Topic: Drug Cartels and Organized Crime
Country: United States
Delegate Name: Kendall Gardner
School: Fishers High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All United States position papers GLIMUN 2015 committees
The United States of America is a key proponent of the reduction of drug abuse and trafficking throughout the international community. The United States recognizes the importance of curtailing drug production and trade in order to restore stability to not only the countries exporting narcotics, but the countries receiving these illegal drugs.
In the past, the United States has combated drug cartels by focusing on diminishing both the supply and demand of drugs through international cooperation. The United States has also advocated the disruption of the drug trade by police or military forces. To enforce the war on drugs, the United States has established two key plans, the U.S. National Drug Control Strategy and International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, both of which are updated annually and mandated by the U.S. Congress. To combat regional drug issues, the U.S. has created several different strategies: Mérida Initiative and Strategy in Mexico, Central American Citizen Security Partnership, Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI), U.S.-Colombia Strategic Development Initiative (CSDI), U.S. Counternarcotics Strategy for Afghanistan, and West Africa Cooperative Security Initiative (WACSI). These initiatives are all focused on combating the narcotic issues in specific regions because the United States believes that the best way to solve this problem is through regional focus and support from the international community.
To effectively solve this problem through the Security Council, the United States recommends reducing drug production at the source while also reducing demand in other nations, disrupting the transit of illicit drugs, dismantling international drug networks, and incentivizing international cooperation to staunch the flow of illegal drugs. The United States understands that there are different approaches for how to solve this issue, but it believes that these tactics are the most efficient ways to solve the problem without infringing severely upon the national sovereignty of any one nation. The United States is willing to compromise on these issues, but there must be an effective strategy implemented to clearly designate how the issue of drug trafficking will be halted internationally. Although the United States supports the use of the Security Council to create a strategy to solve this problem, other UN organs such as the UNODC can be utilized to allow more nations to be involved in combating drug cartels and organized crime.
