United Nations Office

On Drugs And Crime

(UNODC)

2024 Mini MUN

Director/Co-Directors: Simon Stroomer and Yash Dahiya
Chair: Joelle Lo
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Table of Contents

Letter from the Director/Co-Director 3

Position Paper Guide/Awards 4

Topic Overview 6

References 10
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Dear Delegates,

Hello, I am Simon Stroomer, I’m a grade 11 student at Royal Bay Secondary School. I will be
your Director for this Mini-Mun. I’ve been an avid participant of Model UN, serving as a
delegate to several MUNs, and even helping co-found the Royal Bay Debate Society. However,
this will be the first-ever Model UN that I direct. I am confident that everyone on this committee,
by the end of the day, will be the strongest speakers and diplomats that they can be, and I very
much look forward to seeing you all grow and ameliorate throughout the proceedings.

Hello, my name is Yash Dahiya and I am a grade 12 student here at Brentwood College School,
and I will be your co-director for this year's Mini-Mun. I have been a part of the model UN
program for over 3 years and have participated in many conferences from ShawMUN to
NHSMUN in New York City. I have a great deal of experience and awards under my belt and
hope that at this year's conference, you will all be confident speakers and express yourself fully.

Sincerely,
Yash Dahiya & Simon Stroomer
United Nations Office On Drugs And Crime
([email protected] & [email protected])
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Position Papers
Each delegate is required to complete a maximum 1-page (single-spaced, 12pt. Times New
Roman, 1-inch margins) summary written in character from the position of their country. Please
include citations and a bibliography, in APA format, giving credit to the sources used in the
research and preparation of your paper.

The Position Paper should include a brief introduction and a comprehensive breakdown of the
country's position on the topics being discussed within the committee. An excellent Position
Paper must include a developed introduction and clear definitions of concepts and terms under
discussion. The paper must then be broken down under the topic headings your committee will
discuss. Each section should include three clear statements of policy on each topic:

1. The country’s background and history on the topic

2. Political foreign policy on the topic
3. Any actions the government has taken concerning the topic.

Position Papers must be clear, concise, and accurately reflect your country’s foreign policy. Good
places to begin research include government websites from the country you represent (i.e.,
http://www.firstgov.gov for the United States) and the UN website database (www.un.org) for
previous actions taken on a specific issue. Also, see:

Where to conduct your research (starting Suggestions):

General Country Information:

● CIA World Factbook: ​https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/
● Countries Government Websites
● Individual government websites on foreign policy issues

Information on Issues covered by the committee:

● United Nations Digital Library https://digitallibrary.un.org/
● “Dag Hammarskjöld Library Research Guides” http://research.un.org/en

For information specific to your country, we find it beneficial to start with the webpage of your
Department of Foreign Affairs to evaluate your state’s position and maybe even find key quotes
from political leaders.
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Submission of Position Paper

Position Papers are due to your director [email protected] and co-director
[email protected] by midnight November 25th. Please email them to your directors
with the email subject: "Last name, First Name- Position paper”. Please also reach out to your
directors if you have any questions.

Position Papers must be submitted to be considered for any award.

Awards for MiniMUN: Best Delegate, Outstanding Delegate, Honourable Mention

Feel free to submit your position papers before the deadline if you want feedback. Late
submissions of position papers without a valid extension are not accepted.

AI Policy
Any use of AI services– including but not limited to Chat GPT, Grammarly (AI), and Gemini–
is strictly prohibited when preparing for the conference. Furthermore, absolutely no use is
permitted during the conference itself. Any provable use of AI will result in either the
disqualification of the delegate or the removal of award considerations, at the discretion of your
Secretariat. All directors are obligated to scan for AI and are required to report any use. It is
important to remember that the research you do prior to the conference date is essential for
everyone to enjoy the day. Please respect the effort that has gone into making this day enjoyable
for everyone.

Thank you!
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Topic Overview

Preventing The Production And Distribution Of Illegal Substances

The opioid epidemic, and the addiction crisis in general, has affected the world
immensely in the last few decades. As of 2022, over 64 million people worldwide are estimated
to have a drug use disorder, yet only 1/11 men and 1/18 women receive proper treatment
(UNODC, 2024). In 2019, 600,000 people died from overdose-related complications (UNODC,
2024). Major drugs trafficked include cannabis, opioids, amphetamines, and cocaine. Of the
estimated 292 million people who use drugs, disorder or not and excluding cannabis, 103.5
million people abuse illicit substances that are sourced from highly established trafficking routes
(UNODC, 2024). It is clear that unregulated drug consumption is a grievous issue at present, and
must be stopped.

Global Trafficking of Illegal Substances

Opioids are harvested in Central Asia, and a relatively minor amount in South East Asia,
where they are distributed both land and by sea, into Africa and Europe, where they are
trafficked to North America [see figure 1]. Most of the trafficked supply ends up being refined
into Heroin, with the rest being used in other manners, like Morphine and Codeine.

Figure 1: Major Routes that opium and opioids are trafficked through Asia, Africa, and Europe (UNODC, 2010).
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Cocaine in South America follows a similar pattern [see figure 2], with Coca plant being
harvested in the Andes, where it is refined and trafficked via the same routes as Opium.

Figure 2: Major trafficking routes of cocaine in the world. (UNODC, 2010).

