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[url]detail_pub.phtml?page=reports_drugs_debate15&menu11d[link]Losing Ground
Drug Control and War in Afghanistan[/url]
Drugs and Conflict Debate paper 15, December 2006
This Drugs & Conflict briefing focuses on opium elimination efforts and the controversy about involving military forces in anti-drugs operations in Afghanistan. It also provides background on the Afghan drug control strategy, its new counter-narcotics law, and the role of Afghanistan within the global opiates market.
[url]detail_pub.phtml?page=reports_drugs_debate14&menu=11d[link]‘Paco’ Under Scrutiny:
The cocaine base paste market in the Southern Cone[/url]
Drugs and Conflict Debate paper 14, October 2006
Based on two studies carried out in the cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo and additional research in Brazil, this report examines the origin, characteristics and impact of the explosive increase in consumption of cocaine base paste and crack in urban areas. The question of whether there is a cause-and effect relationship between the explosive increase in consumption in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil and a transformation in the structure of cocaine trafficking in Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil is relevant to an evaluation of the success of failure of policies implemented in the Andean Region to stem the supply of cocaine.
¿Coca yes, cocaine no?
Legal options for the coca leaf
Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 13, May 2006
A simple leaf of an ancient plant will feature prominently on the international agenda this year. As international relations and specialised mechanisms for managing the international drugs trade have evolved, a decade-old demand to remove the coca leaf from strict international drugs controls has come to the fore again in recent months. Time has come to repair an historical error responsible for including the leaf amongst the most hazardous classified substances, having caused severe consequences for the Andean region. This issue of Drugs and Conflict explains the motives, context and range of this petition, as well as the procedures that need to be followed to reach this objective. For every member of the international community, this year will become a moment to decide whether to maintain coca under the control of the UN Conventions, or to dare recognize this mistake and show the will to correct it.
Downward Spiral
Banning Opium in Afghanistan and Birma
Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 12, June 2005
Opium farmers in Afghanistan and Burma are coming under huge pressure as local authorities implement bans on the cultivation of poppy. Banning opium has an immediate and profound impact on the livelihoods of more than 4 million people. These bans are a response to pressure from the international community. Afghan and Burmese authorities alike are urging the international community to accompany their pressure with substantial aid. Opium growing regions in both countries will enter a downward spiral of poverty because of the ban. The reversed sequencing of first forcing farmers out of poppy cultivation before ensuring other income opportunities is a grave mistake. Aggressive drug control efforts against farmers and small-scale opium traders, and forced eradication operations in particular, also have a negative impact on prospects for peace and democracy in both countries.
A Pointless War
Drugs and Violence in Brazil
Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 11, November 2004
In this issue of Drugs & Conflict, focused in Brazil, the background to the drugs-related violence in the North-East marijuana cultivation area, as well as in the favelas in Rio, is described. The new drug law that is being evaluated in Congress is also reviewed. Although the new law is a step forward for making a clear distinction between a trafficker and a user, the question remains whether that will effectively address the problem give the limited scope of the new law.
Coca or Death?
Cocalero Movements in Peru and Bolivia
Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 10, April 2004
This issue of Drugs and Conflict analyses cocalero peasant organisations in Peru and Bolivia and their interaction with successive governments during the peasant mobilisations of recent years. The achievements and failures of such negotiations expose the difficulty in finding peaceful and sustainable solutions to an issue as intricate as the cultivation of coca leaf.
Drugs and Conflict in Burma (Myanmar)
Dilemmas for Policy Responses
Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 9, December 2003
The enforcement of the opium ban in the Wa region in Burma heralds yet another humanitarian disaster in this region of Burma. By mid-2005 no more poppy growing will be allowed, and hundreds of thousands of people who depend on the opium economy risk being sacrificed in an effort to comply with international pressures to meet drug-free deadlines. The only viable and humane option lies in a simultaneous easing of drug control deadline pressures and increasing international humanitarian aid efforts. Both require stronger international engagement of a different kind to that we have seen so far. TNI is co-hosting a seminar in Amsterdam on drugs and conflict in Burma in mid-December. This briefing has been published as background information to the seriousness of the situation in Burma, offering some innovative suggestions for humane policy options.
Forward Operating Locations in Latin America
Transcending Drug Control
Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 8, September 2003
This issue explains the background to and operation of the US Forward Operating Locations (FOLs) in Ecuador, El Salvador and Aruba/Curaçao established since 1999. Serious concerns have arisen about the possible use of these military airbases in support of US military involvement in the Colombian conflict, as the war on drugs has been explicitly incorporated into the "global war on terrorism".
Cross Purposes
Alternative Development and Conflict in Colombia
Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 7, June 2003
One of the greatest challenges in Colombia today is how to meet alternative development objectives in the midst of war. "Alternative development" refers in this context to the creation of alternative livelihoods for illicit crop farmers. In theatres of conflict, the debate centers not simply on the economic sphere, but on whether alternative development helps to create conditions in which human life and freedom are respected; whether local powers are truly exercising good governance; and the extent to which communities are being strengthened, people's possibilities for participation are increased and democracy is enhanced.
Change of Course
An Agenda for Vienna
Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 6, March 2003
In the middle of April this year, the mid-term review of the goals and targets set by the 1998 United Nations special General Assembly on drugs is to take place in Vienna. This briefing sets out the history to the original call for a UN special session on drugs and explains why no genuine evaluation has been permitted to date. It also offers a constructive agenda for the Vienna mid-term review in the hope that this can contribute to a more rational, pragmatic and humane approach to the global drugs phenomenon.
Breaking the Impasse
Polarisation & Paralysis in UN Drug Control
Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 5, July 2002
The past decade has seen an increasing polarisation between divergent trends in global drug policies. There has been an escalation in the US-driven War on Drugs, which has created a drug gulag domestically and increased militarised forced eradication abroad. In Europe and elsewhere, a more flexible and pragmatic approach has gained ground in domestic drug policy-making. But they are reaching the legal limits within the framework of the current UN Drug Conventions. The polarisation between the two main trends has resulted in a policy paralysis at the UN level.
A Failed Balance
Alternative Development and Eradication
Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 4, March 2002
Alternative Development programmes, aimed at encouraging peasants to switch from growing illicit drugs-related crops, are a good idea. The record of success, however, is a sorry one. Decades of efforts to reduce global drug supply using a mix of developmental and repressive means have failed. This paper elucidates the analysis TNI contributed to a high-level international policy conference to evaluate 25 years of Alternative Development, convened by the German government and the United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) in January 2002.
Merging Wars
Afghanistan, Drugs and Terrorism
Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 3, December 2001
The connection between terrorism and the illicit drug trade has made the headlines after the terrorist attack of September 11. With the new international context of the war against terrorism, the war on drugs moves cantre stage as well. While drugs and terrorism are now shoved together to demonise the 'evil' enemy, reality is the victim. Merging the two wars to one seriously endangers the advances made to find a solution to the drug problem. Today, the two major producers of opium poppy and coca, Afghanistan and Colombia, are in the midst of shifting counterdrug strategies.
In the Heat of the Debate
Fumigation and Conflict in Colombia
Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 2, September 2001
Europe and Plan Colombia
Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 1, April 2001
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