By Ellie Harding, MA candidate in Applied Criminal Justice and Criminology, Swansea University ‘We are cutting the head off the snake and taking down the kingpins behind these deadly supply lines…Drug abuse and addiction ruins communities, devastates lives and tears families apart.’ So announced Priti Patel in her speech to the annual Conservative Party conference…Continue Reading “The disposable foot soldiers of crime” – Media, County Lines and Moral Panics
Aerial Fumigation in Colombia: A Success for Someone
Ross Eventon* In 2011, when the multi-billion-dollar Plan Colombia had officially come to an end, the UNDP described the “rural development model” in Colombia as “highly inequitable and exclusionary.” The model “causes innumerable rural conflicts, does not recognize the differences between social actors, and leads to the inappropriate use and destruction of natural resources.” Any…Continue Reading Aerial Fumigation in Colombia: A Success for Someone
Notes on Criminal Economics
Ross Eventon* In a recent report for GDPO, I discussed the links between national economic models and illicit cultivation, and the way this important context has been largely ignored by the drug policy community; localised projects – amounting to rural development aid – have instead been the focus of attention. In this blog I would…Continue Reading Notes on Criminal Economics
Nowhere to hide: It’s high time we measured countries’ performance in drug policy
By Marie Nougier IDPC Head of Research and Communications & Dave Bewley-Taylor, GDPO Director First published here by IPDC, October 2019 Traditionally, the UN and governments have measured progress in drug policy in terms of flows and scale; principally the numbers of people arrested, hectares of drug crops eradicated and the amounts of drugs seized. For years now, IDPC and…Continue Reading Nowhere to hide: It’s high time we measured countries’ performance in drug policy
Preparing for 2019: Drug Policy Objectives and Indicators, System-wide Coherence and the Sustainable Development Agenda
Preparing for 2019: Drug Policy Objectives and Indicators, System-wide Coherence and the Sustainable Development Agenda Side event held at the 60th Commission on Narcotic Drugs offers insights into how drug policy indicators could aid in achieving the sustainable development agenda. Nazlee Maghsoudi, Knowledge Translation Manager at the ICSDP Click here to visit the CND Blog’s…Continue Reading Preparing for 2019: Drug Policy Objectives and Indicators, System-wide Coherence and the Sustainable Development Agenda
View From the Ground: Bocas del Toro; Drugs in Paradise
By Alastair Smith, Panama Following exploratory fieldwork in the rural coca growing fields of Colombia, GDPO followed the cocaine supply chain to Panama. Most recently, time spent on the Northern Caribbean coast soon revealed the permeation of drug trafficking into the already complex socioeconomic context that many perceive as paradise. First impressions of Bocas del…Continue Reading View From the Ground: Bocas del Toro; Drugs in Paradise
View from the Ground: Infrastructure and Coca in Guaviare, Colombia
By Alastair Smith, GDPO Research Associate. In mid-May 2015, Ross, Dave and I left the relatively comfortable climate of Bogotá and headed to the humidity of South East Colombia and the Department of Guaviare to conduct fieldwork. Leaving the Department’s capital, San José del Guaviare, Pedro Arenas – the city’s previous mayor, current director of…Continue Reading View from the Ground: Infrastructure and Coca in Guaviare, Colombia
SPP Prof. Julia Buxton Highlights the Great Disconnect Between Drugs and Development
This post was originally published here by the School of Public Policy at the Central European University. Julia Buxton, Professor of Comparative Politics at the School of Public Policy (SPP), outlined key conclusions from her forthcoming report on the relationship between drugs and development in a stimulating faculty research presentation on Thursday, October 16. “Drugs are…Continue Reading SPP Prof. Julia Buxton Highlights the Great Disconnect Between Drugs and Development
The UN drug control authorities reinforce the ‘received wisdom’ on drugs in Sub Saharan Africa
The proliferation of drug trafficking in West Africa, as measured by drug – and most specifically cocaine – seizure data, has drawn considerable attention from the United Nations drug control bodies, and from West European and North American countries that are engaged in anti-poverty, state stabilisation and counter terrorism activities in the sub-region. Underscoring concerns…Continue Reading The UN drug control authorities reinforce the ‘received wisdom’ on drugs in Sub Saharan Africa
Guinea Bissau: Poor data and the rise of the ‘narco-state’ narrative
In recent years, the media has applied the contentious term ‘narco-state’ to a number of West African countries, including Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde, on account of the increased volumes of cocaine being trafficked through the region and the impact of this illicit activity on governance and security. The heightened prominence of West Africa in…Continue Reading Guinea Bissau: Poor data and the rise of the ‘narco-state’ narrative