Pivoting to the major distributors of illicit products, such as cartels in the Americas and Asia.
Opium production in central Asia has begun to slow down, coinciding with the Taliban’s return
to state power, leading to organized crime groups in Southeast Asia, in what is referred to as the
Golden Triangle, to increasingly produce opium products. States in the Golden Triangle have
also reported a significant increase in synthetic drug production, which encompasses substances
like amphetamines (UNODC Regional Office for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, 2021). In the
production of Cocaine, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) names several groups
as problem sources, including, but not limited to: the Sinaloa Cartel, the Juarez Cartel, and Los
Zetas Cartel in Mexico and FARC and the Gulf Clan in Columbia. These non-state actors have
become the primary distributors of illicit narcotics, and stemming the flow will involve
addressing the operations of these criminal enterprises.

Previous Efforts at Prevention:

The UN has passed several conventions on stopping the production of drugs, such as the Single
Convention on Narcotics Drugs of 1961 and the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of
1971, which work internationally to fight drug abuse and establish control systems for
psychotropic substances respectively (UN, 2016). In addition, the UNODC also gained its
mandate from the Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic
Substances of 1988. The primary goal of the UNODC is to assist member states in further
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developing their capacities for developing legislation on drugs and building their internal
capacities to address the problem domestically.

In 2023, the Afghani government instituted a ban on opium cultivation, which decreased the
production of opium in the country by 95% as seen in figure 3 (UNODC, 2023). This ban has
caused concern for the dramatic contraction of the opiate market in Afghanistan, which has made
many of the farmers who produced it much poorer, all while the groups that produced the opium
moved to Myanmar, whose opium production increased by 36% in the same time.

Figure 3: Cultivation and Production of opium in Afghanistan (UNODC, 2023).

Possible Solutions:

Delegates should look to cooperate with nations where these groups of organized criminals
reside in order to take action within the effective bounds of those nations. Delegates could also
work together with each other to explain, and improve the economic conditions as to why
people, namely farmers, produce these substances in the first place.

Given the UNODC commitment to work towards legal reform of all nations, delegates would
look towards new, novel ways to tackle the issues of production and trafficking, in order to take
decisive action against the groups that profit off of these criminal acts.
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Block Positions

Delegates need to recognize these trafficking routes and search for diplomatic solutions
to either block or monitor shipments between nations. Delegates representing major producers of
opium or coca should contend with cracking down on the groups responsible for the production
and refinement of these illicit substances, and work with other nations to enforce these policies.
Likewise, delegates representing nations that are beset by the smuggling of narcotics, and the
epidemics that follow them, like the opioid epidemic, would be wise to group up and make
efforts to treat the victims of these epidemics.

Questions to Consider

1. How can nations economically dependent on the production of illicit substances be

persuaded to prosecute those responsible?

2. How can solutions for the committee incorporate the ideas of legal and judicial reform
that UNODC represents?

3. What has to be conceded to the average poppy/coca farmer to drop the production of
these dangerous crops?

4. How can non-state actors, like cartels that traffic cocaine in the Americas, be prosecuted
for their crimes by a body like the UNODC?
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References

Alcohol and Drug Foundation. (2024, June 6). What is opium? Retrieved November 3, 2024.
https://adf.org.au/drug-facts/opium/

Drug Enforcement Administration, 2017 National Drug Threat Assessment. Retrieved November
5, 2024, from
https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2018-07/DIR-040-17_2017-NDTA.pdf.

Regional Office for Southeast Asia and the Pacific (2021). Retrieved November 5, 2024, from
https://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/Myanmar/Myanmar_Opium_survey_
2021.pdf.

Regional Office for Southeast Asia and the Pacific (2021). Retrieved November 5, 2024, from
https://www.unodc.org/documents/scientific/ATS/2021_ESEA_Regional_Synthetic_Drug
s_Report.pdf

United Nations. (2013, April). Drug trafficking. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/drug-trafficking/

United Nations. (2010). World Drug Report 2010. United Nations Office on Drug and Crime.
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/WDR-2010.html

UNODC. (2023, November). Afghanistan Opium Survey 2023. UNODC Information Centre.
https://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/Afghanistan/Afghanistan_opium_sur
vey_2023.pdf

UNODC. (2024, June 26). World Drug Report 2024: Harms of world drug problem continue to
mount amid expansions in drug use and markets. United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime. Retrieved November 2, 2024, from
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/press/releases/2024/June/unodc-world-drug-report-2024
_-harms-of-world-drug-problem-continue-to-mount-amid-expansions-in-drug-use-and-m
arkets.html.

UNODC. (2024) World Drug Report 2024 Special Points of Interest. United Nations Office on
Drug and Crime. Retrieved November 5, 2024, from
https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/WDR_2024/WDR_2024_SPI.pdf

United Nations. (2016). Drug trafficking - united nations and the rule of law. United
Nations. Retrieved November 10, 2024, from
https://www.un.org/ruleoflaw/thematic-areas/transnational-threats/drug-trafficking/
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United Nations (2007). Single convention on narcotic drugs. United Nations. Retrieved
November 10, 2024, from
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/single-convention.html

United Nations. (2007). Convention on psychotropic substances. United Nations. Retrieved

November 10, 2024, from
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/psychotropics.html