LETTER FROM YOUR CHAIR

Dear delegates,

Welcome to the United Nations Disarmament and International Security Council! Thank you for
your interest in attending Andinet International School’s Model United Nations conference. My
name is Nathan Dawit and I will be chairing this committee. I can not wait to see all of the
wonderful ideas and thought-out solutions you will all work on proposing to help address real
life problems affecting everyone around the world.

The United Nations (UN) Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC) was
created as the first of the Main Committees in the General Assembly when the charter of the
United Nations was signed in 1945. Thus, DISEC is often referred to as the First Committee.
DISEC was formed to respond to the need for an international forum to discuss peace and
security issues among members of the international community. According to the UN Charter,
the purpose of DISEC in the General Assembly is to establish “general principles of cooperation
in the maintenance of international peace and security, including the principles governing
disarmament and the regulation of armaments”.

The topic you will be discussing today is: “The International Drug Trade and The War on
Drugs”.

In this background guide, you will find everything you need to get an overview of what you will
be debating during the conference. It will not, however, suffice for your research. You are
expected to know your country’s specific stance and policies, as well as their past actions
regarding the topics.

Finally, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me by email at
[email protected], or through my telegram handle @nathandabebe.

Yours truly,
Nathan Dawit
Chair of the Disarmament and International Security Council
The International Drug Trade and The War on Drugs
Key Terms:
Drug: Any natural or artificially made chemical that is taken for pleasure, to improve someone’s
performance of an activity, or because a person cannot stop using it.
Drug trade: Illegal transportation of dangerous and narcotic drugs through global black markets
or hand-to-hand sales.
Drug Legalization: The removal of all penalties for possession and personal use of a drug; not
including the removal of penalties for drug trafficking.
Drug Decriminalization: The removal of prison sentences as punishments for drug possession
and personal use, resorting to fines instead; not including the removal of prison sentences for
drug trafficking.

Overview
Drug Trafficking is defined as “a global illicit trade involving the cultivation, manufacture,
distribution, and sale of substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws,” by the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Drug Trafficking involves the movement of
many drugs including cannabis, opiates, cocaine, amphetamines, and ecstasy. Altogether, the
international drug trade is valued at between $426 billion to $652 billion annually (as of 2014),
supplying about 300 million drug users worldwide.

Global drug production is concentrated in three regions: Latin America, Afghanistan, and
Southeast Asia. In Latin America, countries such as Mexico and Colombia are infamous for
being the home of cartels which distribute drugs into North America and Europe. These cartels
compete for transportation routes from cultivation land to the market. In South America,
approximately 158,800 hectares of land are dedicated to the cultivation of coca, the basis of
cocaine (UNODC, 2010).

Afghanistan is central to the production of opium, with around 123,000 hectares of land devoted
to its production (UNODC, 2010). The opium is then trafficked through Russia and the Balkans,
where it reaches the European market. Afghanistan is also the world’s leading producer of
hashish, a marijuana derivative. Between 10,000 and 24,000 hectares of cannabis is grown in
Afghanistan, with a yield of around 145 kilograms per hectare (UNODC, 2010).
Opium is also produced in Southeast Asia, notably Myanmar and Laos. This opium is also
trafficked to Europe as well as neighboring countries such as China. It is important to know that
while the first documented cases of drug trafficking took place during the Qing dynasty in China,
including the First and Second Opium Wars, the circulation of illegal narcotics has greatly
reduced since.

The War on Drugs began in June 1971 when U.S. Pres. Richard Nixon declared drug abuse to be
“public enemy number one” and increased federal funding for drug-control agencies and drug-
treatment efforts. In 1973 the Drug Enforcement Administration was created out of the merger of
the Office for Drug Abuse Law Enforcement, the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, and
the Office of Narcotics Intelligence to consolidate federal efforts to control drug abuse.

The War on Drugs was a relatively small component of federal law-enforcement efforts until the
presidency of Ronald Reagan, which began in 1981. Reagan greatly expanded the reach of the
drug war and his focus on criminal punishment over treatment led to a massive increase in
incarcerations for nonviolent drug offenses, from 50,000 in 1980 to 400,000 in 1997. There have
been numerous critics of the War on Drugs due to extreme racial discrimination.

“Data and experience accumulated by UN experts have shown that the “war on drugs”
undermines health and social wellbeing and wastes public resources while failing to eradicate the
demand for illegal drugs and the illegal drug market.” (UN Human Rights experts, 2022).

The argument for drug legalization and/or drug decriminalization focuses on the basic belief that
prohibitions against marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and other drugs impose high costs in terms of tax
dollars, crime, and infringements on civil rights and individual liberties, but many view drug
legalization as a high-risk alternative in the war on drugs.

Effects of Drug Trafficking

Drug Trafficking negatively affects all countries involved in the supply chain. The trade of
narcotics is marred by extreme violence, with countries such as Honduras and El Salvador
having the highest homicide rates in the world at 63.75 and 108.64 homicides per 100,000
people, respectively. The violence is primarily caused by gangs involved in the shipment of
drugs from South America to North America. These gangs compete for a limited number of
supply routes from South America to North America and use violence to keep their goods
moving and to push competitors out.

The international Opium Convention, signed at The Hague on January 23, 1912, during the First
International Opium Conference, was the first international drug control treaty. The convention
provided that “the contracting powers shall use their best endeavor to control, or to cause to be
controlled all persons manufacturing, importing, selling, distributing, and exporting morphine,
cocaine, and their respective salts, as well as the buildings in which these persons carry such an
industry or trade” (League of Nations Treaty Series, 1922).

Questions to Consider
- Does the United Nations have a moral responsibility to continue this ‘war on drugs’ for
the sake of the health of the global population, or is drug use a personal choice that
should be decided upon by individual states?

- What are methods to effectively reduce the international drug trade that have not been
already implemented during the War on Drugs?

- Should the path of drug legalization be a “high-risk alternative” or would it effectively

serve as the primary choice for governments worldwide?

- What, if any, are the implications of an individual nation’s legalization and/or

decriminalization of drugs on the international drug trade?

- What can be done to mitigate the damages caused to certain countries in Africa and
Europe (such as Nigeria, Ethiopia, and the Balkan states) that are used as transportation
vessels to produce and illegally carry drugs from country to country?