Drugs have been an active part of society ever since healers in Europe first discovered the antiplatelet properties of Willow Bark. However, the area of drugs has expanded far beyond pharmaceutical use, and has taken hold as a recreational substance. This has led to the start of a new method of profiteering; Illicit Drug Trading. Billions of dollars are made every year through this illegal trade and yet still nothing substantial has been done to stop them.

Illicit Drug trading is a globally occurring phenomenon where individuals, parties and sometimes even governments are involved in the illegal production, refining, trafficking and sale of drugs. This so called “industry” has a yearly revenue of around $400 billion dollars and rising. Ever since the start of 2011, forecasts predict that over $20 billion dollars have already been spent on drugs. The illicit trading of drugs dates back to the 19th Century during the Opium wars between the British Empire and China.

Currently, illicit drug trading is facilitated by every major terrorist organisation on the planet and many other activist groups and certain political groups as well. Illicit drug trading has globally resonating impacts which can seriously cripple a nation. They affect the nation’s individuals in adverse ways. Drugs are a socially destructive machination that has ruined lives all across the globe. Drug users separate from their families, lose jobs, waste all their financial income on drugs and become shunned by society. In the most basic business ideology, they become unproductive thus not benefiting the country any longer.

Drugs pose serious health risks to users due to overdose and contaminated methods of delivery. HIV and other intimate contact diseases are rampant in third world nations where there is absolutely little or no education about drugs. The younger generation also seems to find drugs scarily attractive. In the US alone, there are over three million people involved in the drug trade, and 800000 of those are adolescents ranging from the ages of 12-17. Over 35% of the adolescent population of Mexico have been offered drugs within their school campuses.

Drugs have a serious detrimental effect on adolescents and such addictions completely ruin their futures. Narco-terrorism is also another major offset of Illicit Drug Trade. In the past two decades or so, terrorist organisations have been funding themselves using profits gained from the production, refining and trafficking of drugs such as heroin and opium. The Taliban and Al-Qaeda are two very prominent examples of groups that derive most of their funding from drugs. Over $60 million dollars worth of potential funding comes from the cultivation of drug crops and this funding goes to further the terrorists groups perpetrated goals.

Illicit drug trafficking is the common source of income of many other outlaw organisations due to the high profitability of the products. Their use varies from the Mexican Drug Cartels to the Japanese Yakuza. Drugs also have quite a noticeable effect on a countries economy. They often become a extremely large part of the country’s economy and this then gives rise to an interesting paradigm. If the country were to halt the trade, it would greatly affect its economy, plunging the country into a devastating recession.

However the government can do nothing to stop it as well, due to the unavailability of resources to instigate judicial and police action against the drug trade. Palestine feels a growing need to curb the ever increasing rise of trade taking place around the world. We hope to come to a conclusive decision and have even suggested certain strategies of our own. Government should first of all carry out surveys in order to initially determine the extent of drug trade taking place within their nation. A major factor to be considered is the reason why it is grown in the first place.

Most farmers grow it due to their current state of poverty and the high financial yield that it provides. To stop this, other viable crops have to be suggested and subsidies offered to farmers to grow other crops. Due to the ever growing sophistication of the modus operandi of smuggling, governments should continually provide support to their law enforcement agencies and develop close operational ties with their counterparts in other countries and border nations in the exchange of information, operational support and the undertaking of joint counter – offensive methods.

Ineffective measures are mainly due to a law enforcement agency not being able to cope with the size of the drug cartel or simply just not having the right strategy. Governments should support their civil authorities by building their capacity to develop effective strategies and programmes aimed at reducing the demand of drugs. Governments should also fund and provide education awareness programmes to raise public awareness about drugs and turn the general population against drugs. There should also be a international standardization in rules and regulations, facilitated by the

International Narcotics Board. This will limit the amount of bureaucracy taking place and allow for quick and effective measures to take place. A major hindrance in fighting drug trade on a global scale is unwillingness of nations to participate in efforts. Governments should be encouraged to support international law enforcement initiatives against Illicit Drug Trade and its precursors. Palestine may be considered to have no repercussions of the illicit drug trade, but drug trade in the region has been on the rise.

With the political imbalances in Yemen and the supply of contraband material from Lebanon and Syria slowly trickling into the region, a serious threat is posed to the government and people of Palestine. Palestine wishes to stop drug trade on both a regional and international basis due to its firm seated belief in Islamic Shari’a law. We wish to achieve a halt against drug trade and put up preventive measures that will tackle the problem at its root level and stop the burgeoning illicit drug trade economy.