A Dream for a Better World

The United Nations’ crime and drug watchdog has indications that money made in illicit drug trade has been used to keep banks afloat in the global financial crisis.  Vienna-based UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said in an interview released by Austrian weekly Profil that drug money often became the only available capital when the crisis spiralled out of control last year. In many instances, drug money is currently the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system’s main problem and liquid capital became an important factor. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime had found evidence that interbank loans were funded by money that originated from drug trade and other illegal activities. 

Has the war on drugs cause Afghanistan’s massive, illicit drug trade?  Some people seem to think so.  The war on drugs purportedly funds the insurgency, corrupts the government and destabilizes society.  The president of Afghanistan has reportedly said that Afghanistan’s illicit drug trade, not the Taliban, is the single greatest threat the country faces.  Afghanistan supplies approximately 93% of the world’s illicit opium.  This failure has many causes but supposedly a key one is the simple fact that the primary source of information about the drug trade is the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).  The organization releases a World Drug Report annually but to some critics, the report is primarily an instrument of propaganda.  Its purpose is to praise the status quo, bury evidence of failure, and frame the discussion so serious scrutiny of the War on Drugs never happens.