A recent news article published in the journal “Science Daily” says that we’re losing the worldwide “War on Drugs.” The international illegal drug trade rakes in $350 billion USD every year, according to estimates released by the United Nations.
The news article stressed that violent crime and the spread of diseases like HIV through shared drug needles are some of the primary concerns associated with the proliferation of the international drug trade.
In the past two decades, illegal drugs have become more potent and cheaper, the news article pointed out. Supplies continue to increase in spite of the fact that law enforcement drug seizures are growing in size.
Since 1990, prices for heroin, marijuana and cocaine have fallen by more than 80 percent in the United States, while potency and/or purity of the same drugs increased by 60 percent for heroin, 11 percent for cocaine and 161 percent for marijuana.
In Europe and Australia, drug prices have decreased sharply as well, the news article said.
Cannabis and heroin seizures have increased by 465 percent and 29 percent in the US, the news article said, even though cocaine seizures have fallen by about half since 1990. As of 2009, seizures of heroin in Europe had increased by 380 percent.
The news article suggested that perhaps current anti-drug measures need to be reconsidered, since attempts to curb the supply of illegal drugs have proven unsuccessful. Other options include strict regulation of drug supplies and decriminalization. Researchers investigation the problem have said that there is no evidence that restricting illegal drug supplies has any benefit in regards to limiting their use, and that attempting to cut illegal drug supplies may, in fact, have the opposite, undesirable effect, the news article said.
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