Nexus - 0704 - New Times Magazine-pages

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However, such state-induced extortion or bribing of the trade is not _ their interests. The income and employment the industry gener- only an activity for private gain (supplementing salaries). In fact, ates, for a multiplicity of players and societies at large, also do not various systems exist that provide for the distribution of such rents _ fail to provide political clout to drug-related interests, especially within hierarchical networks through which such money flows. In when threatened by foreign or domestic repression efforts. return, they facilitate exchange in prohibited markets. However, prohibition severely hampers the formal incorporation Bribery can be a primary method of public finance, alongside of the drug industry through taxation, interest mediation and taxation, borrowing and inflation (Thornton, 1991:137). From forms of market, labour and product regulation. that perspective, it should be less of a surprise to find police offi- It is my contention that from the consequential partial, informal cials actively involved in the management and maintenance of the _ or denied integration derive many of the most harmful conse- black-market monopolies. Through their relations with drug quences of the industry's operations, much more so since police entrepreneurs, police officers and other state protectors become and military institutions are ill-equipped to perform these regula- responsive to the monopolist. This may lead them to act against tory roles." new entrants or third parties in the pursuit of maintaining the As both the drug industry and drug law enforcement are inter- monopoly and its profits. nationalising, they put severe strains on the possibilities of the Such symbiotic relations are often an outcome of law enforce- state to incorporate the drug industry in local and domestic ment tactics, where drug enforcement agencies arrangements which could limit their desta- infiltrate trafficking rings and set up ‘front’ bilising effects on society. However, such a stores to provide services to the drug industry. strategy, if applied—and many countries The War on Drugs in many countries is lit- Toa greater or lesser cannot escape such a choice, either by infor- erally running out or contra. A severe cms s extent, the narcotics mal arrangements or through corruption upset the Dutch police and juridical system . comes less feasible where the power o: when it turned out that the methods used by industry has become organised crime and pressures for intensified police agencies in their criminal investigations economically and law enforcement upset such symbiotic rela- of drug traffickers had to a large extent . tions. devolved beyond juridical boundaries and par- . socially entrenched The drug industry and drug repression, liamentary control. The Dutch parliamentary in almost every country certainly where they cross the borders of commission which investigated these methods in the world other states, can therefore have very disrup- in 1996 found, for example, that 285 tonnes of . tive effects on domestic political-economic drugs had been imported by the Dutch police, institutions and arrangements. This can of which 100 tonnes had disappeared Few sectors remain come about merely as an unintended onto the market (Zwaap, 1996)."° untouched by the drug consequence of conscientious cross-bor- The opportunities for bribery and out- industry, as dru der supply reduction efforts. However, right extortion, facilitated by the outlaw ry, g in many instances, drug policies are proceeds are consumed position of drug entrepreneurs, constitute merely part of other foreign policy an important incentive for the escalation and invested in other goals and are to a large extent shaped enterprises or as banks of the drug war. In a more formalised by the institutional logic of agencies way, asset seizure laws have had the called in to implement them. and transport companies. same result (Benson, Rasmussen, Solars, Recent history has shown that, right- 1995; Benson and Rasmussen, 1996). In ly, much more calculation tends to play fact, the idea of self-financing police arole in supply-side policies than in forces is now also actively propagated by zealous supply reduction. Such policies Pino Arlacci, director of the United also take into account the interests Nations Office for Drug Control and involved in drug trafficking, and the Crime Prevention (AFP, 31 March 1999). capabilities of governments to offset the pressure put on these interests by efforts to stifle the drug econo- ECONOMIC, SOCIAL & POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS my (for example, crop substitution projects carried out by the To a greater or lesser extent, the narcotics industry has become —_ United Nations with the aim of providing drug farmers with an economically and socially entrenched in almost every country in alternative source of income, or the provision of arms to the the world. Drug-related interests have permeated many sectors of | Colombian military). However, as soon as drug policies become society—sectors which often function in the formal economy but _ part of broader policy goals towards other countries, they are like- derive part of their income from activities connected to the drug ly to be subordinated to other priorities that states pursue to pro- trade. Few sectors remain untouched by the drug industry, as tect their national interests. drug proceeds are consumed and invested in other enterprises or Just as war is the continuation of politics by other means, so the as banks and transport companies, for example, provide services War on Drugs has become an extension of foreign policy by other to the drug industry and so become part of the drug industry them- means (Marshall, 1991:ii). International drug policies almost selves. inescapably become enmeshed with geopolitical and economic The drug industry is to varying degrees also socially embedded —_ considerations (LaBrousse and Koutouzis, 1996). So, enhancing in many countries. Certainly, drug consumption is culturally root- the powers of specific law-enforcers—such as, in an extreme case, ed in not only the most marginalised sectors of the population. the military in Peru or Colombia Iso likely to serve interests Furthermore, drug entrepreneurs increasingly establish themselves quite different from convincing coca growers to limit their output. as a social force that seeks integration in the formal institutions of In the most brutal form, international drug law enforcement can the societies in which they live and operate. Thereby, they often —_ legitimise outright military intervention, as the Panamanians gain if not the respectability, then at least some leverage to protect experienced in the late 1980s. To a greater or lesser extent, the narcotics industry has become economically and socially entrenched in almost every country in the world. untouched by the drug industry, as drug proceeds ; are consumed ats and invested in other enterprises or as banks and transport companies. ECONOMIC, SOCIAL & POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS To a greater or lesser extent, the narcotics industry has become economically and socially entrenched in almost every country in the world. Drug-related interests have permeated many sectors of society—sectors which often function in the formal economy but derive part of their income from activities connected to the drug trade. Few sectors remain untouched by the drug industry, as drug proceeds are consumed and invested in other enterprises or as banks and transport companies, for example, provide services to the drug industry and so become part of the drug industry them- selves. The drug industry is to varying degrees also socially embedded in many countries. Certainly, drug consumption is culturally root- ed in not only the most marginalised sectors of the population. Furthermore, drug entrepreneurs increasingly establish themselves as a social force that seeks integration in the formal institutions of the societies in which they live and operate. Thereby, they often gain if not the respectability, then at least some leverage to protect JUNE — JULY 2000 NEXUS 27 Few sectors remain