Facts

new internationalist
issue 140 October 1984

Dangerous connections
the facts...

Illegal drugs make the news. They reach the street through a lucrative trafficking system that pays the Third World farmer a thousand times less than the final price. But we never hear about the profitable flow of dangerous drugs from North to South, for the rich world has deemed its own drugs legal. The New Internationalist presents the facts on the inter-continental trade in mood-altering substances.

Because the trade is illegal and there are wide regional variations, drug statistics can never be 100 per cent accurate.
However, the Canadian police and the UN are the most reliable sources available.

FRANK FISCHBECK / CAMERA PRESS

HOME GROWN, HOME CURED, HOME USED -

Asia has more opiate users than anywhere else in the world.

Consumption of South East Asian opium harvest 1982/3

Figures for use of the opium poppy harvest have to be vague, as much is grown in inaccessible jungle and mountain areas. However it is estimated that 70% is used locally, 15% is used in Europe, 9% in Hong Kong. 4.5% in North America and 1.5% in Australasia.

Number of opiate users
These figures include users of heroin, opium and morphine.

	Known/registered users	Estimated actual users
Iran	-	875,000
Thailand	29,725 (92% heroin)	500,000
Pakistan	-	480,000
Malaysia	65,200 (all heroin)	400,000
Burma	33,629 (80% opium)	100,000
Afghanistan	-	100,000
Hong Kong	41,900	50,000
United States	-	492,000
United Kingdom	10,270	50,000
Canada	13,000	20,000

 

THE HEROIN CONNECTION

Seller	Place	Amount	Price (US$)
Street pushers (Actually sold 95% adulterated, in capsule form, for $50)	Vancouver	I kilo	1,000,000
Wholesaler	Canada	1 kilo	225,000
Distributor	Bangkok	1 kilo	11,500
Laboratory	Burma/Laos/Thailand	1 kilo (heroin)	5,000
Farmers	Burma/Laos/Thailand	10 kilos (opium)	800
(Source: Royal Canadian Mounted Police, NDIE 1982)

 

THE CANNABIS CONNECTION

Seller	Place	Amount	Price (US$)
Street pushers (Actually sold in small amounts of varying size, 28 grams costing $100)	Montreal	I kilo	3,570
Trafficker	Canada	1 kilo	225,000
Farmers	Colombia	1 kilo	100
(Source: Royal Canadian Mounted Police, NDIE 1982)

 

THE COCAINE CONNECTION

Seller	Place	Amount	Price (US$)
Street pushers (Actually sold in one gram amounts, 75% adulterated for $200)	Toronto	I kilo	800,000
Wholesaler	Canada	1 kilo	100,000
Distributor	Colombia	1 kilo	18,000
Laboratory	Colombia	1 kilo (cocaine)	7,000
Farmers	Bolivia	500 kilos (coca leaves)	2,000
(Source: Royal Canadian Mounted Police, NDIE 1982)

 

THE LEGAL CONNECTION

Despite justified concern about illegal drugs, it is the socially acceptable and habit-forming drink, cigarettes and medicines which are the biggest killers. And these are being promoted and consumed in dramatically increasing quantities in the poor and hungry continents. Some idea of the relative size of the legal and illegal drugs problems come from statistics of a fairly typical Westem country - Australia. As a proportion of all drug-related deaths in 1980, tobacco accounted for 79.2%, alcohol for 17.5% and other drugs (including pharmaceuticals as well as illegal drugs) only 3.3%.

Pharmaceuticals

• Illegal US trade in mood-altering chemical drugs $21 billion pa.
• ‘Accidents’ involving prescribed drugs account for 5% of hospital admissions, according to studies in Australia and Ireland.
• Production of barbiturates rose from 66,188 kilos in 1976 to 155,127 kilos by 1980; much of this was due to pharmaceutical companies’ vigorous promotion in the Third World.
• During the Seventies pharmaceutical sales in developing countries rose by 20% pa.
• Of the 2452 drugs introduced in 1980 more than 40% were launched in the Third World.

Alcohol

The World Health Organisation calculated that in 1980 between one and ten per cent of the populations of most Western countries were ‘alcoholics’ or ‘heavy drinkers with severe alcohol-related problems’.

And at least half of US murders and a third of US suicides are alcohol-related. Alcohol consumption has increased dramatically in the last twenty years.

Yearly alcohol consumption per person over 14 in litres

photo by Dexter Tiranti

Tobacco

• One million people die prematurely every year from cigarette smoking, according to the World Health Organisation.
• On average each cigarette shortens the life of a habitual smoker by 5.5 minutes.
• A woman smoker has a projected lifespan 17 years shorter than a woman non-smoker.