Latin American Drug Trade Essay

The largest drug trade organizations (DOTs) within the Western hemisphere stem from Mexico and Colombia, and the largest market for drugs is within the United States. In their recent observations, the United Nations (UN) have estimated that the total retail sales of illicit drugs to be around $320 billion or 0.9 percent of GDP. More specifically, the UN states that the Americas is home to $150 billion—under half of the global total—drug revenue. Additionally, the UN states that the United States accounts for $34 billion of the global retail cocaine market of $85 billion. Although actions have been taken to combat the drug trade within the Americas, it is still vital to continue to push for new and effective measures to further ensure victory …show more content…
Therefore, Argentina would like to suggest to attempt a new and different approach to combat the drug trade. In order to combat the drug trade, Argentina would like to highly encourage member states to invest in education for their populations. Education—specifically within Latin America is not relatively high. The more education a person receives, the more likely said person will escape poverty. Family is crucial aspect to Latin American culture. In many cases, family comes before individual interest and development. Therefore, given that education is closely tied to poverty, people are more likely to seek alternatives to provide for their families. Therefore, a child may choose to drop out of school due to financial reasons and engage in the drug trade in order to provide for their family. Argentina believes that the alternative solution to combat the drug trade lies with investment in education for the people in order to create more opportunities. Therefore, Argentina would again like to highly encourage—as to not to impose on sovereignty—member states to invest in the growth of their educational