GREATER GEORGETOWN, Guyana – The theme to mark this year’s International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on 26 June – Do Drugs Control Your Life? Your Life; Your Community; No Place for Drugs – carries a pointed and poignant question, bringing to sharp focus, the gravity of issues related to the social consequences of drug abuse and illicit trafficking, not only for those who misuse drugs but also for those who are often left to close the gaping social wounds created by the absence of that vital family member – the care-giver and invariably the bread-winner.
While the Caribbean drug dilemma involves multiple dimensions such as production, consumption and abuse, trafficking, and money laundering, it is said that trafficking best underscores the Region’s strategic value. Sandwiched between the largest producers of cocaine to the South and the largest consumer country to the North, the Caribbean’s physical and social geography makes it prime conduit for drug trafficking.
Increased production and flow of drugs through Caribbean territories subvert the Region’s social, political and economic stability since it leads to crime, corruption, arms trafficking and decreased tourism. The adverse social effects on the stability of the family – the backbone of a nation – cannot be under-estimated.
Statistics reveal that single women with children across the Caribbean are usually preyed on by ‘drug pushers’ who entice them with the promise of a wad of cash that “will solve their social and financial woes,” to becoming the proverbial mule for one-drop to the United Kingdom and or to the United States of America.
May Morgan* – a Caribbean National and a Graduate of a reputable tertiary institution, in recounting her story seven years after being released from a UK prison on charges of illicit trafficking remarked: “at the time the promise of quarter million just to make a “safe trip,” seemed very attractive. I thought about how in a couple of months and a couple of ‘drops’ I would have made enough to buy the house we so badly needed and would be able to provide my three-year-old child with good schooling …and then I would quit”
Alas! May’s dreams dried up like a raisin the sun as her fateful flight was significantly delayed, the ‘warranty’ for her ‘safe trip’ had expired leaving her exposed and vulnerable. With seven years of her life wasted and her license to teach revoked, she was nowhere near owning a home for her family than she was seven years earlier and to her now 10-year-old daughter, she was a stranger.
May’s story is a familiar chronicle across the Region. Of the 1000 foreign females in UK prisons, nearly 70 percent are on drug related charges and 35 percent are from the Caribbean Region. The same is true for young men. Of the over 11,000 foreign males in UK prisons, approximately 35 percent are on drug related charges and 10 percent are from the Caribbean Region. The majority of them were convinced that their first trip was safe.
Sanjay,* an 18-year-old inmate of a local minimum security facility admitted to peddling drugs to survive, soon after his mother died from a bellyful of fatal pellets she was transporting to the UK. Once again a delayed flight resulted in her tragic demise and Sanjay, at 15 years-old was left to the ‘manipulative mercies’ of those who had used his mother – a vicious cycle.
These stories expose the myriad of social issues related to illicit trafficking and highlight the social ‘push factors’ to drug trafficking – chief of which is the individual’s basic need to provide, food shelter and other social amenities for him/herself and family.
However, it would be a colossal mistake to suggest that all persons who misuse drugs fit the profile of Sanjay and May since both addiction and trafficking seem to defy race and class. Shane* who completed nearly 12 years of a 25 year sentence in a Georgia prison, came from a strong middle income family. Shortly after he graduated from high school, he was caught attempting to make his fourth drop. At the time of his incarceration, he had a one year-old daughter. His reason for trafficking…? The thrill of not getting caught!
It would seem therefore that although the prime push factor is the money, other factors – the structure of society, the impact of economic policy and the resistance of the cultural fabric to private drug consumption and public corruption – also influence a thriving illicit drug trade.
The stark reality also is that many of those who are caught, later confess to their lack of knowledge about the social and judicial consequences of drug trafficking as well as their lack of information and education on the health risks of swallowing drug pellets, the criminal justice consequence of drug trafficking and the predatory nature of those who recruit them as ‘mules.’
Yet not only do these stories reveal the plight of the affected families but they provide a real awakening to policy makers to devise appropriate and effective strategies to address the problem.
Against this background, the Caribbean Community Secretariat is strengthening its institutional machinery and capabilities which presently exist to continue the fight against this illegal trade. At the policy level, the Secretariat has made a case for a change in the treatment of this dilemma, by recognising that “the supply of, and demand for illicit drugs are inextricably linked, and accepting that any meaningful, sustained results must address this phenomenon as a whole and not as two different issues.”
This also implies that resources internationally, regionally and nationally must of necessity be equitably allocated to deal with both demand reduction and supply control of drugs.
Perhaps one of the most sustainable policy decisions taken by the Community to address the problem of drug trafficking regionally and nationally is the move to establish Security as a fourth pillar of the Community and subsequently boosting the capacity of both the Council of Ministers Responsible for Security and Law Enforcement (CONSLE) and the Implementing Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) to advance the Regional agenda on Crime and Security – an agenda which has supply control as an urgent priority.
Given the cross-cutting issues involved in illicit trafficking, one thing is sure is that one country cannot successfully fight this war, hence forging partnerships is one of the approaches being adopted by the Secretariat. One such, was forged with the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission of the Organization of American States (CICAD/OAS), and spawned the development of a Drug Demand Reduction Strategy under which initiatives to deal with treatment, care and prevention as well as capacity building through Regional training interventions have been implemented.
Similarly, initiatives to reduce the demand for illicit drugs and treatment of substance abusers are being strengthened by in-country technical support to Member States, provided through the Technical Advisory Body for the Regional Drug Demand Reduction Strategy (RDDRS).
The recent CARICOM-US security talks held ahead of the Eighth Meeting of the CONSLE in Suriname last May also yielded hope that with partnership and greater collaboration, the beast of illicit trafficking and its attendant social problems might yet be tamed…but not soon enough.
While the Region’s drug fighting machinery is working assiduously to tackle the problem, each citizen must work that much harder to help move this machinery along. The truth is, at the end of the day, ‘if there are no buyers, there are no sellers.’ Every conscious choice has to be made by our youth, our women and our men to keep the resolve to stay drug free and to ensure that drugs do not control our life, our Community, our space.
* Not their real names
