FOR NJOSH ONLY

Subject: Econ 430 War on Drugs

Your topic should be on public policy. The project must state why the topic selected is important to you. 

You will be required to write a short integrative bibliographical paper of no more than seven (7) pages for this course. This short paper will consist of eight journal articles or working papers regarding issues in: 

1. Drug Policies; 

2. Economic Analysis; 

3. Economic Historical Analysis; 

4. Medical History; 

5. Scientific Analysis; 

6. International Diplomacy; and/or 

7. Social and Philosophical Analysis. 

The bibliographical selection may address topics from the examples listed below: 

1. A critique of the drug policy in the United States (shortcomings, reduction of supply of drugs, treatment options, etc.);  

2. Legitimate historical use of drugs: opium and cocaine;  

3. Comparative international policies;  

4. Historical analysis of policies in different countries; 

5. Socio-Economic analysis of drug policies; 

6. International Drug Cartels and their Activities / Violence and Corruption; 

7. European colonialism and the drug trade in history; and 

8. Foreign Trade

Links to topics to write paper on

“Cocaine: The Evolution of the Once ‘Wonder’ Drug” by Caleb Hellerman, CNN July 22, 2011 6:21 p.m. EDT; and 

Chandra, Siddharth. “Economic Histories of the Opium Trade”. EH.Net Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Whaples. February 10, 2008. URL http://eh.net/encyclopedia/economic-histories-of-the-opium-trade/

Foreign Policy at Brookings Institution (Mar. 2009). “The Violent Drug Market in Mexico and Lessons from Colombia” by Vanda Felbab-Brown; Policy Paper No. 12.  

Chapter 1: The Drug Trade as a Global and National Phenomenon”; (pp.1- 18) by by Mares, David R. (2005) “Drug Wars and Coffeehouses”; 1st Edition.  

Chapter 2: “Analytical Perspectives for Explaining the Drug Trade”; (pp. 19-34) by Mares, David R. (2005) “Drug Wars and Coffeehouses”; 1st Edition.  

Cocaine:

The Evolution of the Once ‘Wonder’ Drug

By Caleb Hellerman

,

CNN

July 22, 20

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1 6:21 p.m. EDT

· Cocaine has been praised and cursed, through two frenzied cycles, a century apart

· Freud used the drug for energy, and at the same time, to calm his nerves

· Since a peak in the mid-’80s, cocaine use has dropped by about half  Whatever the stereotype, cocaine use today is dominated by addicts

(CNN) — Long before drug cartels, crack wars and TV shows about addiction, cocaine was promoted as a wonder drug, sold as a cure-all and praised by some of the greatest minds in medical history, including Sigmund Freud and the pioneering surgeon William Halsted. According to historian Dr. Howard Markel, it was even promoted by the likes of Thomas Edison, Queen Victoria and Pope Leo XIII.

It was an explosive debut that would be echoed a century later, when cocaine reemerged as a different kind of miracle drug, the kind that could let you party all night long with no ill effects and no risk of addiction. Each time, the enthusiasm was misplaced and the explosion left a wreckage of human lives behind.

In 1884, Sigmund Freud was a young physician in Vienna, struggling to make a living even as he dreamed of being a world-famous medical pioneer. He just needed a discovery — and he thought he had it.

“If all goes well,” he wrote his future wife, Martha, “I will write an essay on it and I expect it will win its place in therapeutics by the side of morphine and superior to it. … I take very small doses of it regularly against depression and against indigestion and with the most brilliant of success.”

Freud wasn’t the first to write about cocaine. The drug is derived from the coca plant, where natives in South America had been chewing the leaves for centuries. By 1880, a number of companies had succeeded in creating a concentrated version: cocaine hydrochloride — that would set the world reeling. “It was tens to hundreds of times more powerful than chewing on a coca leaf,”

Markel says. “It was extremely pure and extremely powerful.”

By 1880, a number of companies had succeeded in creating a concentrated version of coca leaves.

In the 1880s, medical literature consisted of case reports: doctors writing about their trial and error with individual patients. By the early 1880s, there were case reports on cocaine, many published in the widely read Therapeutic Gazette, which was published by Parke-Davis, cocaine’s largest manufacturer.

