Telling the story of drugs in West Africa: The newest front in a losing war?

The response of national governments to illicit drugs is a challenging area of public policy for many reasons. In most countries it is an extremely politicised domain in which repressive policy measures may be adopted despite evidence suggesting that they are ineffective, often rather because political leaders want to show that they are “tough on drugs”. In addition, sometimes the evidence on which even the best-intended policies could be built is patchy or unreliable.

This report analyses the situation of West Africa as regards drug trafficking and consumption of illicit drugs.

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