Drug Trafficking and the Socio-Political Economic Contexts in Selected Countries
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32871/rmrj1604.02.07Keywords:
drug war, drug trafficking, illegal drugs, GDP, corruption index, drug lawsAbstract
As international criticism of the Philippine government’s war on drugs continues, this study aims to find out the rate of drug trafficking incidences of various countries in the world and explore how this is affected by the respective countries’ legal and socio-economic conditions, specifically: (1) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per country, (2) public sector’s perceived corruption index, and (3) country’s legal standing on prohibited drugs. This study utilizes data mining or exploratory method. Data on the various variables were gathered from statistical reports from various reputable world agencies and subjected to statistical analysis in order to determine their significance in relation to drug trafficking. Of the three dimensions analyzed in this study, only economic and social factors show relationship to drug trafficking. Rich countries have less corruption; thus, they have better law-enforcement. As a result, they register more drug trafficking apprehensions. Corrupt countries however, have lower apprehensions; thus, registering a lower drug trafficking rate. Poor countries register higher corruption index and lesser apprehensions of illegal drugs. To fight drug trafficking, it is important to eradicate corruption in order to gain ground in the fight against drugs.The lone dimension that shows no relationship is the political dimension such as restrictive and non-restrictive government policies on drugs. This is corroborated by other studies that indicated a War on Drugs to be ineffective as compared to drug treatment.
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