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Withdrawal Symptoms in the Golden Triangle
A Drugs Market in Disarray
Transnational Institute (TNI)
January 2009Drug control agencies have called the significant decline in opium production in Southeast Asia over the past decade a 'success story'. The latest report of the Transnational Institute (TNI). based on in-depth research in the region, casts serious doubts on this claim noting that Southeast Asia suffers from a variety of 'withdrawal symptoms' that leave little reason for optimism.
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The ATS Boom in Southeast Asia (PDF)
Conclusions and recommendations (PDF)
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Alternative Developments, Economic Interests and Paramilitaries in Uraba
Moritz TenthoffTNI Drug Policy Briefing Nr. 27
September 2008The following document analyses how the Forest Warden Families Programme and the Productive Projects of the Presidential Programme Against Illegal Crops in Colombia have been used to legalise paramilitary structures and implement mega agro-industrial projects in the Uraba Region.
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U.S. Drug Policy: At What Cost?
Moving Beyond the Self-Defeating Supply-Control Fixation
John WalshStatement before the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress
June 19, 2008My point in reviewing the experience with forced eradication is that a stiff dose of historical perspective is in order as policy makers contemplate the scope of the drug trade today, and engage in a critical examination of how to improve U.S. drug policies.
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Rewriting history
A response to the 2008 World Drug Report
TNI Drug Policy Briefing Nr. 26
June 2008The world today is not any closer to achieving the ten-year targets set by the 1998 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs. These goals were “eliminating or significantly reducing the illicit cultivation of coca bush, the cannabis plant and the opium poppy by the year 2008.” Instead global production of opiates and cocaine has significantly increased over the last ten years. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) global illicit opium production doubled from 4,346 tons in 1998 to 8,800 tons in 2007. This is mainly due to the massive increase in opium production in Afghanistan. The estimated global cocaine production increased from 825 tons in 1998 to 994 tons in 2007, an increase of 20%.
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The current state of drug policy debate
Trends in the last decade in the European Union and United Nations
Martin JelsmaArticle submitted as support material for the First Meeting of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy
Rio de Janeiro, April 30, 2008Martin Jelsma, from the Transnational Institute, prepared an analysis for the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, explaining the drug policy situation in the European Union and the current state of debate in the United Nations agenda. The commission is an initiative born of former presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso, from Brazil, César Gaviria, from Colombia and Ernesto Zedillo, from Mexico, to respond to concerns related to the problems of drug consumption and traffic in Latin America. The idea to constitute a commission capable of consolidating a debate concerning this problematic also responds to the necessity of reviewing the world drug policies in the scope of the United Nations, which began in March 2008.
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Missing Targets
Counterproductive drug control efforts in Afghanistan
Martin Jelsma Tom KramerTNI Drug Policy Briefing Nr. 24
September 2007Despite efforts by the Afghan government and the international community to reduce poppy cultivation, opium production in Afghanistan has once again reached record levels in 2007. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) annual survey estimates that 193,000 hectares is under poppy cultivation, a 17 per cent increase on the record levels of 2006, yielding a harvest of 8,200 mt (an increase of 34 per cent). The main policy instruments to bring down these figures - eradication of opium poppy fields and implementing alternative livelihoods projects - are missing their targets.
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Sending the wrong message
The INCB and the un-scheduling of the coca leaf
Martin JelsmaTNI Drug Policy Briefing Nr. 21
March 2007The INCB, rather than making harsh judgements based on a selective choice of outdated treaty articles, should use its mandate more constructively and help draw attention to the inherent contradictions in the current treaty system with regard to how plants, plant-based raw materials and traditional uses are treated.
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Losing Ground
Drug Control and War in Afghanistan
Cristian Rivier Martin Jelsma Tom KramerTNI Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 15
December 2006The worsening armed conflict and the all-time record opium production in Afghanistan have caused a wave of panic. We are losing ground. Calls are being made for robust military action by NATO forces to destroy the opium industry in southern Afghanistan. But intensifying a war on drugs in Afghanistan now would further fuel the conflict, which is the last thing that the country needs.
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'Paco' Under Scrutiny
The cocaine base paste market in the Southern Cone
Transnational Institute (TNI)TNI Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 14
October 2006Based on two studies carried out in the cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, this report examines the origin, characteristics and impact of the explosive increase in cocaine base paste in urban areas. It also highlights the variety of products consumed in these cities and the substance known as crack that is consumed in Brazilian cities. The Brazilian experience with this consumption could serve as an example and a lesson for the Southern Cone.
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Coca Yes, Cocaine No?
Legal options for the coca leaf
Mario Argandoña, Anthony Henman, Ximena Echeverría Pien Metaal Martin Jelsma Ricardo SoberónTNI Drugs & Conflict Debate Paper 13
May 2006A decade-old demand to remove the coca leaf from strict international drugs controls has come to the fore again. Time has come to repair an historical error responsible for including the leaf amongst the most hazardous classified substances, causing severe consequences for the Andean region.
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