According to Markel, Freud devoured these reports and set himself to writing the definitive tome. The result, in 1884, was “Uber Coca,” 70 pages of tribute to the white powder that Freud thought could prove a cure for morphine addiction. … Somehow in his rapture, he mentioned only in passing that the drug could also serve as a potent topical painkiller — for which it is still sometimes used. Halsted, then 32, was already a well-known surgeon in New York when he read Freud’s paper and was immediately drawn to explore its uses as a painkiller. Aside from high rates of infection, surgery in the 1880s was a brutal business.

Ether and chloroform were used as anesthetics, but according to Markel, doctors and nurses would have to literally wrestle the patient to keep them down as they administered the choking gas. Seeking a better method, Halsted began injecting cocaine into his own limbs, as well as those of friends, students and colleagues. While he discovered a valuable means of deadening nerve endings, the findings came at a high price. By the time a patient came in to his operating room a few months later, with a compound leg fracture, the surgeon was a physical and mental wreck. Says Markel, “(Halsted) was so high on cocaine that he knew he couldn’t operate. So he just left the scene, took a cab and went home, and stayed at his townhouse for the next seven months, high on cocaine.” No doubt there were many addicts like Halsted, but in large part their problems were hidden by a wave of positive publicity.

The drug was part of the pop zeitgest in the 1970s and thought to be an entirely safe drug.

“There were all sorts of health claims being made,” says Markel. “If you had a stomach ache, if you were nervous, if you were lethargic, if you needed energy, if you had tuberculosis, if you had asthma, all sorts of things. It was going to cure what you had. And this was how it was advertised, too. Not only by marketers who made these drinks, but by major pharmaceutical houses.”

But back then, drugs weren’t trapped behind pharmacy walls. Cocaine was sold in drinks, ointments, even margarine. The most popular product was Vin Mariani, a Bordeaux wine developed by a French chemist, with 6 milligrams of cocaine in every ounce — nearly 200 milligrams in a typical bottle.

In Atlanta, a Civil War veteran named John Syth Pemberton created a copycat wine. Pemberton, who had become a morphine addict after suffering war wounds, was interested in cocaine as a treatment for morphine addiction. He was also a shrewd businessman. When Fulton County, his Atlanta home, banned the sale of alcohol, he concocted a sweet, nonalcoholic version: Coca-Cola. In Vienna, Freud’s own health was deteriorating due to heavy cocaine use. He suffered an irregular heartbeat and severe nasal blockages. “I need a lot of cocaine,” he confessed in an 1896 letter. Soon after, though, he swore off the drug. “The cocaine brush has been completely put aside,” he wrote to a friend.

Freud may not have been truly addicted, but he wasn’t alone in growing wary of the wonder drug. Says Markel, “By the early 1890s, the medical literature was filled with reports of people who had taken too much cocaine and now had become florid addicts to the stuff.” Halsted was one of them. But it didn’t keep him from developing the radical mastectomy, as well as techniques that led to sharply reduced rates of complication and infection. Among other things, Halsted invented the rubber surgical glove.

The advertisements went away. By 1903, there was no more cocaine in CocaCola. By 1914, the drug was often seen as something for undesirables — and often, mixed up in ugly stereotypes. An infamous

article in The New York Times

, by the physician Edward Huntington Williams, warned of a new danger: “Negro cocaine ‘fiends.’ ” Williams described a North Carolina police chief who claimed his regular ammunition had little effect on these drug users, and had switched to larger bullets.

Wrote Williams, “Many other officers in the South, who appreciate the increased vitality of the cocaine-crazed Negroes, have made a similar exchange for guns of greater shocking power for the express purpose of combating the ‘fiend’ when he runs amuck.” Later in 1914, Congress passed the Harrison Narcotics Act, banning the nonmedical use of cocaine, as well as other drugs, like marijuana. Cocaine’s long career as an outlaw had begun. Once banned, cocaine was largely off the radar, although Markel says there was an uptick in use during Prohibition. By the 1970s, the stories of criminals and addicts were largely forgotten.

With the forgetting came an explosion in use that would surpass the one a century before. Again, it started with the elite. “To be a cocaine user in 1979 was to be rich, trendy and fashionable,” says Mark Kleiman, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Los Anegeles, and co-author of “Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know.” “People weren’t worried about cocaine. It didn’t seem to be a real problem.” Of course, it was a mirage. The last straw for many was the 1986 death of Len Bias, the former University of Maryland basketball star who had just been drafted by the Boston Celtics. Bias died of a heart attack after a night of partying and cocaine use with friends. As they had a century earlier, lawmakers responded with a ferocity that hit poor — and nonwhite — users hardest. In 1986 and again in 1988, Congress passed mandatory sentencing laws that led to an explosion in the U.S. prison population.

