Global war

Europe is having to combat a powerful criminal business. The long black hand of the trafficking and pushing of drugs has overreached national frontiers and geographical boundaries, and is increasingly characterized as a complex and multi-faceted phenomenon. The merchants of death, who sell moments of ephemeral pleasure, in exchange for death, are becoming ever more global. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA www.emcdda.europa.eu) has been given the task of monitoring this market, furnishing data, and indicating methods of research and lines of action. From the investigations conducted by EMCDDA in recent years (the last was presented at Lisbon on 6 November) it has emerged, with ever greater force, that: “the problem of drugs in Europe forms part of a global phenomenon of far wider dimensions and that the models of drug use in our continent are influenced by and at the same time influence the aspects of this phenomenon also elsewhere”. So what is needed, in the view of EMCDDA, is an effective European policy of coordination between states, supported at the same time by programmes aimed at reducing the demand and supply of drugs in neighbouring countries and in the countries that produce them. On this front Europe is investing significant resources in actions of international support. Let us sum up what Europe is doing to combat the drug phenomenon. Demand and supply. Recently the European Commission announced that the EU is funding measures aimed at reducing the demand and the supply of drugs in third countries for a total investment of at least 750 million euros. It is also clear that, over the last decade, as the research of EMCDDA shows, member states have developed ever more comprehensive mechanisms of coordination at the European and national level. They have also improved the information available on drug trafficking and on the types of drugs present on the market. All this however is not enough, because the war on drugs is difficult and far from having been won. Over the last year approximately 23 million adult Europeans smoked cannabis; some 4.5 adult Europeans took cocaine; and 3 million consumed ecstasy. It is as well to point out that these figures are estimates and hence do not represent the precise scale of the phenomenon, but they do permit us to gain an idea of the enormous business that lies behind drug trafficking and how many people are its victims.The hell of prison. Another complex problem is that of the management and control of drug addicts in the prisons of the EU. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction has commented on this dramatic situation. In prisons throughout Europe the provision of services for the rehabilitation of drug users continues to be meagre. Despite the fact that some states have introduced programmes aimed at directing those who have committed crimes due to drug problems towards treatment, as an alternative to sanctions, drug addicts continue to form a significant portion of the prison population in all countries. The principle according to which prison inmates should be able to have access to the same therapeutic options that are available for all other citizens is often not respected in the case of drug addicts. But that’s not all: many people who enter prison have problems with drugs, but drug consumption often continues in prison. The absence of services for drug addicts leads to the conclusion that this is not only a lost opportunity to reduce drug use and criminal conduct, but also that the benefits for health obtained elsewhere may be jeopardized as a result. Creating economic alternatives to drug trafficking. Can the drug market be defeated? Yes, perhaps, but how? By creating forms of legal income and alternative economic systems in the countries that produce drugs. This is what people are trying to do in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, however, in spite of the efforts of the International community, the estimates referred to 2007 reveal that opium production has grown by 43% as a consequence of the extension in the cultivated area. Only in the areas where the increase of labour costs and the lowering of prices have reduced income from the production of opium poppy and where the population earns more by dedicating itself to alternative activities, in particular in the zones in which opportunities to earn a living other than in farming exist, are there faint signs of hope that the situation is changing. These opportunities for legal forms of livelihood, however, are not accessible to everyone and in many areas of the country farmers have little choice due to the high costs of transport, a still rudimentary road system and problems deriving from a situation of insecurity, and it is just on these weak points that corruption works, by reducing the opportunities for the local population to market its legal produce.A couple of useful websites: www.emcdda.europa.eu/themes/research, www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/selected-issues furnish a wide-ranging picture of the situation within which research on drugs is conducted in the European countries.