Manon Eileen – a Writer's Blog

This is the fourth and last installment series on the Global Drugs Trafficking. Before, we discussed the basics of drug trade (Discover the Trade, pt. 1), how organic drugs are grown (How to Grow Coca and Opium Poppies, pt. 2), and how the drugs are produced (How Heroin, Cocaine and Meth are Produced, pt. 3).

Today, we’ll discuss the distribution of the drugs. After production, the drugs need to be distributed around the world. As is usual for the posts I write on drug trafficking, my source is the UNODC World Drugs Report (2010).

Distribution closely linked to demand. Where the demand is, the drugs go.

Distribution of Cocaine

Cocaine demands are high worldwide. However, there has been a shift in where the drug is in demand. Before (1998), cocaine was particularly popular in the USA. Nearly three-quarters of cocaine produced was shipped to and consumed in the US. In the past few years, demand for cocaine has increased in Europe and the amount of drugs distributed to the US and Europe are almost equal.

On the figure on the right you can see the global cocaine flows and how they have changed between 1998 and 2008. What is particularly interesting is that cocaine, these days, is more often shipped from South America to the African continent, where it is then shipped to Europe. Additionally, the Caribbean route seems to have become less popular (perhaps because of the alternative African route).

What I miss in this figure, is that it lacks information on cocaine flows to Asia. In the World Drug Report, it is mentioned that cocaine is consumed in Asia, and it has become increasingly popular on the continent. However, unfortunately I can’t say anything about the flows to the continent.

Ways of Transportation

From the Andes Region to the US

Most of the cocaine enters the US through the Mexican border. Border cities Juárez (Mexico) and El Paso (TX, USA) are where most of the drug-smuggling magic happens. The US has put fences along the national border between the two cities and regulate all road customs, but the cartels have found their ways to still get the drugs across. They have dug tunnels, and they’re not the tunnels you’d imagine. Some of these tunnels are thousands of miles long, with electricity and little mine-like trains running through them. The US border patrol has found a few of these tunnels in recent years.

Juárez is actually one of the most violent cities of the world. Since Mexico started their drugs war to break the power of the cartels in 2006, over 15,000 people have died (“Life and Death in Juárez, the World’s Murder Capital“, The Guardian, 2009).

Other cocaine shipments enter the US by water, often through big ports in Florida (particularly Miami) and Texas.

From the Andes Region to Europe

We Dutch quite often hear about cocaine smugglers in the news. “An individual was caught on Schiphol airport (Amsterdam), smuggling 2 kilos of cocaine in his belly”, or someone was caught with twenty kilos in a suitcase, or they had it concealed in their clothes. Twenty kilo, or even two, is nothing. It’s even irrelevant, which is interesting because you rarely hear about the large amounts of cocaine seized in the European ports.

Most cocaine enters Europe through the big ports. The port of Rotterdam (The Netherlands) is an important one, but due to language barriers, the cocaine smugglers (who evidently mostly speak Portuguese and Spanish) head for the big ports of Spain and Portugal. The amounts that are caught in these ports are astonishing. Occasionally “small” hauls of 300 kilos are seized, and in August 2011, the UK seized their biggest shipment of cocaine ever. The shipment consisted of 1,2 tons of cocaine, worth an estimated £300 million (nearly US $500 million) and it was destined for Rotterdam harbor (“Seized Cocaine Shipment Is The Largest Ever Seized In Britain“, UK News Gateway, 2011).

Distribution of Heroin and Opium

As I portrayed in the first, more general post on global drug trafficking, heroin has become slightly less popular, worldwide. Because of this, it has also become cheaper and thus has become more popular on the African continent and Eastern Europe (no exact causal correlation here, but this is, in a very basic sense, what’s happened).

On the figure on the right you can see the heroin and opium flows from Asia. Approximately 80% of all heroin produced comes from Afghanistan, next biggest producer is Burma (Myanmar) and a few percent come from the countries surrounding them. A few tiny percent come from the Andes Region, which aren’t even displayed in this figure.

Afghanistan has three main routes through which the heroin is smuggled, but after it’s passed through these main routes (through Pakistan, Iran and Central Asia and Russia), the heroin and opium are spread all over the continent. They seem to have a multitude of ways to smuggle the drugs.

Most of the smuggling goes by land – often carried by camels and other pack animals, in caravans. From Iran, the drugs are often carried to other destination by air or sea, in cargo containers. The shipments to North America are most often smuggled by plane.

