Tag: drug bust
Australia Warns Meth Pandemic As Drug Busts Hit Record

Australia Warns Meth Pandemic As Drug Busts Hit Record

Sydney (AFP) – Australia is facing a crystal meth pandemic, authorities warned Tuesday as they announced arrests and seizures over illicit drugs reached an all-time high last year.

The government-run Australian Crime Commission (ACC) said in a report that the situation was “gravely serious,” with international cartels at the heart of the problem.

“National illicit drug seizures and arrests were at record or decade highs for nearly all drug types in this reporting period,” said ACC acting chief executive Paul Jevtovic.

“Illicit drug use in Australia, and the profits gained from it, is directly linked to transnational organised crime groups that are implicated in large-scale criminality and corruption overseas.”

During the financial year to July 2013, a record 101,749 arrests were made and there were 86,918 seizures of illicit drugs — a 66 percent increase over the past decade.

Police have previously said Australia’s wealth and the strength of the Australian dollar meant traffickers were pouring drugs into the country.

“Australians, for whatever reason, are prepared to pay a high price for illicit drugs, probably because they can,” ACC official Judy Lind told reporters.

“And in the last four or five year, international drug cartels have cottoned on to that.”

While cannabis continues to dominate the Australian market, the prevalence of cocaine and performance-enhancing drugs was also at record highs.

There was also a massive surge in the availability of ice — or crystal methylamphetamine — which is now second only to cannabis in popularity, with seizures up more than 300 percent in a year.

Jevtovic said the issue was a “national concern,” with the drug linked to violent assaults as users can become highly aggressive, and compared it to the crack crisis that gripped the U.S. in the 1980s and 1990s.

“With its relative accessibility, affordability and destructive side-effects, crystal methylamphetamine is emerging as a pandemic akin to the issue of ‘crack’ cocaine in the United States,” he said.

Justice Minister Michael Keenan agreed that the ice epidemic was becoming a major problem.

“Ice is a devastating, insidious drug. It affects everyone from users, their families, and their communities, and the authorities who deal with the users,” he said, adding that the report provided authorities with a robust picture of the illicit drug market.

“The information released today is as encouraging as it is challenging. Law enforcement is making significant inroads in the fight against illicit drugs. We’re detecting more criminals and disrupting more illicit drugs before they hit the streets,” said Keenan.

“But there is much more work to be done and this report also provides critical evidence so that decision makers and law enforcement officers can develop further strategies to undermine the business models of organized crime and combat the threat of illicit drugs.”

Photo via ©afp.com

Huge Bust Raises Renewed Questions About Afghan Drug Trade

NATO and Afghan troops seized drugs worth an estimated $350 million in Afghanistan’s Helmand province on Monday, representing one of the biggest drug busts since the war began. The troops seized an amazing 220 pounds of heroin, 176 pounds of opium, and 26,000 pounds of chemicals which are used to produce drugs.

The massive drug bust raises renewed questions about drug policy in Afghanistan. An estimated 90 percent of the world’s opium supply comes from Afghanistan, and the opium trade is a $3.1 billion dollar per year industry. In fact, poppy cultivation is so widespread in Afghanistan that opium is considered to be legal tender in some parts of the country.

Many of the drug trade’s profits support the Taliban and other insurgent groups financially — the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that the drug trade funnels between $100 million and $400 million a year to the Taliban — as well as buttressing them politically. When the United States and the Afghan government crack down on poppy production, it allows the Taliban to position itself as the only protector of poppy farmers’ interests.

The United States, therefore, finds itself in an immensely difficult position: It must find a way to slow the drug trade without alienating the local population which survives on poppy farming. In 2009, the Obama Administration moved away from the Bush Administration’s policy of eradicating poppy fields, citing the fear of driving the local population toward the Taliban as a reason. In place of eradication, the administration began using positive economic sanctions such as committing hundreds of millions of dollars toward developing the cultivation of lucrative legal crops, and building roads to marketplaces to provide alternatives that would allow farmers to abandon poppy production.

Unfortunately, positive sanctions such as these entail huge risks. Pouring more and more money into the problem increases Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government’s reliance on the United States, which is sure to undermine his domestic legitimacy. Furthermore, there is almost no way to guarantee that Afghans do not accept the alternate crops or money and then continue to farm poppies anyway. This problem is especially troublesome considering that many key officials in Karzai’s government — including, reportedly, Karzai’s own brother — have grown rich off of the opium trade.

To mitigate these risks, the United States has blended positive economic sanctions with military solutions, such as Monday’s massive drug raid. Military statecraft also comes with serious risks, however. Aside from the potential loss of American lives, aggressively going after poppy farmers promises to increase support for the Taliban and decrease the legitimacy of the Karzai government, which will be viewed as unable to police the country itself. Both outcomes threaten to undo whatever progress we have made in Afghanistan.

Although Monday’s huge drug bust was a victory for the U.S. and Afghan governments, the mere fact that a factory with $350 million in drugs and drug-making supplies existed under our noses until Monday suggests that the drug trade is still a huge obstacle to peace. The Obama Administration has improved the situation by adopting a more nuanced policy than its predecessors, but there is clearly still much work to do. Containing the Afghan drug trade should be the United States’ number one priority in the country. As long as the drug trade is still pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the pockets of the Taliban every year — allowing them to buy guns, ammunition, and the support of the local population — then Afghanistan will never be peaceful and secure.