User:Malik diaw/sandbox

Jameson's Peer Review
1. What does the article do well? Is there anything from your review that impressed you? This could be information, writing, etc. that you think your classmate should not change and/or should expand on. The article does a good job laying out the information in a presentable way. Content is mixed with facts and anecdotes to engage reader interest that allow for better retainment of the information. I found the structure to be well thought out and effective. I like the combination detailing the general trends of the drug trade as region but also diving in the specifics of each country.

2. Where do you see room for improvement or further development? Make sure to explain why these changes would improve the article. Certain parts of the article need to be expanded upon which is expected for a rough draft. Overall, the bones of the article are there, there just needs to be a little more content around it.

3. What's the most important thing the author could do to improve the article? The most important thing would be to make sure that future additions are clear and concise.

4. Is the article well-organized? Does the structure make sense? The article is well organized with a structure that goes into the general trends of the subject while also diving in to anecdotes.

5. Did you notice anything about the article you reviewed that could be applicable to your own article? Let them know! I really like how you explored the drug trade in specific countries in West Africa. I want to do the same for mine!

6. As a reader, what else would you like to know about this topic? [Note, this information may not be readily available in all cases, but it can help generate interesting directions for research!] I would really like to know more about the sociopolitical implications of the west African drug trade. Perhaps the effects it has on the development and governance of these countries.

Intro (Expansion)
In the late 1950s and early 1960s the US and EU’s demand for cocaine, cannabis, and other drugs increased dramatically. This resulted in two trade routes, both of which went through West Africa. One route exported local cannabis from West and South Africa to Europe and Asia. The other trade route moved cocaine from Latin America and heroin from Afghanistan to the EU and US. '''In both of these routes, drug traffickers took advantage of trading networks created by Malian and Berber traders in colonial times to move drugs through the region and West Africa’s broader geographical location as an intermediate stop from Latin America and Southwest Asia to Europe and the United States. ''' This was only possible because of West Africa’s badly policed borders, endemic corruption, and economic inequalities. At first the drugs were only smuggled in small quantities, but as time progressed and the demand for drugs kept rising, countries in West Africa specifically Nigeria, Ghana, and Guinea-Bissau were entrusted with cocaine loads as large as 135 to 145 tonnes (according to the UNODC). Since then West Africa has become an important part of the drug trading world, with the both the increase in variety and number of drugs trafficked through West Africa and the expansion of the drug trade from West Africa to other parts of the continent.

History[edit]
In 2005 historian Emmanuel Akyeampong called our attention by publishing African Affairs, in which he states that cannabis products in West Africa existed before mid-twentieth century. In 1934 colonial authorities were still testing the cultivation of the coca plant in Calabar and other places in Nigeria. By the mid 1950’s police were arresting some Nigerian farmers for growing and selling small amounts of cannabis were being shipped to Europe and the United States. While this was going on, Nigerian cannabis smokers were buying some imported marijuana from South African and Belgian Congo dealers.

The first documented use of West Africa as a smuggling post was in 1952, when US officials noticed that a Lebanese syndicate was hiding heroin in West Africa in order to avoid getting caught by police and to avoid the scrutiny of officers on the European trade route.

West Africa’s rise as a major drug smuggling transit point starts at around the 1960s, when the Beatles and Swinging London were popular, and young men and women in the UK and other parts of Europe wanted illegal drugs. Marijuana was particularly high in demand, and this is when we get the first reports of marijuana grown in West Africa being exported from Nigeria to Europe in large quantities. The drug trade became a problem and the Nigerian government issues a decree stating that anyone found guilty exporting cannabis would get a ten year jail term. Until the 1980s, lots of Nigerians and some Ghanaian traders would go out and make trades on their own terms and conditions. The dealers went to places like Latin America or Asia and bought lots of small packages of drugs (usually cocaine or heroin) and they had couriers go out and sell their drugs. It has been speculated that the origins of mass drug exports started with West African students living in the EU and US who failed to receive payments of their study grants were hired by Nigerian naval officers in training who were stationed in India to deliver the heroin they bought and bring it back to the countries they were residing in.

After 1982 the US and Europe noticed a rise in Nigerian drug traders in their countries. The US arrested 21 Nigerians for drug offenses, and then many more thereafter. In Europe an official of the West German Interior Ministry reportedly said the following year that Hamburg, Germany was importing a serious amount of drugs from West Africa, including one and a half tonnes of a mystery drug (presumably marijuana) from Ghana.