“Virtually every state, as well as the federal government, now has some mix of mandatory sentencing,” says Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, a group that advocates for poor drug defendants. “Federal prosecutors will tell you it’s supposed to be for the large-scale or most complex cases, but the reality is, it hasn’t worked out that way.” The laws drew a sharp distinction between crack and powder use. The sale of 500 grams of powder cocaine was punishable by a five-year mandatory prison sentence; just 5 grams of crack would bring the same penalty. It’s a distinction with little rhyme or reason, says Mauer. “It’s the same drug.”

Since the peak in the mid-’80s, the number of users has dropped by about half, according to the most widely accepted studies. Cocaine use today is dominated by addicts, according to Kleiman, who estimates that 50% to 60% of all cocaine is consumed by people who have been arrested in the past year. Cocaine has been praised and cursed, not through one but through two frenzied cycles, a century apart. And yet addictive drugs, not to mention the lure of any cure-all drug, can have a serious sway on perception. Freud never acknowledged the role of cocaine in his physical ills, Markel says. “It’s amazing what people will do to deny the dangers of the things they tend to like.”

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Medic

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(http://www.medic8.com/drug-addiction/addiction-and-crime.html)

Social Effects of an Addiction – Drug Addiction

We know about the physical and psychological effects of an addiction but what about the social effects? In many ways this can be more harmful than the other two put together. Drug addiction doesn’t just affect the addict: it has a far reaching effect which encompasses family, friends, employers, healthcare professionals and society as a whole. If you are addicted to alcohol, nicotine, drugs or even caffeine then the effects of this can negatively impact upon Marriage/Relationships, Home/family life, Education, Employment, Health and wellbeing, Personality, Financial issues, Law and order

Marriage/relationships

If you have a situation in which one half of a couple is an addict then this can cause untold hardship for the other half. The person who is addicted may have changed from a previously easy going personality to one who is prone to mood swings, violent outbursts, secrecy and other forms of extreme behavior. This is difficult for their partner to deal with and is even worse if there are children involved. It is both distressing and confusing for children to see one parent (or even both parents) exhibit signs of their addiction.

The person who is suffering from an addiction may be in financial difficulties which the other person is unaware of. Combine this with their irrational behavior, paranoia and in several cases, criminal behavior and you have a recipe for marital breakdown. In many cases the addict resorts to violence in desperation for their next ‘fix’. If he/she is craving a drink, cigarette or a particular drug but is unable to satisfy that craving – either due to a lack of money or prevented from doing so by their partner then violence is often the result.

The sad fact is that these actions are often committed by someone who is not a violent person by nature but is driven by their need for this substance. Their addiction is their main priority in life and that’s all that matters to them. Someone in the grip of an addiction can become selfish, self-centred and oblivious to other people’s concerns. Things such as paying the mortgage and bills or other day to day issues of running a home are no longer important to them. This often leads to a breakdown in the marriage or relationship which causes financial hardship and distress. The other half of the relationship is left to cope on his/her own which is even more difficult if there are children. What can happen is that other members of the family closes ranks and exclude the person with the addiction. This is mainly done to protect the family from other consequences of his/her behavior but also as a means of presenting a united front to the rest of society.

Home/family

On the subject of home/family life, there is also the possibility that the rest of the family may feel embarrassed or ashamed at this behavior. They are bothered by what others might think and are unsure as to what to do for the best. If you are suffering from an addiction then you will probably find that your family is concerned but maybe needs you to realise that you have a problem and are prepared to face up to it. It may seem as if your family has pushed you out but it could also be the case that they see this as a form of ‘tough love’ in which they are giving you time to reflect upon yourself and your addiction. This is done with the hope that you will seek treatment for your addiction. They will provide support and help as well but you need to take that first step.

Education

If a child or young person is suffering from an addiction then this will impact upon their schooling, relationships with other children and their home life. One such effect of this is truanting from school. This can happen if the child is addicted or if they have a parent who is an addict and neglects to care for them. It is hard for a child or young person to resist the temptation of alcohol, cigarettes or drugs. A desire to be part of the gang or to try ‘forbidden fruit’ as a means of growing up can very quickly lead to addiction. Addiction tends to occur much more quickly in a young person than in an adult. The problem is that they can be hooked from just the first time they try a substance. If you are a parent who suspects that your child has developed an addiction then look out for signs of anti-social or erratic behavior; unexplained absences from school; reports from the school of theft or violent behavior from your child or that he/she has been caught drug dealing on school premises. Their concentration will be poor and motivation will have dropped. They may be spending inordinate amounts of time in their room or on the other hand, be staying out most of the night and with people that you don’t know.

