Empire of datura

How the global drug trade works

The first mentions of opium can be found back in Sumerian cuneiform tablets. Consciousness-altering substances were familiar to the ancient Greeks and Romans — the former actually came up with the word ‘opium’. However, until the 19th century, drugs were most often used in their natural form, and secondly, their use often had a ritualistic background. Over 200 years ago, the situation began to change. Increasingly more layers of the population became familiar with datura, especially in regions where drug use was previously unpopular. In addition, the development of chemistry made it possible to isolate substances in concentrated form. In 1804, morphine was isolated from opium; cocaine appeared in the middle of the century, and heroin — in 1874. The 20th century brought a surge of inventions related to the synthesis of drugs that have no natural analogues. Such a gold mine could not fail to be noticed by professional criminals, who enveloped the world in intricate networks of drug production and delivery.

Beast with a thousand faces

Nowadays, the most common drug in the world, as follows from the World Drug Report 2024 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), is cannabis.

According to experts, it is used by about 228 million people. Next come opiates with a result of 60 million, amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) — 30 million, cocaine and ecstasy — 23 and 20 million, respectively. In total, according to UN experts, there are about 292 million drug addicts in the world, which is 5.6 percent of the planet’s population aged 15 to 64. At the same time, the situation is going from bad to worse from year to year: ten years ago, there were 23 percent fewer drug addicts than now. 
The production of plant-based drugs is tied to regions where the corresponding plants can comfortably exist with little care from humans. Therefore, the lion’s share of opiates, for example, is produced in the Golden Crescent (Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan), the Golden Triangle (Thailand, Laos, Myanmar), as well as in India, Türkiye and a number of Middle Eastern countries. 
Another drug of plant origin is cocaine, obtained from coca, which grows mainly in South America. A significant part of the white powder goes to the USA, Western and Central Europe from here. 
However, synthetic substances are perhaps a bigger problem than drugs of plant origin. In the eyes of black marketeers, they have a number of advantages. Thus, amphetamine, ecstasy and other similar crap do not need huge areas for growing plants — everything can be done in semi-basement laboratories, and there are no requirements for the climate: chemicals can be mixed even in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro or under the gloomy sky of London.

Apocalypse now 

Drug addiction and drug trafficking, like two heads of one disgusting snake, are a serious problem not only for those who use potent substances and for their families, but also for society as a whole. Even spending significant resources to combat drug trafficking by entire countries sometimes cannot improve the situation.

In this context, a striking example is the fentanyl catastrophe in the United States. According to official estimates, from July 2023 to July 2024, nearly 90,000 Americans died from an overdose of fentanyl or mixtures containing it. The fentanyl epidemic in the United States, which caused the first decrease in the expected standard of living since the Second World War, has once again exacerbated the problem of an organised drug mafia, which has not only reached the international level, but has also gained power that allows it to influence geopolitical processes. The global drug market is divided among a number of groups that occasionally co-operate or fight with each other. Notably, drug trafficking is far from their only source of income: Italian, Mexican, Albanian, American, Hong Kong, and Japanese gangs also traffic in people, sell weapons and valuables, export natural resources from regions under their control, and organise illegal migration. 
Nevertheless, the production and sale of drugs is one of the most profitable criminal businesses. A textbook example is the Mexican cartels such as The Cártel del Golfo (CDG), Sinaloa, The Jalisco New Generation (CJNG), and many others. Their leaders — after the fall of their Colombian colleagues in the late 1980s and early 1990s — first took over the cocaine trade, and then began to develop the production of ‘synthetics’, while simultaneously working out the logistics of delivering dope across the American border.

Delivery channels being blocked 

As Oleg Silvestrovich, Head of Main Directorate for Drug Control and Combating Human Trafficking of Belarus’ Interior Ministry, told the SB. Tendentsii observer, last year the trend of decreasing the number of registered crimes related to illegal drug trafficking, cases of delivery to healthcare facilities due to poisoning with psychoactive substances and fatal overdoses was maintained. The Belarusian police identified 3,883 drug crimes, of which 3,586 were directly related to illegal drug trafficking. In 1,927 cases, the criminals were caught selling psychoactive substances. In total, 2,137 people were detained during the specified period, who rashly decided that Belarusian law enforcement officers would not be able to detect the vigorous activity of illegal drug trafficking that they had developed. 
As for the number of channels for the delivery and transit of dope through the territory of Belarus, 40 of them were closed last year. Most often, couriers are caught during inspection at the border. Over the year, six drug labs were discovered, two of which involved six Belarusians on the territory of Russia. “The most popular are still synthetic psychotropic substances from among stimulants and euphorics, such as mephedrone, alpha-PVP, 4-CMC, as well as plant-based drugs — hashish and marijuana, which are seized not only on the territory of Belarus, but also in the framework of co-operation with law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation on the territory of the neighbouring state,” emphasised Oleg Silvestrovich. 
Over the past several years, a tendency has emerged in our legislative process to relax criminal liability for crimes in the field of illegal drug trafficking. However, illegal drug trafficking poses a high threat to society, the state and specific individuals, and for an objective assessment of the possibility of relaxations in the legislation, it is necessary to take into account the opinions of not only the relatives of those who committed such a crime, but also the victims. 

Incidentally, as we were informed by the Interior Ministry, recently there has been an increase in the number of appeals from Belarusians who oppose reducing the limits of punishment under Article 328 of the Criminal Code.

PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN!

According to Belarus’ Interior Ministry, last year, compared to 2023, the number of teenagers who committed drug crimes increased from 65 to 87, including those caught selling drugs — from 58 to 70. These figures indicate, in particular, that law enforcement agencies are not weakening their work in the fight against drugs.

By  Anton Popov