Too many nations have made the mistake of underestimating the nature of the threat posed by illegal drug cultivation, production, trafficking, and consumption. Governments that have tolerated the cultivation of coca or opium poppies have seen deforestation and distortion of the agricultural sector. Nations where drugs have yielded are produced or trafficked have seen their financial sectors and political institutions wracked by economic distortion and corruption. Consuming countries have witnessed addiction and its terrible criminal, …showed first 75 words of 1910 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1910 total…the International Drug Trade) In democracies, the drug trade flourishes only when it can divide the population and corrupt institutions. It cannot withstand a concerted, sustained attack by a coalition of nations individually committed to its annihilation. It is that precisely this kind of coalition that can make a difference. The United Nations, the Organization of American States, the European Union, and other multilateral organizations must continue to be a part of the global response.