Demand
From 1998 to 2009, cocaine consumption doubled in Europe, and as a result Latin American drug cartels and West African dealers formed an alliance in order to facilitate drug transportation by taking advantage of the airplanes and boats that enter and leave the coast of West Africa. Drugs were then spread through North America and Europe through localized West African ethnic communities that had the tools and resources to spread the network.

'Domestic demand for illicit drugs has differing effects for different populations. Use of cheaper substances, like marijuana and a cannabis rooted drink called akpeteshie falls heavily on working-class and poorer populations. In Ghana, groups like miners, agricultural laborers, and sailors use these substances as a way to cope with the demands of difficult lifestyles or grueling days of labor. Domestic demand for harder drugs such as cocaine and heroine, as well as Mandrax and amphetamines, were traditionally viewed as solely dependent on wealthier populations. However, falling prices of more expensive illicit drugs as well as expanding methods of consumption have made such substances more readily accessible to working-class Africans, particularly in city centers. The powerful energizing effects of harder substances has made them more attractive to laborers with long, exhaustive workdays. As a result of growing globalization forces in recent years, demand for substances, especially harder drugs, has spread to tourists and short-term residents of many West African countries.'

'Demand for drug trafficking routes through West Africa is sustained in some part by complicit governmental forces. Unlike more routes from Latin America or Asia that have gained growing amounts of attention from international drug enforcers, traders face relatively fewer obstacles in trafficking illicit substances through West Africa. Corruption and political relationships to underground economies fuel a "shadow state" system where money from drug trafficking funds government actors in their campaigns and financial holdings and politicians gain power and influence based on how they can wield funds from drug trafficking.'

Drug abuse
'New markets for illicit substances and a growing acceptance of hard drugs has led to cases of drug abuse throughout West Africa. The United Nations found that in the 1980s and 1990s, drug consumption increased dramatically in youth populations and among the urban poor. Whereas drug traffickers previously transported drugs through the West African region, they realized they could now save money by selling their products within the region. As a result, countries central to West African drug routes—Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Guinea-Bissau—have all seen a rise in domestic drug abuse. In countries like Nigeria, there are few government health and rehabilitation services available, leaving addicts and their families to find solutions on their own.'

Increasing substance abuse has led other issues within West Africa including the spread of HIV and AIDS and higher rates of prostitution and urban poor populations who are economically immobilized by a reliance on drugs. The Casamance conflict in Senegal is an example of how the growing domestic demand for substances has created financial opportunity for insurgent groups within the region, leading to further political instability.

Supply
Due to the rising demand of illegal drugs and the rising profits from illicit drugs following the mid-1980s, West Africans branched out of Africa and created outposts in big cities all across the world in order to establish effective drug trading networks. An estimated quarter to two-thirds of the cocaine that is coming from Latin America to Europe passes through West Africa.

'From a domestic standpoint, Nigeria and Ghana remain the largest producers of cannabis in West Africa. Cultivation is done largely in partnership with local farmers who plant crops such as okra and tomatoes to reduce the risk of seizure of the plants or government destruction of their farms. Cannabis is also cultivated in remote areas or under cover of forestry to conceal the plants from authorities.'

Growing fears about the expanding supply of illicit drugs in West Africa has created a focus on control of this growing supply as the preceding goal over other issues such as drug use within the West African region and public health issues. 'Drug use falls heavily on the working class and in marginalized populations. Groups like miners, agricultural laborers and sailors use substances as a way of coping with grueling lifestyles.' 

Transport
The World Drug Report stated, “The cocaine found in Africa originated mainly in Colombia and Peru and frequently transited through Brazil”. Heroin often travels through Southeast Asian regions such as Thailand and through Western Asian countries through a mix of overland routes and air transport by way of couriers. 'These substances are then transferred from West Africa to North America, Europe, and South Africa by employing direct transit routes and criminal network routes aided by the West African diaspora. In some cases, traffickers even used innocuous international travelers as couriers by having them place unmarked bags in their luggage.'

Container ships and private yachts were originally used for transporting cocaine from Latin America to West Africa, but since overseas police began guarding the ocean more, cartels started using second-hand cargo aircraft to deliver cocaine to West Africa. Airplanes can be easily obtained and pilots willing to fly those planes are just as easy to hire. Due to West Africa's unreliable national radar networks and coverage, narco-flights are able to fly into West Africa without detection. Illegal drugs were smuggled into Europe from Guinea-Bissau using air freights and commercial airliners that used “mules”, or human vessels, that would swallow condoms full of cocaine in order to bypass airline security.

