NCJ Number
161679
Date Published
1990
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This report describes the nature and extent of international drug trafficking and the results of international drug law enforcement efforts.
Abstract
In 1986, opium was seized in 31 countries, heroin in 61 countries, cocaine in 47 countries, and marijuana in 88 countries. A total of 6,771 deaths from drug overdoses occurred in 43 countries in 1986. Drug profits amounted to an estimated $40 billion in the United States in 1984 and $9.4 million in Canada in 1982. Drug sources, production, transportation, and distribution in small and large quantities varies for each of these drugs. For all drugs, organized crime is involved, importation and distribution are carried out by a series of transactions rather than by the same groups, and users themselves are involved at the retail level. The use of drugs has spread during the last few years, and new countries are both producing and consuming specific drugs. These findings indicate that drug traffickers are always looking for a constant extension of the market. International conventions were enacted in 1961 and 1971; a draft convention under discussion in the United Nations adds money laundering to the list of serious drug law offenses and forfeiture to the list of possible sanctions. Reference notes and summaries of illicit trafficking in firearms and protected animal species and animal trophies