Is Cannabis Creating Jamaican Drug Mules?

2009.05.03

One in ten fliers in Jamaica is a drug mule, says a UN report, saying that 1 in every ten Jamaicans who fly are carrying some sort of illicit drug. Similar figures released last year by the British police say that around 20 people on each flight were drug mules, and that goes to the statistic that the Un came out with that says that 1 in every ten flight passengers from Jamaica are drug mules.

The alarming fact is that the British Deputy High /commissioner in Kingston has said that the official version usually is no reflection of the reality of the situation, which is far worse. Each mule is paid as much as 1.500 pounds per trip. Most of the mules are women, and they swallow up to half a Kilogram of cocaine in little tiny packages.

In Britain, the women’s jails are filled with drug mules, accounting for around half of the population. The gangs they smuggle for are called “Yardies”, and they have no regard whatsoever for the lives of their mules who can die if the bags they carry in their stomachs burst. You’d think that that would be a deterrent but to someone who needs that cash, it is a worthwhile risk, and the way they look at it is, they just convince themselves that it won’t happen to them, and they make themselves believe that what they are doing is just easy money.

The INCB, or International Narcotics Board tries to dissuade the drug trafficking by saying that the trafficking does nothing to contribute to the growth and prosperity of developing countries, but they say it doesn’t help when countries like Britain reclassify cannabis as a Class C drug. The INCB believe that the drug liberalization trend in Europe and North America makes it difficult to counter the cultivation of cannabis in other countries like Morocco, where hashish, which is made from the resin of the cannabis plant, is grown in epidemic proportions to the point that it is now taking away land that was once used to grow food. It is estimated that just one per cent of the money spent on drugs by users in the developed world finds its way into the pockets of the growers in the Third World, in fact, where the cannabis trade in Morocco makes over 7 billion a year, around 1,280 pounds per year goes into the pockets of the growers.
 
So, the obvious question is, why don’t they stop/ Well, it is common knowledge that the drug business is fraught with violence, and if you are threatened, you will do as they say. On the good side, however, Pakistan and Iran reduced or eliminated poppy cultivation, and they witnessed a period of economic growth at the same time. The reason is that while the drug trade boomed for their countries, they experienced a drop in economic growth, and living standards fell, so, things can change after all.