Combatting the illicit drug trade in South America

Country: Costa Rica

Committee: SOCHUM

Costa rica believes that the illicit trade in south america is a big set
back. Costa Rica is a transshipment and staging area for cocaine and
South American heroin targeted for the United States as well as Europe.
Drug traffickers use Costa Rica as a location to store and consolidate
multi-hundred-kilogram cocaine shipments and to stage heroin
shipments for smuggling. We believe there should be something done
to stop this before its too late.

Costa rica feels that nowadays, the illicit trade is a huge industry,
damaging the economy of the developing countries. Costa Rica has the
National Drug, Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism plan
2013-2017, which includes the areas of demand reduction, supply
reduction, control measures, and international cooperation. The Costa
Rica authorities treat the possession of drugs and drug trafficking
severely.

First step to put an end to this transgression is to understand the

problem and go in depth for the reason this committee stands for. We
should increase consumer awarness as well as governments have a key
role to play in ensuring more effective enforcement of laws and
penalties. Costa Rica, since the first version of the law enacted in 1988
(Law 7093 ) and the 2001 version (Law 8204) decriminalised drug use
completely. There should be more links of international cooperation so
more countries try to end this obstacle.