Branden Wetsel

Professor Roberts

Health 1050

Research Paper

Cocaine and Opium are the most used drugs on the market today. The opioid crisis has

been the talk of the world for years now and as it was in the spotlight cocaine use and

distribution slowly crept back up into the picture. Deaths of users are rising and business stays

booming with nothing slowing it down. In 2016 the global cocaine manufacturing “reached the

highest level ever reported, with an estimated 1,410 tons being produced” (World Drug Report,

2018) The same could go for opioids, over 174 tons of heroin and opioids were seized in 2016.

These numbers are absolutely staggering, it shows that drug production is growing significantly

with no signs of stopping anytime soon. The drug industry is a complex and interconnected

operation across the globe, so complex that not even the governments of drug producing

countries can do anything about it. Afghanistan is the highest producing country of opium and

Colombia is the highest producing country of cocaine. The United States keeps them in business

by being the highest using country in the world. The numbers produced by each of these

countries are massive and the number of drugs consumed by the United States is massive as well,

but we’ll get into that. In this paper, I will go over the data showing the number of illicit drugs

produced by both Afghanistan and Colombia and how difficult it is for their governments to shut

it down. As well as the number of illicit drugs used by the United States compared to other

countries around the world… So, without further ado, let’s dive in.
 2017, the year that Afghanistan reached a record high in its opium cultivation. “From 2016 to

2017, the area under opium cultivation in Afghanistan increased by 63% to 328,000 hectares: the

estimated total production of opium shot up by 87% to 9,000 metric tons. That’s the most in

Afghan history” (Felbab-Brown 2017) The numbers are certainly high and the government of

Afghanistan is very well aware of those numbers. The opium is being made into illegal heroin

and distributed throughout the world. So, why doesn’t the government do anything about the

illegal operation happening right under their noses? Because of the fact that they are looking at

different numbers. The illicit drug production in their country is helping the people of

Afghanistan by providing them by “providing a vital lifeline for many Afghans and enhancing

their human security.” (Felbab-Brown 2017) The government is finding themselves in a very

difficult situation, the production of illicit drugs in their company is helping their people provide

for their families. Unlike cartels in Mexico, Afghanistan cartels take care of their farmers and

workforce. Simply put “There is nothing in Afghanistan that produces more jobs than the opium

poppy economy” (Felbab-Brown 2017) That’s the hard part for the government of Afghanistan.

How do you shut something down when it is providing stability and prosperity for your country?

It becomes a question of ethics and morality that nobody can answer. Also, although there isn’t

evidence like the cartels in Mexico, you can almost bet that the government is being paid by the

criminal organizations of Afghanistan to allow them to continue operations. This is just one

example of why drug operations are complex and hard to stop.

Much like Afghanistan and opium, Colombia is growing in cocaine production each year. “A

report released this week said the land used to grow coca reached 422,550 acres by the end of

2017… a 17% increase from the year before.” (Casey 2018) The difference between Colombia

and Afghanistan is that this number has been growing since the day that Pablo Escobar founded
the Medellin cartel. Escobar rose to power with the help of the government and the demand for

cocaine in the United States a long time ago. The issue is that demand never went down and the

cartel got to a point where they were too difficult to stop. Pablo was generous to the people of

Colombia and the Colombian government back when the growth and production of cocaine was

only 1 acre of land. Which allowed the cartel to grow to a point where it was almost unstoppable.

Now the American government is telling the Colombian government to slow it all down because

America has contributed “more than $10.5 billion in aid since 2000” (Casey 2018) and nothing

has slowed down. The power of the Medellin cartel is insurmountable, even with Pablo Escobar

dead, they seem to thrive and grown more and more each day. Farmers for the cartel do not want

to do what they do but are left with no choice as the cartel controls their lives. It is either grow

and make cocaine or get yourself and your family killed. This is just one example of the power

the Medellin cartel has over Colombia and its people. They operate through fear and violence.

