COMMITTEE: UN ECOSOC

AGENDA: PREVENTING THE ILLICIT CULTIVATION OF DRUG CROPS THROUGH

ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENT

COUNTRY: MALAYSIA

DELEGATE’S NAME: PAAVAN ARORA

The export crops chosen in some LDCs, especially in Latin America and Asia are those that can be
converted to drugs are the illicit drug crops. Alternative development is an approach aimed at reducing the
vulnerabilities that led to involvement in illicit crop cultivation and ultimately eliminating such cultivation.
Technically, drugs are chemical substances that alter or affect the function of the body. Therefore,
medicines are drugs as are cigarettes, coffee and alcohol. However here we are focusing on drugs which we
cannot buy in shops i.e. illegal drugs. The target of drugs and customers are mainly the young generations from
all tiers of the society. The poor urban community is victimized by the trades and consequences of drug abuse.
Drug addiction is increasing among the adolescent boys and girls. Even children from poor families from a small
age are getting addicted to gum. This is a matter of serious concern for the world and here is not much
organizations working at community level on universal prevention method where mass awareness and
community prevention of drugs is the main focus of intervention. The illegal drug trade is a global market
dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of drugs that are subject to drug production
laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs through the use of drug
prohibition laws.

Drug problems in Malaysia seem to be on the increase despite harsh penalties for those caught
supplying the drug. Of particular concern is the growing popularity of methamphetamine – seizures of this
substance in 2010 was the highest on record. For many years the main threat appeared to be from heroin. This
continues to be the most widely abused drug in the country but other substances are catching up.
Up until the 1960s drug abuse in Malaysia mostly involved opium, and it was restricted to the Chinese
immigrant population. By the 1980s the Malays had become the ethnic group in Malaysia that is most likely to
abuse illegal drugs. Concerns for the rapid increase in heroin used were so high that the government decreed it
was a national threat. This led to the creation of a national anti drug task force team along with a mandatory
death sentence for anyone caught smuggling more than 15 grams of heroin. The government also decided that
anyone caught using heroin would be forced to undergo compulsory addiction treatment. The ambition of the
Malaysian government has been to completely eradicate drug problems by 2015, but the problem is in some
ways getting worse.

Drug trafficking is one of the major threats to the stability, democracy, security and development of newly
established countries in central Asia that have limited resources to fight drug trade. Strengthening democratic state power
in the world should help solve problem of eliminating illicit drug cultivation. International co-operation is an important
condition for successful suppression of drug trafficking in the world including involving Turkmenistan in active anti-drug
co-operation.

Bibliography:
❖ www.un.org
❖ www.unodc.org
❖ www.malaysia.gov.my