It is equally hard if your parent or parents are the ones with an addiction. They are likely to be so concerned with seeing to their own needs that yours are forgotten about. For them it is all about their addiction whether that is alcohol, cigarettes or drugs. Your needs are superseded by their addiction. They are controlled by their addiction and will do anything to feed it which can include criminal behavior.

Employment

Employers are affected if any of their employees develops and addiction. The employee concerned may have changed from a smart, punctual and efficient worker to someone who is late for work, has neglected their appearance and personal hygiene and id displaying erratic or unacceptable levels of behavior. They may have started to go absent for no good reason, not completed their duties or stolen from colleagues and/or the company. This results in that employee losing their job which then impacts upon their home and family life. Loss of their job means a reduction in income – especially if he/she is the main breadwinner, and puts a strain on the relationship. It can then lead to marriage/relationship breakdown and/or divorce. It can be difficult if you suspect that one of your colleagues has become addicted and even more difficult if you work in a highly stressful job in which excessive drinking and/or drug taking is part of the company culture. If many of the team enjoy going to bars and clubs after work or it is part of the job, e.g. entertaining clients then how do you know when social use of a substance or having a few drinks with colleagues has become an addiction?

Health and wellbeing

A most obvious effect of drug addiction is that on physical health. There are some substances such as alcohol or caffeine which is fine on an occasional basis or in moderate amounts but it is when they become a regular habit that damage to your health occurs. A couple of cigarettes in a day can also be harmful. You may think that you are a very light smoker and that this won’t cause a problem but nicotine is a powerful stimulant and damage starts early on.

Drugs such as heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, poppers, ecstasy are dangerous in any amount and should be avoided. There is no such thing as a safe, moderate amount of crack cocaine or heroin. Apart from the long term effects on health there is also the fact that an addiction can be fatal. Alcohol, cigarettes and drugs can kill either as a result of an overdose, suicide, an accident or from the physical damage caused by these substances. Other side effects include an increase in the number of sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies and birth defects as a result of the mother’s addiction.

Personality

Addiction affects someone’s personality and behaviour in a variety of ways although this very much depends upon the type of substance used and the amount; their psychological make up before the addiction and physical health and their lifestyle. Some substances have a greater effect than others upon mental health, for example, heroin is stronger than nicotine and will have a bigger impact upon the brain. Added to that is the fact that all of us are different in regard to our psychological make up which means that no two people are affected in the same way. So, one person may experience a greater level of ‘damage’ than another person using the same substance, mainly due to their brain chemistry. So what does an addiction do to someone’s mental health and behavior? The most obvious sign is the fact that they behave in ways which are totally out of character. They may become secretive or deliberately offensive; self-harm; lie, cheat or steal; or place their need for their addiction above their family and friends.

Other examples including paranoia, restlessness, low self-esteem or a lack of trust in themselves and anyone else. On the other hand they may behave in an arrogant and uncaring manner as if only their needs matter and no-one else’s. As the addiction worsens they may start to withdraw from their family and friends or spend time with people who you don’t know. The highs and low of their addiction can lead to anxiety and depression. The chemistry of the brain is affected by addiction, for example, taking crystal meth, amphetamines, cannabis, ecstasy and excessive alcohol use. These have the power to change certain structures of a person’s brain which have a dramatic effect upon that person’s personality.

Financial issues

The costs of an addiction not only affect the sufferer but can also encompass family, friends and society as a whole. There are the costs of policing, drug addiction help lines, support groups and rehab clinics. Indirectly there is lost revenue in the form of tax and national insurance contributions each time an addict loses their job or is unable to work. This means a drop in revenue for the Treasury and an increase in welfare benefits, e.g. unemployment benefit. This may sound extreme but if you multiply all of this by the number of drug addicts in the UK then it all adds up to a hefty drain on the country’s purse strings. On a smaller scale there is the financial damage to family or friends as the addict will resort to theft or other criminal means in order to fund their habit.

