In Battle Against Drugs, Europe Must Help Latin America Find Alternative Crops - UN

Caitlin Walter
Sociology 202
August 24, 2006
Current Event #2

The United Nations has taken another step to fight the drugs in our world. The United Nations anti-narcotic agency has spoken with the European Union to once again try to encourage farmers in poor countries to choose a different livelihood to attempt to put a stop to drug trafficking around the world. The UN voiced its opinion that Europe should send rescue to problems areas, areas that are not stable and full of violence. They must hit these areas to “tackle the problem at the source” (1). The problems of other nations could easily become the problems of Europe if they didn’t take action. While Europe can’t make the choice for these countries, they can be a positive influence by helping to supply certain needs.
The phrase that really hit my topic, in addition to my own personal feelings, right on the head was:
EU leaders should drive home the message to their people that there is a direct link between drug consumption in Europe and serious crime in the drug-producing countries of Latin America. When you buy a line of cocaine, you are putting money into the pockets of Latin American criminals. (1)
Once again, here we have a tie between drugs and crime. Besides the fact that selling illegal drugs IS a crime, it also encourages crime. These drugs rule some of these peoples’ lives, whether it is their source of income or just a habit. For some of these countries, growing and selling drugs is all they know and is the only way they think they can make somewhat of a living for themselves. Individuals involved with drugs will do just about anything if they’re caught up in it enough – ranging from stealing to beating to killing. One thing that kind of jumped out at me from the article was the reference the article made about, “Reducing drug supply must go hand in hand with promoting development and job-creation” (1). I think this ties in with my topic because of the drug-crime aspect of it, but also of what we’ve been talking about in class recently. How globalization hasn’t gotten to some of these poor countries yet, or even if it has, the globalization aspect might be part of why they’re so poor and resort to selling drugs. We might look at it as promoting development and creating jobs, but the affects of cheap labor, using the natural resources of other nations for our OWN good and ignoring theirs, have put some of these countries in a horrible state.. So the thought came to mind, “Could we, in a way, be causing our drug problems?” Because of the exploitation we’re imposing on other nations to profit for ourselves and leaving them in the dust to things such as drug trafficking, are we indirectly causing our own problems? It’s something to think about.



"In Battle Against Drugs, Europe Must Help Latin America Find Alternative Crops - UN." States News Service. 11 May 2006. States News Service. 24 Aug. 2006