Topic: Escalating Violence in the International Drug Trade
Country: Uganda
Delegate Name: Alexandra King
School: Mattawan High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Uganda position papers GLIMUN 2010 committees
Drug trafficking is a global issue that is greatly impacting the life and well-being of citizens and communities throughout the world. However, this problem of drug trade, which has been occurring for years, has just recently come up in the headlines due to the escalating violence. Uganda is one of many countries that is being affected by the increase in both drug trade itself and the violence that occurs due to it. This rapid increase and violence is proving detrimental to the already struggling democracies in Africa. As the US/Mexico border has become tightened many of the drug-runners that ferry drugs there have made there way to East Africa causing Uganda to be a hot spot for drug trade.
The primary reason for this continued illegal activity is the fact that the drug laws have a lack of or light penalties against it. Drug-runners and drug-lords risk working in Uganda rather than other countries because the penalties are not as heavy if caught. An option to help the situation is to revamp their National Drug Authority Act; however, it has hit a stalemate for the past five years in their government and this is unlikely to change soon. The ideal solution is to eliminate such trade completely; however, Uganda is not in a position to be able to due this alone due to the scope and seriousness of the problem. Uganda at this point in time is not capable of handling the sheer amount of illegal drug trade that occurs there daily. However, Uganda believes that if East Africa creates a joint anti-drug trafficking task force it would help with the capture of illegal drug-runners, and removal of international drug cartels in this area creating a safer environment.