Addiction and Crime – Drug Addiction

This is a difficult subject to address as the relationship between the two is complex and thought-provoking. We know that many addicts resort to crime to pay for their habit but there also some people who are addicted to the criminal act itself. So we have people who wouldn’t normally commit crime but have only turned to it out of an act of desperation and then there are those people who have already committed crime and then use this to fund their habit.

Punish or treatment?

The question is: do we punish people who commit crime to fund their addiction by locking them up or do we help them by sending them into rehab? Some people may see the latter option this as ‘going soft’ on criminals but there is a difference between the two and if treatment helps them to kick their habit and prevent re-offending then it has to be considered as an option. The ‘hang them and flog them’ brigade may differ but people who have committed crimes in order to pay for their addiction may benefit more from help and treatment rather than prison. The problem with prison is that drugs can be accessed (or smuggled in) whilst they are confined which means that they are able to continue with their habit. This means that they are unlikely to stop their addiction and will likely re-offend once they leave prison.

The costs of dealing with this are prohibitively expensive so a better option may be to treat addicts rather than punishing them. There is evidence to show that addicts are less likely to reoffend if they receive treatment (source: 2008, Manchester University National Drug Evidence Centre).

Legalize drugs?

Drug dealing is big business not just in the UK but around the world. There are organized drug cartels in many countries that use the proceeds of this to fund criminal activity which means that there is an ongoing battle between them and the authorities – which is likely to continue. One idea put forward is that of legalizing drugs. Supporters of this argue that it would reduce crime especially drug-dealing as addicts wouldn’t have to resort to criminal behavior to fund their habit. The costs of drugs could be controlled and set a rate which addicts could afford without having to steal in order to do so. Plus these drugs could be taxed and the revenue from these used to fund drug rehabilitation treatment. There is also the possibility that doing this will lessen the attraction. Many of us enjoy something which is considered to be ‘forbidden fruit’ and part of that attraction is the knowledge that what we are doing has an element of risk.

However, opponents of this claim that it would lead to many more addicts, which would place an extra burden on taxpayers, the authorities and the State as a whole. What do you do with people who are addicted to committing an offence? They may or may not be addicted to drugs but they still have an addiction, which in this case is to crime. There is no easy answer to this and work is still being undertaken into how this might be solved. It has been suggested that unless we can change human nature itself then crime will always be with us.

Law and order

People who are addicted very often turn to crime as a means of paying for their addiction. This can involve stealing or fraud to obtain the funds necessary to bankroll their addiction. This can start with stealing from one’s partner, family or friends but can spread to include their employer or several organizations. Another aspect is that of the cost of maintaining a police force that have to deal with the after-effects of addiction. One such example and one that we hear a great deal about in the media is that of ‘binge drinking’. People who have developed an addiction to alcohol very often engage in drunken, anti-social behavior, usually in town and city centers up and down the country. The police have the job of dealing with fights or semiconscious people lying in the street which is due to the effects of excessive alcohol consumption. The majority of crime committed in the UK is usually drug-related. Burglary, muggings, robberies etc are all ways of funding an addiction and the more serious the addiction the greater the chance of these being accompanied by violence. There are people who are so desperate to have a ‘fix’ or are completely controlled by their addiction that will do anything to service this. If this means using violence then they will do so. In this case their needs have overtaken any thoughts of rational or civilized behavior. They are not thinking of anyone else but themselves as they are consumed by their addiction.

“PastHistory and Political Economy.”

In this segment, we will continue Module VI by exploring and discussion the modern history of the trade in opium. You will trace the origins of the trade in opium from the Parsis of India, to the Opium War between England and China.  You will also be able to explain how the economic profits from opium influenced public policies in the countries that profited from the trade in opium.

“Past History and Political Economy.” 

The cultivation of opium and its trade can be traced back to the ancient world and Afghanistan. The ancient Afghans sold it to the rest of present-day Middle East and the far Orient. Over time, opium cultivation spread to other parts of the Orient.
In modern times, the story of the opium trade is very interesting.  It was the British through the East Indian Company, in collaboration with the monarch of England that made the trade in opium a subject for great historical discourse. Trade in opium posed high risks and created opportunities for vast profits that raise questions of the morality of traders and the remnants of which remain highly visible in Mumbai today. The trade dramatically altered the fortunes of communities in India and China and relations between the two nations, while also fueling the growth of international trade networks that spread all around the world.

