Count the Costs: Increasing harms to the environment

The ‘War on Drugs’ has not only affected people but also the environment. Current drug policies have not reduced the environmental harm caused by illicit drug production but actually increased them according to the latest briefing by ‘Count the Costs’, a project launched earlier this year by a range of organisations, including the International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy.

Deforestation and pollution are just some of the devastating effects of the current drug control policies. Chemicals used to wipe out illicit crops in Colombia have affected its rich flora and fauna. The so called ‘balloon effect’, the phenomenon by which law enforcement displaces production in one region causing it to expand in another one as drug producers mobilise to meet demand) has also led to significant deforestation in Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, Myanmar, Thailand and the United States.

As a result of the balloon effect, there has been “widespread deforestation, jeopardising the 200 species of oak tree and the habitats of numerous endemic bird species” in Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountain range. In Peru, 10% of the total rainforest destruction over the past century is due to the illicit drug trade.

Although authorities argue the need to continue such policies precisely to avoid the environmental harm done by illicit production of drugs, the briefing highlights that “they have simply transferred these harms to more remote, ecologically sensitive areas such as the Amazon forests – an unavoidable consequence of the balloon effect.” The benefits are elusive as production is only displaced but not eliminated.

The consequences on development should also be considered as it is the most vulnerable and poor who are caught in the middle of supply reduction strategies. As criminals target areas with ‘little economic infrastructure or governance and suffer from high levels of poverty’, many farmers have few alternative means of earning a living outside of the drug trade. At the same time, law enforcement’s methods to eradicate crops, such as aerial spraying with chemical herbicides, destroys not only illicit but also licit crops, such as food crops. Water deposits in natural parks have also been contaminated due to the proximity of illicit crops to natural protected areas.

Other environmental harms include the massive consumption of electricity for the production of hydroponic cannabis and its corresponding CO2 footprint, or toxic waste dumping in the production of methamphetamines.

As a result, ‘Count the Costs’ recommends national authorities and international funders to take due consideration of environmental concerns at all levels. Thorough scrutiny of the impact of drug control policies on the environment is long overdue. This includes not only a more careful scrutiny as mentioned above, but also to explore “a range of alternative systems, including decriminalisation of personal possession of drugs, and models of legal regulation”.

Read the full version of the briefing here.

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Mexico neglects people displaced by drug violence says IDMC report

Despite the mass displacement in Mexico due to the drug related violence, the government does not have the necessary legal and institutional framework to address the needs of IDPs nor has it requested assistance from international organizations, according to a report published last week by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) of the Norwegian Council of Refugees.

The report by the independent Oslo-based research body highlighted that more systematic research is needed to assess the full scale of displacement in Mexico. However, large-scale and gradual displacements have been identified through media reports, human rights organizations as well as a study by the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez (UACJ). The states most affected have been Chihuahua and Tamaulipas, and to lesser extent Michoacán, Durango and Sinaloa.

Large-scale displacements have been recorded in Tamaulipas, Michoacán and Guerrero, according to the IDMC. The largest one registered so far was in Michoacán, where 2,000 people were forced to flee in 2010. Gradual displacement has been mostly registered in Ciudad Juárez. In the last three years, about 220,000 people have left this Northern city due to the sustained violence. Half of them have been identified as internal IDPs. One private consultancy report estimated 1.6 million people have been displaced by the drug violence, but the methodology used to arrive to this figure is uncertain.

Since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006, about 50,000 soldiers have been deployed throughout the country. The mass displacement of citizens has occurred within the context of the battles between drug cartels and the military. Some of the effects of the drug-related violence and the militarisation of public security listed on the report have been widespread threats and attacks to journalists; violence against ‘transmigrants’ en-route to the United States; and increasing complaints against the armed forces for human rights violations.

People forced to flee their homes have lost their property, livelihoods and their identification documents. In one mass displacement case in Guerrero, 79 people lost their personal document and were not able to access social benefits. Their security is precarious, as the report notes:

“For example, those fleeing from Valle de Juárez around Ciudad Juárez have fled to the south-eastern part of Juárez, where armed violence is also intense. Small business owners fleeing to Veracruz have also been attacked by cartels there (Fundación Mepi, 2011)”.

Despite this, the government has no mechanisms in place to ensure the physical or legal protection of their property, nor does it address the basic needs of IDPs in order to prevent them from falling into poverty. The report stresses that “while the government’s military strategy to combat the cartels has led the violence to increase, it has had no plan to address the results of its intervention, including the resulting displacement”.

Last October, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs expressed its concern about the displacement situation in Mexico and offered to assist the government. However, there has been no formal effort or pledge to remedy the situation of the victims of the drug war violence.

Finally, the report is grounded on the view that Mexico is facing an internal conflict. For more discussion on this subject, read Patrick Gallahue’s article “Mexico’s ‘War on Drugs’: Real or Rhetorical Armed Conflict?”, published in the Journal of International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict. Just click here.

To read the full report, click here.