Philippine E-Journals

Drug Trafficking and the Socio-Political Economic Contexts in Selected Countries

Englevert P Reyes | Jose Velez Jr. | Ma. Aira Chenessa Benitez

 

Abstract:

As international criticism of the Philippine government’s war on drugs continues, this study aims to find out the rate of drug trafficking incidences of various countries in the world and explore how this is affected by the respective countries’ legal and socio-economic conditions, specifically: (1) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per country, (2) public sector’s perceived corruption index, and (3) country’s legal standing on prohibited drugs. This study utilizes data mining or exploratory method. Data on the various variables were gathered from statistical reports from various reputable world agencies and subjected to statistical analysis in order to determine their significance in relation to drug trafficking. Results show that legal policies on drug trafficking, whether restrictive or nonrestrictive, have no relation to drug trafficking. Surprisingly, countries with high GDP and countries considered as clean (no corruption) show higher drug trafficking rate. With higher purchasing capability, countries with high per capita income become targets for drug trafficking. The absence of corruption is not much of a factor as it is purchasing power that lures the illicit trade of drugs in these countries. As other studies have indicated, bloody campaign to eradicate the problem of illegal drugs has been found to be ineffective as compared to drug treatment.