The story of opium trade in India and Mumbai bring to the fore the Parsis of India. The Parsis are the descendants of the Zoroastrians of Iran who settled in India, by Parsi tradition, in the 8th century. The Parsis constitute one of India’s smallest communities, numbering less than 80,000 individuals in India during the 19th century. Under imperialism, the Parsis would transition from an insular group to one of India’s most prosperous, educated, and influential communities. From among their group emerged great merchant princes and capital elites; not least of all through the opium trade with China. 

The rise of the Parsis to economic preeminence corresponds with the arrival of Europeans in western India. The parameters of mutual cooperation emerged among Parsis and Europeans who both started as fledgling commercial groups. From the 18th century, Parsis functioned as hawkers and traders, interpreters, contractors, and general intermediaries for Europeans. By the 19th century, Parsis functioned as agents for British mercantile houses, guarantee brokers, and shipbuilders.
OPIUM WAR

Another major event that made the trade in opium a major historical event is the Opium War fought between Britain and China.

As the habit of smoking opium spread from the idle rich to ninety percent of all Chinese males under the age of forty in the country’s coastal regions, business activity was much reduced; the civil service ground to a halt, and the standard of living fell. The Emperor Dao guang’s special anti-opium commissioner Lin Ze-xu (1785-1850), modestly estimated the number of his countrymen addicted to the drug to be 4 million, but a British physician practicing in Canton set the figure at 12 million. Equally disturbing for the imperial government was the imbalance of trade with the West. Whereas prior to 1810, Western nations had been spending

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50 million Mexican silver dollars on porcelain, cotton, silks, brocades, and various grades of tea, by 1837, opium represented 57 percent of Chinese imports, and for fiscal 1835-36 alone, China exported 4.5 million silver dollars. 

In 1838, the official sent in Emperor Dao guang (1821-1850) of the Qing Dynasty to confiscate and destroy all imports of opium, Lin Ze-xu, calculated that in fiscal 1839, Chinese opium smokers consumed 100 million taels’ worth of the drug, while the entire spending by the imperial government that year spent 40 million taels. He reportedly concluded, “If we continue to allow this trade to flourish, in a few dozen years we will find ourselves not only with no soldiers to resist the enemy, but also with no money to equip the army” (quoted by Chesneaux et al., p. 55). 

By the late 1830s, foreign merchant vessels, notably those of Britain and the United States, were landing over 30,000 chests annually. Meantime, corrupt officials in the hoppo (customs office) and ruthless merchants in the port cities, were accumulating wealth beyond “all the tea in China” by defying imperial interdictions that had existed in principle since 1796. The standard rate for an official’s turning a blind eye to the importation of a single crate of opium was 80 taels. Between 1821 and 1837, the illegal importation of opium (theoretically a capital offence) increased fivefold.

British merchants were frustrated by Chinese trade laws and refused to cooperate with Chinese legal officials because of their routine use of torture. Upon his arrival in Canton in March, 1839, the Emperor’s special emissary, Lin Ze-xu, took swift action against the foreign merchants and their Chinese accomplices, making some 1,600 arrests and confiscating 11,000 pounds of opium. 

Despite attempts by the British superintendent of trade, Charles Elliot, to negotiate a compromise, in June, Lin ordered the seizure another 20,00 crates of opium from foreign-controlled factories; holding all foreign merchants under arrest until they surrendered nine million dollars’ worth of opium, which he then had burned publicly. Finally, he ordered the port of Canton closed to all foreign merchants. In response to these sources of frustration, the British declared war on China. 

Read the attached documents for more information on the Opium War.

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Upon the end of this week, you will be able to: 

1. Describe the origins of the trade in opium; 

2. Describe the trends in the development of trade in opium; and3.  Identify groups that gained from and supported the trade in opium.

Upon the successful completion of Week 7 Module VI, you will be able to:  

1. Analyze the causes and consequences of the Opium War; 

2. Analyze the role of the British East Indian Company in the Opium Trade; 

3. Analyze the role played by the Parsis of India in the Opium Trade and their collaboration colonialists; 

4. Analyze the sociological effects of Opium on Asian, Europeans and Middle East communities; and 

5. Compare and contrast the role of opium in India and China economics, politics, and society.

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Your evaluation will be based on Discussions and Writing Assignment.