Interestingly, what’s mentioned in the World Drug Report but not clearly displayed on the figure is that most heroin coming from Pakistan goes to the UK and The Netherlands. Pakistan is also the biggest supplier of heroin to Africa.

A recent BBC report (“Nigerian officials find heroin in shipment from Iran“, BBC, 2010) mentions a seizure of 130 kilos of heroin in the seaport of Lagos, Nigeria. The entire shipment was worth nearly $10 million, and the drugs were hidden in engine parts. What’s interesting is that in the World Drugs Report, a figure displays the nationalities of people caught in Pakistan for heroin trafficking, 32% is Pakistani and 32% is Nigerian. 14% falls in the “Other” category, the remaining 22% is made up of a lot of other African nationalities. That’s very interesting!

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 What are your thoughts about the global flows of heroin and cocaine? Are there any bits of information here that surprised you or that you find particularly interesting?

Worldwide, there are an estimated amount of nearly 400 million drug users. Today, I list what their favorite (illegal) drugs are.

These data are taken from the World Drugs Report (2010) by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

5. Cocaine

It’s estimated that there are, globally, between 15,07 million and 19,38 million people who used cocaine over the year 2009. Cocaine is particularly popular in Northern America, where most of the users are located (6,17 million users). It’s also popular in West/Central-Europe. Interestingly, although close to the source of cocaine cultivation and manufacture, cocaine is relatively unpopular in Central America and the Caribbean, where the estimate lies between 110 and 320 thousand users.

4. Ecstasy (aka MDMA, XTC, X, etc)

MDMA stands for 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, which actually means it falls into the amphetamines group. However, the UNODC distinguishes between ecstasy and the non-specified amphetamines group because often, more specific information about ecstasy-users is available.

Worldwide, there are between 10,45 and 25,82 million ecstasy users. MDMA is generally known as a party drug – it induces a sense of euphoria, increases the sense of intimacy with others and decreases anxiety. The drug is popular around the world, in the Americas (est. 3,04-3,28 million users), Europe (3,85-4,08 million) and Asia (2,37-15,62 million – a rougher estimate since data could only be obtained from limited parts of Asia), whereas it’s not particularly popular in Africa (0,35-1,93 million users).

3. Opiates (including Heroin)

The term ‘opiate’ describes all drugs produced from the opium poppy plant. The opiates group includes for instance, heroin, codeine and morphine.

Opiates are most popular in Asia. This might not be surprising as Asian countries are where most opiates are produced  (particularly Afghanistan, but also Burma, Pakistan, Vietnam and Laos). Drugs produced from opium poppies are often used as sedatives and pain-killers (due to often unavailable medical care), with severe addiction as a consequence. The estimate of opiate users in Asia lies between 6,46 and 12,54 million users, the worldwide estimate is between 12,84 and 21,88 million users, so the majority of users is definitely located in Asia.

Use of opiates is in Europe and the Americas, compared to the numbers in Asia, relatively low (and use has declined over the past years). In Europe, between 3,29 and 3,82 million people use opiates. In the Americas, that estimate is between 2,29 and 2,44. A rise in popularity of opiates has been seen in Africa (due to the decrease in price of opiates): there are an estimated 0,68 to 2,67 users.

2. Amphetamine-type Stimulants (ATS)

Amphetamines are chemical drugs – also known as designer drugs. They don’t have organical components and are mostly produced in ‘drug labs’. The manufacture of these drugs often include dangerous chemical processes. The UNODC’s amphetamines group includes amphetamine, methamphetamine and methcathinone and related substances.

The popularity of ATS has increased incredibly over the past few years. Worldwide, there are 13,71 and 52,90 million users. The drugs are particularly popular in Asia, where the estimate lies between 4,43 and 37,99 million users. It’s also popular in the Americas, particularly in North America – the estimate lies between 4,76 and 5,89 million users. In Africa, the estimated amount of users is between 1,55 and 5,20 million.

1. Cannabis (a.k.a. marijuana, weed)

Cannabis is by far the most used drug in the entire world. The global estimate lies between 129 and 191 million users, which is an incredible lot more than the previous drugs. This has probably to do with the fact that cannabis is a soft drug and therefore more readily available (for instance, cannabis is sold legally here in The Netherlands, although recent reports pointed out that the relative amount of cannabis used in the US lies many times higher).

