The Rise of Two Drug Tigers: The Development of the Illegal Drugs Industry and Drug Policy Failure in Afghanistan and Colombia

Abstract

In 1970 Colombia was not known for their production of illegal drugs and Afghanistan had been a minor producer of opium for a long time: “opium was not really a ‘traditional’ crop in Afghanistan where it was not cultivated in most parts of the country until the 1990s. Unlike most countries in the region, Afghanistan did not have much of an ‘opium culture’. Thus, opium consumption until recently remained relatively low” (UNODC, 2003: 87–88). At that time neither of those two countries was a large producer of opium poppy or coca or a significant player in international drug markets. Today they stand as the dominant producers of coca-cocaine and poppy-opium-heroin respectively, each one accounting for 70 percent or more of the world’s supply of cocaine and heroin respectively. The high concentration of illegal drugs production stands in stark contradiction with common beliefs about the reasons why a country produces them. It is commonly believed that the basic reason why illegal drugs are produced is that they are very profitable. This is a simplistic and trivial assertion in the sense that if they were not profitable, it is obvious that they were not produced. In market economies only some non-profit organizations would engage in non-profitable production. There is no question that profitability is a necessary condition for illicit drug production, but is certainly not a sufficient one. Indeed, if profitability were a sufficient condition, illicit drugs were produced in all countries and regions where they could be produced and Afghanistan and Colombia were only minor players in the illegal drug business. Producing illicit opium-heroin and coca-cocaine requires the performance of a series of illegal activities: purchasing illegal chemicals, cultivating illicit crops, creating clandestine manufacturing facilities, developing criminal distribution networks to smuggle and distribute drugs and to launder illegal revenues. The need