Substance abuse — rendered the use of a drug in harmful amounts for purposes other than those for which it is meant to be used — is a global problem. Many abuse substances including alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine in the world. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), around 275 million people used drugs worldwide in 2020. Also, drug abuse is on the rise globally. Between 2010-2019, the number of people abusing drugs increased by 22 percent. But substance abuse is not limited to a specific country or a location. It is a problem in many developed, developing and less developed countries, though it is high in some countries including the US, Estonia, Belarus and the UAE.
It is pertinently notable that there are global and local efforts to prevent substance abuse. There are UN Conventions and resolutions including the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs for the control of substances. Also, there exists national legislation on the prevention of drug abuse and the punishment of drug traffickers and substance abusers, drug prevention policies and strategies in many countries. Many countries have community based, school based and other programmatic measures to prevent substance abuse. Promotional campaigns are often carried out in many countries with the involvement of youth in drug prevention efforts. Sometimes, special operations are carried out by the concerned authorities in many countries to prevent drug trafficking. Consequently, drug trafficking and abuse have become cautious/tougher in many countries, though substance abuse is on the rise globally.
But efforts are neither enough nor effective in many countries. Legislative measures are not implemented as intended to prevent the production of harmful drugs, drug trafficking and selling and drug abuse. Also, for economic benefits, many countries promote the production and selling of harmful drugs and, hence, encourage substance abuse, nationally and transnationally. Definitely, there is a lack of justice against drug traffickers in many countries and efforts to prevent drug trafficking. In many countries, drug traffickers have close links with powerful political elites and the concerned authorities including drug control departments and law enforcement authorities. The close relationship of national level drug traffickers with transnational drug cartels often makes drug traffickers powerful enough to evade legal actions.
The prevention of transnational drug trafficking is definitely crucial for the prevention of substance abuse. Optimistically, large quantities of illicit drugs including cocaine and heroin are often captured by law enforcement officials in many countries. They are sometimes captured with intergovernmental intelligence support and sometimes without such support. A few days ago, the Italian police seized two tons of cocaine floating in the Mediterranean Sea. But transnational drug trafficking remains uncaptured many times and the transnational cooperation — required to prevent transnational drug trafficking — is less not only among Latin American countries but also among many countries in Asia and other regions. Consequently, the prevention of transnational drug trafficking has become difficult and harmful drugs are available to abusers in many countries.
It is definitely not feasible to end substance abuse completely in the world. But it is desired that global and local efforts are strengthened to reduce substance abuse, which leads to mental disorders, negative physical health consequences and criminal activities, across the world at least at a tolerable level. But putting emphasis on making harmful drugs unavailable is crucial in many countries for the reduction of substance abuse. For this, the ending of the transnational trafficking of illicit drugs needs to be given emphasis. Ending transnational drug trafficking alone may help to reduce substance abuse significantly. The production, supply and selling of harmful drugs at the country level or in local communities also need to be addressed.
Since integrated international measures are crucial for the prevention of transnational drug trafficking, transnational cooperation needs to be strengthened by states. Definitely, intelligence sharing between or among countries on the trafficking of illicit drugs needs to be emphasized. Strengthened legal measures are also vital to prevent transnational drug trafficking. Transnational and national/local drug traffickers need to be brought to justice but they need to be given the chance of coming back to social lives. The anti-drug campaign needs to be strengthened globally to discourage substance abuse. This is crucial for youth, who are more affected by substance abuse across the world.