'Drugs are smuggled across West African countries using a variety of techniques. When traveling on overland routes, traders hide substances with other products such as charcoal, cocoa, and fruit to conceal the smell and appearance at different police checkpoints. Products are also moved by way of taxis and individual vehicles during times which government posts and trade routes are unregulated. Lastly, drug traffickers will also pay law enforcement and border officials to move substances through land and sea routes freely and without punishment.'

International Consequences
The US’s enhanced border security along with the “war on drugs” in the 1970s and 1980s has severely impacted the Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas negatively. This caused the Mexican drug cartel to branch out and come in control of a profitable smuggling route that goes through West Africa and ends up in Europe. The Mexican cartel’s push into Europe is causing Colombian cartels to lose power in Europe. Colombia has been Europe’s main source for cocaine, but since the capture and arrest of the cartels leading figure in their supply routes, El Loco (Daniel Barrera Barrera), Colombian cartels have been suffering great financial loss. '''Criminal networks from West Africa have, in turn, spread to other regions—namely South Africa. Certain individuals central to the drug trade in West Africa carried practices and organizations to the south of the continent where transit costs and risk of detection are relatively lower.'''

Brazil and Venezuela have become major embarkation zones for illegal drugs that are headed for West Africa. Between 2005 and 2008 there were 46 metric tonnes of cocaine seized by police. This coincides with the Venezuelan government ceased working with the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The lack of law enforcement in Venezuela along with bad border control in both countries and bad coastline control in Brazil let drug trade thrive in the two countries and neighboring countries. Brazil and Venezuela are capable of shipping cocaine transnationally to West and South Africa due to the lack of security in both continents.

Drug Control
'''The growing presence of both trafficking organizations operating on an international level and smaller-scale drug trafficking business operations in many West African countries have cemented localized markets for a range of drugs. The local trade of imported cocaine and heroin has skyrocketed in recent years and, in some countries, has spread drug abuse to virtually every city. Within the last century, marijuana (primarily cultivated in its hashish form) has transitioned from a profitless drug to one that is sold locally and trafficked on the routes previously used for cocaine and heroin.'''

In the past, international organizations and governmental and nongovernmental groups established control measures against drug trafficking through a narrow lens '''. The main supply countries in the West African drug trade have historically put pressure on West African governments to institute punitive policies and practice harsher methods to control international routes. Related research has similarly focused on the number of arrests made or the amounts of drugs seized rather than the more nuanced connections between drug trafficking and economic and political activity. This focus on arrests and seizures has been shown to have little effect on the size of the West African drug trade and has caused traffickers to simply employ new methods of subversion and concealment. The true effect of this control methodology has been to target small-scale cannabis growers and substance users rather than larger traffickers that have the money and influence to avoid punishment.'''

The realized result of these enforcement policies has been stricter control at airports, seaports, and other borders in West African nations. 'International funding was relinquished in an attempt to crack down on corruption and government connections to drug traffickers. In countries like Nigeria, the death penalty was instituted as a way to severely punish those involved in the drug trade at any level.'

In Nigeria, this prioritization of strict drug control, exacerbated by patronage relationships between the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency and country leadership, has engendered a brutal and repressive internal drug war '''. These measures do not encompass the full effect of drug trafficking on West Africa, and ignore the rooted culture of drug consumption that trafficking has produced.'''

Corruption and the Drug Trade
A driving factor in rapid growth of the drug trafficking network in West Africa has been deeply rooted corruption in many, if not all, West African countries. Many governmental organizations and politicians benefit from money embezzled through the drug trade and have little incentive to punish large-scale drug traffickers and criminal networks. 'At a more local level, drug traffickers pay border agents and law enforcement to pass substances through overland networks safely and at low risk. These negotiations and payments are done at little cost to trafficking groups as result of poverty and government debt that allows them to make cheaply compensate corrupt government officials.'

'Civil wars, military coups, and other intergovernmental conflicts exacerbate corruption related to drug trafficking. Political actors in these unstable regimes exercise control of secondary, illegal markets to gain a tighter hold on power. In Guinea Bissau, military leaders that seized power under the pretense of reducing corruption have taken part in corrupt deals that facilitate the flow of drugs across the country's borders.'

'Facing pressure from international institutions, some West African governments have created anti-corruption organizations to start reversing the trend of drug trafficking in their countries. Nigeria created both the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission to identify government officials tied to bribery and embezzlement in underground drug networks. These attempts at reducing corruption in Nigeria as well as other West African countries have largely been met with failure due to weak criminal justice systems and levels of corruption imbued in every level of government.'