The amount of users spread over the continents is high and somewhat equal everywhere – in Africa, the estimated amount of users is 27,68-52,79 million. In the Americas, that amount lies between 38,21 and 40,03 million (with it being particularly popular in North and South America). In Asia, the estimate is between 31,51 and 64,58 users and in Europe there are an estimated 29 million users.

Main Problem Drugs as Reflected in Treatment Demand, by Region, late 1990s – 2008 as reported by UNOCD

If you’re interested in the World Drug Report, you can find a short summary of the originally 307 pages long report here.

Were these numbers as you’d expected? What surprised you most about these numbers, if at all?

P.S. I’d like to mention that of course, cafeine, alcohol and nicotine are the most used drugs worldwide, however, considering that these drugs are legal nearly worldwide, I left these out of the equation.

This is an article I recently read in my newspaper. I suggest you read it – it’s something I highly agree with. 

Avoid News

Towards a Healthy News Diet

By Rolf Dobelli

Prologue

This article is the antidote to news. It is long, and you probably won’t be able to skim it. Thanks to heavy news consumption, many people have lost the reading habit and struggle to absorb more than four pages straight. This article will show you how to get out of this trap – if you are not already too deeply in it.

News is to the mind what sugar is to the body

We are so well informed and yet we know so little. Why? We are in this sad condition because 200 years ago we invented a toxic form of knowledge called “news.” The time has come to recognize the detrimental effects that news has on individuals and societies, and to take the necessary steps to shield yourself from its dangers. At core, human beings are cavemen in suits and dresses. Our brains are optimized for our original hunter-gatherer environment where we lived in small bands of 25 to 100 individuals with limited sources of food and information. Our brains (and our bodies) now live in a world that is the opposite of what we are designed to handle. This leads to great risk and to inappropriate, outright dangerous behavior.

In the past few decades, the fortunate among us have recognized the hazards of living with an overabundance of food (obesity, diabetes) and have started to shift our diets. But most of us do not yet understand that news is to the mind what sugar is to the body. News is easy to digest. The media feeds us small bites of trivial matter, tidbits that don’t really concern our lives and don’t require thinking. That’s why we experience almost no saturation. Unlike reading books and long, deep magazine articles (which requires thinking), we can swallow limitless quantities of news flashes, like bright-colored candies for the mind.

Today, we have reached the same point in relation to information overload that we faced 20 years ago in regard to food intake. We are beginning to recognize how toxic news can be and we are learning to take the first steps toward an information diet. This is my attempt to clarify the toxic dangers of news – and to recommend some ways to deal with it. I have now gone without news for a year, so I can see, feel and report the effects of this freedom first hand: less disruption, more time, less anxiety, deeper thinking, more insights. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it.

Download the article (PDF)

Rolf Dobelli (born 1966) is a Swiss novelist, entrepreneur and chairman of getAbstract.

Please share your thoughts on this matter.

This is the first post in a new five-part series on Global Drug Trafficking. The following posts will be (consecutively) Production, Manufacture, Distribution and Sale.

Drug trafficking is a global illicit trade. UNOCD (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) continuously monitors the global drug market to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the dynamics within the trade. These posts will be supported mainly with information retrieved from the UNODC website.

First I will explain some general facts in this post, so you might better understand the global drug trade.

What are drugs?

Drugs are substances that, when absorbed into the body, alter normal bodily function. As you can see, that is an extremely wide variety of substances. Caffeine, cigarettes, alcohol, and of course medicinal substances (such as for instance Prozac or Valium, or even Ibuprofen) are all drugs. These are mostly drugs that people are allowed, by law, to use.

A short history of drugs in the illicit trade

There was a time when cocaine and heroine were over-the-counter products, but in 1912, first steps toward the prohibition of drug trade were made. The International Opium Convention, a treaty signed by the countries with major marine power brought an end to the trade of opium. In the past you have probably been told that the East India Company mostly traded in spices and tea, but they were actually highly involved in the global drug trade.

In 1931, the Paris Convention was signed to prohibit the production and distribution of drugs in the more general sense. In 1961, The international treaty Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs was signed to include the vast variety of synthetic drugs that had been invented in the 30 years that had passed. The production and distribution of specific (narcotic) drugs except those under license for medical treatment or research was prohibited.

More treaties have been signed since 1961, but none were as ground-breaking as these three.

In the global drug trade, drugs banned by these conventions are sold. There are several categories.

