Topic: Preventing the Smuggling of Illegal Drugs
Country: Malawi
Delegate Name: Erin Lynn
School: Royal Oak High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Malawi position papers GLIMUN 2012 committees
The trade of illegal drugs and its effects are worldwide problems. In all nations, drugs are responsible, both directly and indirectly, for violence and many deaths. The portion of the trade that has the most effect, however, depends on the nation. In first world countries, most drugs have already come from the producers and are going first to dealers and then to the users. Deaths usually come from either fights between dealers trying to control their area of the market, or from the effect of the drugs themselves. On the other hand, in third world countries, such as Malawi and its neighbors, the problems come from growers and producers of drugs and those who transport them to other places. Violence can often stem from similar routes as with dealers, competition between transporters to gain control.
In order to prevent the smuggling of drugs, committee should work at the producer end, trying to stop the market by impeding the profits that can be made. A large amount of drugs come from countries in Central and South America, Southeast Asia, or Africa, and are sent to countries with a high living standard, where sellers can get the most profit. It would be logical that if the demand for drugs—the number of drug users—was reduced, the sale of illegal drugs would plummet.
We members of the committee could also reduce the amount of drugs that are produced. Many drug growers and producers, some of whom are in Malawi, with its fairly large production of marijuana, are otherwise lawful people, who do what they do because it’s the best way they have to make a living. If this committee could find other crops for growers to grow or other items for manufacturers to produce, it would concurrently reduce the drug supply and put many nations’ human resources to better use. This would also help blunt most backlash from the previously mentioned near-elimination of the demand for drugs.
Malawi looks forward to working with the rest of the committee on this topic, and hopes other nations will consider the solutions that it has proposed.
