Full Description
International drug control has often been characterised in a simplistic relationship between supply and demand. Yet the problems of drug control are among the most complex facing the world, and cannot be solved by superficial measures. This report's first chapter deals with alternative development (aka crop substitution). Replacing drug crops with legal cash crops that would provide the crop growers with similar or even higher incomes has not proved effective, as most projects have not provided an economically viable alternative to illicit cultivation, and have not been combined with law enforcement and drug prevention activities. Such measures will only be viable if they are conceived and implemented as long term processes. They can never be a "quick fix". Eliminating the illicit cultivation of plants from which drugs are extracted can only be achieved in the context of sustainable development efforts and within the framework of a comprehensive and permanent solution to the problem of illicit drugs. Alternative development is about providing holistic, legitimate alternatives for people whose only livelihood so far has come from the drug business.But the problem extends beyond the rural areas. The principles of alternative development, in its broadest sense, should be applied in socially marginalized urban environments, as well as in the remote rural areas where earlier efforts were focused. That will require sustained and comprehensive efforts to tackle social deprivation and to develop legitimate alternative occupations and lifestyles. The rest of the report deals with the operation of the drug control system, an analysis of the world situation, and recommendations to governments, the UN and other relevant organisations.