• Depressants
• Opiates: i.e. morphine, heroin, opium, codeine, methadone (not illegal but also depressant are i.e. alcohol, antihistamines and antipsychotics)
• Stimulants
• i.e. cocaine, MDMA (a.k.a. ecstasy or XTC), amphetamines (not illegal but also stimulant are i.e. nicotine, caffeine and methylphenidate a.k.a. Ritalin)
• Hallucinogens
• i.e. LSD, mescalin, cannabis (a.k.a. marijuana)

Use of illicit drugs

Worldwide, there are millions of drug (ab)users. Click the following graphs to view them in larger size. (Source: 2010 UNODC World Drug Report).

What I find interesting about this graph is to see how much the preferences of drug users have changed. Opiate and cocaine-type use has declined significantly, whereas amphetamines and other designer (synthetic) drugs have become more popular.

Interestingly, the only increase in use in opiates is found in Africa. This can mainly be explained by the decrease in price of the drug.

(By looking at this graph, keep in mind that these numbers are relative to the continent’s/country’s number of inhabitants. For instance: the low estimate for cannabis users in Europe and Africa are roughly similar, keep in mind that Africa has a little over 1 billion inhabitants, whereas Europe “only” has 731 million. The percentage of users in each continent is much different.)

How come the illegal drug trade still exists?

There are numerous organizations worldwide that fight against the illicit drug trade. The War on Drugs is a U.S. campaign to end the drug trade – with the help of the military. Many people have been hurt in this “war” (financially, physically and mentally), and many people will continue to be hurt.

Despite the efforts to bring an end to drug use and the market, it still is booming. Very shortly put, this has everything to do with corruption. The levels of corruption surrounding the drug trade are astounding. I have heard of techniques to get drugs across borders that made my jaw drop; there are those who hide the drugs within their bodies, have ways of hiding the drugs within fabrics, etcetera. The lengths people go to hide, ship and sell drugs are extreme.

If you worked at an airport for a meager salary of $1000 a month, with a pile of debts as high as the Empire State Building, would you not accept $5000 to leave open a door at a certain time, thereby indirectly enabling the business? It’s easy money, and it’s extremely hard for the government agencies to track you down.

And you have the people in positions of power that are involved in the illegal drug trade, too. For instance, a few years ago, a harbor captain in a Mexican harbor was arrested and sentenced for enabling the drug trade. He was responsible for the authorization of ships as they came in and went out of the harbor. These people often make millions of dollars simply by cooperating and enabling the business.

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What are your ideas about the global drug market?

While the War on Drugs could open an entirely different can of worms, what are your thoughts on it?

What would you do if you were in the position of the airport employee?

Please share your thoughts and ideas!

Wow, I’ve never been this late with my mash-up, but what the hell!

I was away for the weekend, to London. I had taken my laptop with me because I wanted to write my blogs and some fiction in any way. Right at the first evening I decided it was not going to work. First, because there was no free wifi at the hotel (£5 per hour’s a tad much if you ask me), second, I was too tired. We walked for hours on end all day, and at night, I was just glad I could lay down and close my eyes.

So, the blog and writing went on short hiatus. I had an amazing time, though As soon as we have pictures uploaded, I’ll write up another travel post.

Last thing I’d like to say is that everyone should at least have visited London once in their life time. What an amazing city.

The Mashup

Fun & Interesting stuff

The Pixar Medley @ Youtube – I love Pixar and I love the movies’ theme songs. Naturally, I love this video. (Keep in mind that all instruments are played by one dude) (And now I want to watch all those movies again!)

SF Gateway puts tons of out-of-print SF classics online as e-books @ io9.com – oh yes :>

How the Internet Changes What We Remember @ Lifehacker

Frogs are dying in record numbers. Now you can help scientists study this problem.  @ io9.com

Writing & related stuff

Thinking Global @ A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing – I love Joe Konrath’s realistic view on things.

Google+ @ Mystery Writing is Murder – a wonderful post on G+ and some interesting links.

How To Market Your Book @ Rachelle Gardner – a brilliant collection of links. A must-save!

Grammar ABCs: D is for Dashes @ The Blood-Red Pencil

Coming up this week…

Wednesday: Character Psychology Tweetchat: #writepsych from 6-8 PM GTC (figure out what time zone you’re in here - I’m in UTC+2)

Thursday: Top 10 Famous Dutch People

Friday: Sensory Psychology Chart for Fiction Writers, a guest blog by C.M. Stewart

Sunday: Another mashup!

I’m planning on sharing my travel report of London on Saturday, but that’s open for change.