 2006 have amounted to 288 metric tons. Technological advances and continuous vigilance by law enforcement agencies have been responsible for the consistent drug seizures for the last four years. The strategy claims that interdiction has been a success due to the DEA's all inclusive operation. A key element of this year's interdiction successes has been DEA's Operation All Inclusive. This bilateral, intelligence driven strategy is specifically designed to disrupt the flow of illicit drugs, money, and chemicals between source zones and the United States by attacking the drug organizations' vulnerabilities in their supply, transportation systems, and financial infrastructures. In 2005 and 2006, DEA implemented Operation All Inclusive throughout Central America, sharply boosting seizures of cocaine, marijuana, and precursor chemicals. As a result of these operations, drug trafficking organizations were forced to delay or suspend their drug operations, divert their routes, change their modes of transportation, and jettison loads. The success of these multi agency and bilateral operations exemplified the cooperation among law enforcement entities throughout the United States, Latin America, and Central America (Whitehouse Drug Policy) The five-pillar counter narcotics strategy has made headway in every pillar, including, for the first time, the eradication pillar. Ultimate success will require consistent progress across all pillars. The U.S. Government is working to strengthen the political will of the government of Afghanistan across the board. The Department of State is working to improve Afghan elimination and eradication capacity by supporting provincial governors and improving the capacity of the Counternarcotics Ministry's eradication force. DEA, Department of Justice, Department of Defense, and Department of State programs are building the capacity of the counternarcotics police, border management forces, and the Afghan court system. The international community must also continue to pursue opportunities for cooperation in areas such as trade, border management, and regional infrastructure integration, which can help suppress the drug trade and promote the sustainable economic development that will lead to broader counter narcotics success in Afghanistan. (White House Drug Policy) Conclusion The main and crucial policy initiative is interdiction and eradication of drugs as a part of Disrupting the Market spelt out in Chapter 3 of the President's National Drug Control Strategy. The strengths of the policy initiatives has been the president's dedicated strategy realizing its national importance and in the interests of the future generation of this country. The multilateral and bilateral strategies and individual efforts in Afghanistan have also contributed to the success stories of the drug interdiction and eradication. It has been a Herculean task for the U.S. Government to remove the mismatch between the human element involved in the suffering due to drug use and the poppy and cocaine cultivation by unintending farmers for their livelihood. Aerial spraying of poppy and cocaine cultivation would have resulted in quicker and larger eradication but for the environmental concerns associated with it. The strength has been the President Bush's continued efforts in his second term in the office and his ruthless policies to counter terrorism originating from Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world. Weaknesses in the policy initiatives in fact should be none given the enormity of the problem and the efforts involved in arresting the cancerous growth of narcotics and people's own weaknesses for substances which some times tempt activists to scout for legalizing the drugs and to claim that war against drugs is lost. References Agence France Presse 2005 Interior Ministry Spokesman Lutfullah Mashal "Afghan Drugs Kingpin Seized by US was Untouchable in Afghanistan: Experts," Apr. 27, 2005. Associated Press" Afghan Religious Scholars Urge End To Opium Economy," Aug. 3, 2004 Blanchard M Christopher, 2006 "Afghanistan: Narcotics and U.S.Policy" CRS Report for Congress updated January 25, 2006 Braun Michael, 2005 Statement of Michael Braun, Chief of Operations - Drug Enforcement Agency, Before the House Committee on International Relations, Mar. 17, 2005. Caulkins P. Jonathan, Reuter Peter, Lguchi Y.Martin, Chiesa James 2005 ""How Goes the "War on Drugs"" An Assessment of U.S.Drug Problems and Policy, Rand Corporation accessed 20 October 2007 www.rand.org Common Sense for Drug Policy Accessed 25 September 2007 www.drugwarfacts.org.interdiction.htm Glenny Misha 2007 "The Lost War" The Washington Post August 19, 2007 p 801 McVay Douglas, Editor, Drug War Facts "Annual Causes of Death in the United States" Common Sense for Drug Policy accessed 20 October 2007 National Drug Control Strategy "FY 2008 Budget Summary" The White House, February 2007 at p 6 Policy 2007 "The President's National Drug Control Strategy February 2007" accessed 20 October 2007http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/policy/index.html Shelby David, "United States to Help Afghanistan Attack Narcotics Industry," Washington File, U.S. Department of State, Nov. 17, 2004. USAID, Alternative Livelihoods Update: Issue 3, Apr. 1-15, 2005; author consultation with USAID Afghanistan Desk Office, Jan. 2006. Whitehouse Drug Policy, The President's National Drug Control Strategy February 2007 accessed 25 October 2007 Read More