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SAMPLE

VIOLENCE IN THE ILLICIT DRUG MARKET AND PUBLIC POLICY RESPONSES

AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

ECON 430 THE WAR ON DRUGS: ECONOMICS, HISTORY AND PUBLIC POLICY

INTEGRATIVE SUMMARY

In this annotated bibliography, I review the problem of violence in the illicit drug market. The purpose of the Summary is to discuss the problem of violence in the illicit drug market and related public policy approached. All the articles reviewed and summarized address the problem of violence in the illicit drug market. The first article discussed interpersonal violence. The second article addresses violence in the illicit drug market, the involvement of gang leaders and public policy approaches.

There appears to be a controversy regarding appropriate approaches to limiting the violence in the drug market. In the first article, drug violence is recognized as a major public health issue. The article focuses on interpersonal violence and recognizes that violence in the drug market is due to a lack formal ways to resolve economic disputes in the illicit drug market. The second article argues that public policy approaches that try to prohibit drugs leads to increasing violence in the illicit drug market. The authors then propose that alternative approaches should be developed to mitigate violence in the illicit drug market.

Amanda Atkinson, Zara Anderson, Karen Hughes, Mark A Bellis, Harry Sumnall and Qutub Syed, Interpersonal Violence and Illicit Drugs, Working Paper, Liverpool John Moores University, (Centre for Public Health) 2009

This briefing summarizes the links between interpersonal violence and illicit drug use, identifies risk factors for involvement in drug-related violence, outlines prevention measures that address drug-related violence, and explores the role of public health in prevention. It discusses links between drugs and violence based on available evidence, focusing primarily on illicit drugs. In general, the illicit use of prescription drugs is not discussed.

Interpersonal violence and illicit drug use are major public health challenges that are strongly linked. Involvement in drug use can increase the risks of being both a victim and/or perpetrator of violence, while experiencing violence can increase the risks of initiating illicit drug use. The impacts of drug-related interpersonal violence can be substantial, damaging individuals’ health and the cohesion and development of communities, whilst also shifting resources from other priorities, particularly within health and criminal justice services. Globally, interpersonal violence accounts for around half a million deaths per year; for every death there are many more victims affected by violence physically, psychologically, emotionally and financially. Illicit drugs are used by millions of individuals throughout the world, and both their effects and the nature of illicit drug markets place major burdens on health and society.

The lack of formal social and economic controls in illicit drug markets facilitates the spread of violence. Without legal means for resolving business conflicts within drug markets, there is a tendency for violence to emerge as the dominant mechanism of conflict resolution. Furthermore, gangs and individuals involved in the drug dealing often carry guns for self-defense from other groups or individuals who pose a threat to drug operations.

Dan Werb, Greg Rowell, Gordon Guyatt, Thomas Kerr, Julio Montaner, Evan Wood, Effect of Drug Law Enforcement on Drug-Related Violence: Evidence from a Scientific Review, International Centre for Science in Drug Policy, Working Group Report, 2010

Violence is among the primary concerns of communities around the world, and research from many settings has demonstrated clear links between violence and the illicit drug trade, particularly in urban settings. While violence has traditionally been framed as resulting from the effects of drugs on individual users (e.g., drug induced psychosis), violence in drug markets and in drug-producing areas such as Mexico is increasingly understood as a means for drug gangs to gain or maintain a share of the lucrative illicit drug market.

Given the growing emphasis on evidence based policy-making and the ongoing severe violence attributable to drug gangs in many countries around the world, a systematic review of the available English language scientific literature was conducted to examine the impacts of drug law enforcement interventions on drug market violence. The hypothesis was that the existing scientific evidence would demonstrate an association between increasing drug law enforcement expenditures or intensity and reduced levels of violence.

Many studies have found that increasing drug law enforcement intensity resulted in increased rates of drug market violence. About 82% of the studies employing regression analyses of longitudinal data found a significant positive association between drug law enforcement increases and increased levels of violence. One study (9%) that employed a theoretical model reported that violence was negatively associated with increased drug law enforcement. The available scientific evidence suggests that increasing the intensity of law enforcement interventions to disrupt drug markets is unlikely to reduce drug gang violence. Instead, the existing evidence suggests that drug related violence and high homicide rates are likely a natural consequence of drug prohibition and that increasingly sophisticated and well-resourced methods of disrupting drug distribution networks may unintentionally increase violence. From an evidence-based public policy perspective, gun violence and the enrichment of organized crime networks appear to be natural consequences of drug prohibition. In this context, and since drug prohibition has not achieved its stated goal of reducing drug supply, alternative models for drug control may need to be considered if drug supply and drug-related violence are to be meaningfully reduced.

Sample Integrative Summary Paper ECON 430 Page 2 of 3