How do you begin to stop something that has that much control over how your country operates?

It again symbolizes the complexity and fragileness of the situation in Colombia. The production

of drugs is not slowing down anytime soon so long as the demand from the United States

remains high.

The United States is the largest consumer of illicit drugs in the world. In fact, we consume

more than 4 times the rate of other countries in illicit drugs. A survey asking people of their

lifetime drug usage was conducted and, in that survey, they found “16.2% of people in the

United States have used cocaine at some point during their lives. Almost four times the rate of

the second-place country, New Zealand, where 4.3% said they had tried cocaine” (T 2016) This

shows that the United States is undoubtedly the highest user of cocaine in the world and most of

that cocaine comes from Colombia. You can see now why the US government wants to help
Colombia end the production of cocaine once and for all. Opium is also a large epidemic

sweeping the United States. “Every day, more than 130 people in the United States after

overdoing on Opioids.” (NIDA 2019) This is pertaining to Heroin, prescription drugs, and other

synthetic opioids. One of those synthetic opioids known as Fentanyl is finding its way into

cocaine. This is bringing opioids and cocaine together, and the story is coming full circle. The

two together is costing the United States lives of its citizens and money. The United States loses

“$78.5 billion a year, including the costs of healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and

criminal justice involvement” (NIDA 2019) This is a shocking trend that is continuing to worsen

over the years. The amount of drug users in the United States is losing our country money and

keeping these illicit drug producers in business every day. Even more shocking are the trends

that the United States is beginning to see. “Younger adults were more likely to have used every

drug in the study than the older adults” (T 2016) This means that the generation that is supposed

to help with the illicit drug epidemic across the globe are actually contributing to the issue. That

is the most frightening thing about the epidemics sweeping the planet.

These three countries are just a small sample size of the much larger operations happening

around the world. The use and production of drugs is the one true thing that connects every

country in one way or another. One country produces drugs to meet the demands of other

countries people. The situation is complicated and difficult to stop overnight, plans need to be

implemented to take the drugs out at the source of production. Cartels in Colombia should be

taken down, the crops burned and the farmers freed, but like I said before it is delicate. We

cannot just go into countries imprisoning those making the cocaine or heroin. We do not know

everyone involved and could easily mistake someone innocent for a member of the cartel. As

long as they continue to have corrupt members of the government in their back pocket, they are
untouchable. As long as they can continue to produce and smuggle drugs into countries, they are

unstoppable. So, the question is how do governments begin taking down the lucrative drug

businesses across the globe? One thing remains almost certain, something needs to be done to

break the connection between the drug trade in the world. The trends simply cannot continue to

climb.
Works Cited

T, Buddy. “U.S. Has Highest Levels of Illegal Drug Use.” Verywell Mind, Verywell Mind, 27

Oct. 2016, www.verywellmind.com/us-has-highest-levels-of-illegal-drug-use-67909.

Felbab-Brown, Vanda. “Afghanistan's Opium Production Is through the Roof-Why Washington

Shouldn't Overreact.” Brookings, Brookings, 21 Nov. 2017, www.brookings.edu/blog/order-

from-chaos/2017/11/21/afghanistans-opium-production-is-through-the-roof-why-washington-

shouldnt-overreact/.

Diana.teixeira. “United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.” World Drug Report 2018: Opioid

Crisis, Prescription Drug Abuse Expands; Cocaine and Opium Hit Record Highs,

www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/2018/June/world-drug-report-2018_-opioid-crisis--

prescription-drug-abuse-expands-cocaine-and-opium-hit-record-highs.html.

Casey, Nicholas. “Colombia's Coca Acreage for Cocaine Production at All-Time High.” The

New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Sept. 2018,

www.nytimes.com/2018/09/20/world/americas/cocaine-colombia.html.

NIDA. “Opioid Overdose Crisis.” NIDA, 22 Jan. 2019, www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-

abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-crisis.