East African drug trade

rdf:langString East African drug trade

rdf:langString East African drug trade refers to the sale and trafficking of illegal drugs that take place in East African countries like Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia, and Ethiopia. The most prevalent types of drugs traded in East Africa are heroin, marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, and khat, all of which are strictly prohibited in East African countries. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reports that the number of reported seizures of illegal drugs between 1995 and 2006 is inadequate to conclude that the patterns of trafficking and possible drug abuse are alarming. Nevertheless, the low number of officially reported seizures is not a sign of minimal activity. Instead, it is an indication of the lack of border control, insufficient understanding of the drug trade, and a weak criminal justice system. Though research on the effects of drug trade in East Africa remains lower than that of other regions, trafficking of drugs have are often correlated with corruption, terrorism, HIVs and youth. In fact, drug trafficking in East Africa has been sharply increasing in the past few decades. As the region experiences limited supply for its rising demand of drugs, East African countries have been involved in international drug trafficking as well. Due to popular trafficking routes to Europe and the United States like the Balkan Route experiencing increased surveillance, drugs from Asia have been traveling through East African countries into Africa or ultimately to Europe and the United States. The Journal of International Affairs stated in 2012 that the UNODC reported a four-fold increase in cocaine seizures in East Africa between 2005 and 2010. Similarly, the number of seizures of heroin at major ports in East Africa increased nearly ten times between 2009 and 2013. Such data shows that East African trade is constantly growing, and that countries have been increasingly responding to illicit drug trafficking.