West Africa needs to wake up to threat from drugs trade
The recent arrest of Juan Rodriguez Garcia, one of the leaders of Mexico's Gulf drug cartel, marked a major success for the agencies tasked with tackling drug trafficking in the Americas. But no one is claiming that it will bring an end to the drugs trade and terrible violence which continues to scar the country.
In west Africa, we increasingly look at what is happening in Mexico and its neighbours in Central America with alarm. We know these countries are neither large producers of drugs nor markets for them, but are mainly transit points. But that has not prevented the illegal trade invading and corroding many aspects of their societies.
We view this as a bleak warning to our region. West Africa has also become a major transit point on drug routes from South America to Europe and beyond. While we have so far escaped the bloody violence that scars Central America on a daily basis, the region is experiencing increased criminality, corruption and drugs use. Urgent action from the countries of west Africa and the wider international community is needed if we are not to become another battlefront in the failed "war on drugs".
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Topics
- UN drug conventions
- Transnational & organised crime
- Policing
- Harm reduction
- Drug law reform
- Drug dependence treatment
- Development (SDGs +)
- Civil society engagement
- Access to controlled medicines
- Health & harm reduction
- Decriminalisation, legal regulation & reform
- Development & environment
- Human rights and social justice
- 2016 UNGASS
Regions
Related Profiles
- West Africa Commission on Drugs (WACD)