Table of contentsTrade liberalization and its impact on the drug tradeInternational investmentEffect on international consumersResourcesThe exponential growth of the drug trade in the During the 1950s South America was heavily influenced by the rapid globalization occurring around the world. Two main cartels controlled drug trafficking in Mexico and Colombia. The Guadalajara Cartel controlled most of Mexico's cannabis and, soon after, the cocaine trade. It was led by Felix Gallardo and his business partners. The cartel that controlled Colombia's trade routes was the Medellin Cartel, led by Pablo Escobar who began selling cocaine and even ran for president. According to the Peterson Institute for Economics, globalization is the increasing interdependence among countries with their cultures and economies. For the illegal drug trade across the world, this has had a positive effect on its growth and relevance. In terms of international security it had an impact, it resulted in billions of dollars and resources being spent trying to stop it. “It can be argued that the apparently successful global securitization of drugs constitutes one of the greatest threats to international and human security. » Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Globalization has facilitated the movement of goods, services, and the movement of people across borders. This is driving a technological shift that means doing business transnationally has become easier, faster and less expensive. Although economic growth and interdependence have been positive, the rapid growth has not been supported by governing bodies, allowing organized crime to spread across borders. “Therefore, combined with the breakdown of political and economic barriers after the end of the Cold War (which allowed access to global transportation), globalization has had the negative effect of facilitating the expansion of transnational crime such as as global terrorism, human trafficking and drug trafficking. , immigrant trafficking and money laundering. Most of the world's cocaine is produced in Colombia's Andean region, but market targets have changed over time. This change is because supply and demand play a major role in the success of medications. Easier means of transportation and lower prices have seen a huge impact in the 21st century. Thanks to the US-funded Plan Colombia, coca cultivation in Colombia declined by 58% between 2000 and 2009. It then increased significantly in the 6 Plurinational State of Bolivia (doubling to 75% of the cultivated area). ). its peak in 1990) and, to a lesser extent, in Peru. These changes are consequences of globalization and reflect the liberalization and change in the shape of the drug trade. To understand the link between globalization and the growth of the drug trade, it is crucial to understand the change in trade legislation and the effect of trade liberalization on the sale of illicit drugs. Trade liberalization and its impact on the drug tradeAccording to Claudia Costa Storti and Paul De Grauwe, the decline in retail prices of cocaine is the result of the reduction of a concept called "intermediation margin", which is the difference between the retailer's price and the producer price. This decline can be explained by theglobalization. Harder-to-do, high-risk jobs (like smuggling and selling) have become easier thanks to changes in transportation and freer laws on cross-border trade. Less risky work, like cultivation, became easier. Tools to cut and produce the drug have improved growth efficiency, which has a positive impact on commerce as more product can be transported to the consumer. Communication between parties has improved and in addition, new systems have allowed money laundering to occur more easily, allowing cartels and drug traffickers to go undetected despite the efforts of many authorities to repress the problem. All of these factors contribute to the cost of current drug delivery models. “The open-border effect of globalization has made it easier for millions of poor and low-skilled workers to engage in the transportation and distribution of medicines. Most of these workers were willing to take the risks because they had little to lose, while others were attracted by the still relatively high intermediation margins of the drug market.” This means there will always be a surplus of workers willing to perform the high-risk tasks demanded by drug cartels. International investments and money laundering exceed $1 trillion per year. Investments play an important role in networking and laundering funds linked to drug trafficking. Banks offer offshore accounts and find it difficult to verify every transaction made across all the accounts they hold. This allows criminals and drug traffickers to use this loophole to operate and make their sales. “It is difficult for banks to verify that all wire transfers, checks and other financial transactions are “clean.” There is no doubt that illegal drugs are an international security problem. Many third world countries and fragile states are exploited in the involvement from producer to consumer. There is evidence that globalization has once again had an impact on this phenomenon. Illegal human trafficking in third world countries has become a major problem for international security due to the ease of access to different modes of transportation. Many citizens living in third world and fragile states are used to transport drugs to industrialized countries where low levels of youth welfare are common. “It can be argued that the apparently successful global securitization of drugs constitutes one of the greatest threats to international and human security. » – Danny Kushlick, 2011. Effect on international consumers. The increasing diversity and intensity of the influx of new people from around the world is one of the main ways in which globalization has had a significant impact on drug markets. To prove this, we can use the European drug markets. Much of the plant-based materials and chemicals used in past production are produced outside Europe and are smuggled into the continent. Every vehicle and every footpath is an opportunity to introduce the illegal product and, with the exponential growth in the number of vehicles used (such as planes, cars, ships, etc.), it has become much more difficult for authorities to arrest and identify the culprits. “The Port of Rotterdam welcomes 30,000 seagoing vessels and 110,000 inland vessels every year and is the largestcontainer port in Europe and the eighth in the world. Another area that shows the impact of globalization on the narcotics trade is air passenger traffic, which has increased in Europe and around the world. The annual number of passengers entering Spain (South American entry into Europe) is estimated to have increased from 166 million in 2004 to 196 million in 2014. Another area where the impact of globalization on drug markets may be observed when examining changes in the chemical industry. suffered over the past 20 years. The precursors used to make most traditional illicit drugs are typically manufactured legally by legitimate companies and then trafficked solely for illicit purposes. New psychoactive substances are mainly produced in Asia, particularly in China and, to a lesser extent, in India. First, the global chemical industry has experienced considerable expansion and growth over the past 20 years and continues to grow. Chemicals are now produced in most countries around the world and global chemical industry production almost doubled between 1990 and 2010, growing faster than global GDP. Second, international trade in chemicals has grown even more than their manufacturing, third, a massive share of international trade in chemicals relies on re-exports, highlighting the role played by other intermediaries. This means that more chemicals are being traded between more countries through more middlemen than ever before, making the job of authorities more difficult as more networks are created and can go unnoticed. The drug trade has grown enormously over the last 100 years and can arguably be directly linked to globalization. Easier access to almost every product and service in the world has allowed large drug cartels, like those in Guadalajara and Medellin, to transport illicit drugs around the world undetected. The use of desperate people from poor countries has been facilitated by the increase in human trafficking as well as violent transnational organized crime. The international expansion of financial institutions has made it difficult to track every transaction and therefore illegal funds can be moved more easily in recent times. Rapid growth of industries has allowed illegal substances to reach consumers around the world, with trade liberalization and international security struggling to keep pace with the world's shrinking size. I chose this topic because I was interested in how drug trafficking continues to grow rapidly, even though law enforcement and security forces have developed modern technologies and methods to deal with the problem and put an end to it. They have been tracking and studying the problem for many decades now and have struggled to find a solution to the growing problem. The topic I chose was very difficult to find sources to work on because many statistics were outdated or the articles and reviews found did not cover the chosen topic but rather the side effects of medications and their effects on us as individuals. Many sources were not credible because it was often an opinion of the writer and what the author predicted about the future in terms of global security. The sources deemed credible contained a lot of information that could be extracted and help to understand how each area of ​​the drug trade :. 2019]