CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background of the Study

According to the World Drug Report (2015), the use of illicit drugs has increased throughout the world in recent years. The report further states that a major world trend is the increasing availability of many kinds of drugs to an ever widening socio-economic spectrum of consumers. The report argues that the main problem drugs at global level continue to be opiates (notably heroine) followed by cocaine. For example, for most of Europe and Asia, opiates continued to be the main problem drugs, accounting for 62 percent of all treatment in 2007. Reports from a total of 95 countries indicated that drug seizures increased four-fold in 2005, and more than half of these were of cannabis.

Every country in the world, developed or developing, incurs substantial costs as a result of damages caused by substance abuse (World Drug Report, 2009). The World Health Organization (WHO, 2012) estimates that 1.1 billion people, representing a third of the world population above the age of 15 years, use tobacco, principally in the form of the cigarettes. Of the 800 million smokers, 700 million of them are males in developing countries (WHO, 2012). While smoking rates have been declining in the developed world, they have increased in the developing countries by as much as 50 percent, especially in Asia and in the Pacific region, over the last decade. Addiction to tobacco is therefore a major problem in the developing countries. According to the same report, tobacco sources four million deaths annually, not including prenatal morbidity and mortality. This figure is projected to rise to 1.6 million by the year 2025, 70 percent of which will occur in the developing world if current trends continue (International Narcotics Control Board, 2012).

According to the African Union Ministerial Conference on Drug Control in Africa report (2014), at least 16 countries in Africa have reported abuse of opiates, with prevalence rates ranging from 0.01 to 0.8 percent for the population aged 15 and above. Twelve countries reported cocaine abuse with prevalence ranging from 0.01 to 1.1 percent for this age bracket. Concurrently, the age of those initiated to drug use is diminishing with large numbers of in-school and out-of-school youth consuming drugs. This phenomenon is even more acute in conflict and post conflict countries, with populations experiencing high stress levels while child soldiers are provided with drugs to enable them to fight.

All the while, Africa’s role in the global drugs supply chain is increasing. Already the continent is the second largest region for cannabis production, trafficking and consumption, accounting for 26 percent of global seizures of this drug in 2001 (UNODC, 2010). By country, the largest hauls in this period were in Kenya, Nigeria, and the Republic of South Africa, while Morocco is said to be one of the main producers of Cannabis resin.

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