Drug Policy Reform
In the scope of seeking new measures of control of the drug trade and reform of counter-drug measures, the African Union and West African Commission on Drugs have introduced policy measures that focus on shifting the focus of change from controlling the exports and trafficking of illicit drugs to combatting drug use in West Africa and reducing the internal consumption of drugs that have become more readily available as a result of the drug trade.

Several European countries and drug enforcement agencies have aimed to reduce the harm caused to users both in Africa and internationally. This shows a shift from older policies that were focused on completely eliminating the trade and consumption of illicit substances rather than trying to remedy their effects.

'''These changes have been realized through policy statements and initiatives that seek to strengthen research on the drug trade in West Africa by improving data collection techniques and exploring other areas outside of the current focus and other illicit drugs besides just cocaine and heroin. In response to the growing consumption within West Africa, the two organizations have also called for research on how best to treat drug addicts and substance abusers. From a reform standpoint, the objective of the organizations has been to recognize the violent and extrajudicial methods that have been used to control the drug trade in the past and instead facilitate control through researched and debated strategies.'''

Nigeria[edit]

 * Local police and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have noticed that the import, export, and traffic of many drugs including heroin, cannabis, and cocaine have been rising. The drugs originate from areas as far as Latin America and Afghanistan.
 * The decline and subsequent break down of the oil industry as well as new tariffs and restrictions on exported natural resources in the 1980s incentivized many Nigerians to turn to the less restricted drug trade. Over time, this has led to the global presence of Nigerian criminal organizations centered around the drug trade and the creation of Nigerian DTOs, or Drug Trade Organizations.
 * Nigerian drug trafficking organizations are administered top down by drug barons who manage a mix of operators, or "strikers", who work as intermediaries in building foreign relationships and administer drug sales and fake legal documentation. These strikers also recruit couriers, ensuring that they have little to no connection to the drug baron they work under.
 * The reach of the international drug trade began to have local effects as well. As early as 1989, there were accounts of drug addiction centers in Nigeria that had a notably higher number of cases involving heroin or cocaine addiction. This trend is backed by anecdotal evidence of surge in adulterated cocaine and heroin in cities and urban centers throughout Nigeria and other West African Countries.
 * Since the 1990s, Nigeria's drug control efforts have been identified as some of the most effective in the West African region, despite research that has shown mixed degrees of control . Nigerian drug agencies, led by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, have taken a larger role in working with other African countries in drug enforcement and playing a larger regional role. These Nigerian agencies are also known for their particularly punitive strategies in dealing with drug trafficking with past executions of drug lords and attempts at completely eradicating cannabis . However, in the last ten years, government and domestic funding has decreased for the agencies that employ such strategies, implying a shift in methodology and an attempt at reform in Nigerian drug policy
 * The reputation of Nigeria as the source of international drug syndicates has incited gang violence and international violence against Nigerians who are confused with criminal networks. Detainment and death of alleged Nigerian drug dealers across the continent has led to health and human rights concerns.

Guinea-Bissau[edit]

 * Since Guinea-Bissau used to be a Portuguese colony, the Portuguese do not require Bissau-Guineans visas in order to enter Portugal. This allows illegal drugs to be smuggled easily into Europe using “mules”, or human drug vessels.
 * Guinea-Bissau’s poverty makes illegal drug trading ideal in the country because the drug trade can earn the country an estimated $2 billion a year, which is nearly two times as much as Guinea-Bissau’s GDP. In European cities the value of the cocaine and drugs could be as high as an estimated $20 billion.
 * Guinea-Bissau’s illegal international drug trade has led to an increase in criminal activity which has led to higher violence in the country.

Ghana

 * Ghana was first exposed to cannabis through Ghanaian soldiers who came in contact with the substance in South Asia during World War II. Cultivation and consumption consequently spread quickly through larger cities such as Accra. Ghana is now the second largest West African producer of cannabis.
 * Nigerian organizations and routes spread to Ghana in the early 1980s and quickly expanded as Nigerian drug traffickers began to be convicted and punished and Ghana became a safer, alternative network. Many Ghanaians began as drug intermediaries or couriers in the region and quickly moved up to higher positions in the criminal networks.
 * Field research in Ghana has shown that the cannabis trade and distribution is sold and transported in wholesale, where it is bought from farmers of other crops and fruits and taken to other areas of the country and out to countries like Gambia and Senegal.
 * The Narcotics Control Board (NCB) is the primary domestic drug enforcement and works through detection of substances, drug searches and seizures, and through cooperation with international organizations to make larger-scale seizures and arrests. The NCB has international approval for its drug enforcement policies, but many local Ghanaian police officers have a less reliable record and are known to take part in drug smuggling and as one of the largest user groups.