Friday, July 3, 2015

Global drug market approaching scale of $4 Trillion oil & gas industry

Thanks to US & its allies' activities in further destabilizing sensitive areas of the world, not only we have groups now, conducting physical violence, we also have a booming drugs trade. What did US & NATO achieve in Afghanistan when Taliban are back there & apparently, 80% of heroin is being produced there? What did US achieve with its covert war tactics against Colombia & Nicaragua where, apparently, 100% of cocaine being produced there?

It seems to me that all those billions of $$$, which the world was led to believe that that money would be spent on war & reconstruction efforts, went into pockets of defense department's top generals & contractors.

Ironically, the losers are American general public because they are increasingly turning into drug addicts because of lack of spending on welfare, healthcare, education, infrastructure, job creation etc. Sort of like a double whammy for the general American public.

Adding further insults to injuries is that not only criminal organizations are earning trillions of $$$ through their drugs trade, but they also help fuel more crime, e.g. due to a lack of jobs & increasingly expensive post-secondary education, youths turn towards dealing drugs, human trafficking, prostitution, arms smuggling, & terrorism etc. to make a living. Authorities can't turn them towards non-criminal activities, since those activities don't provide the kind of lifestyle criminal activities do.

So, essentially, all those wars US & its allies initiated in foreign lands are, & will, increasingly raise their ugly heads in North America & Western Europe. And rich business & political elites, who are the ones starting, & profiting, from the wars will not feel the effects but the poor general public will be adversely affected by those crimes.
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The dark underworld of drug trafficking will soon be bigger than the world’s $3.7 trillion oil & gas market, & is already bigger than the global auto industry, the director of Russia’s drug control agency said.

We see that drug trade is a significant part of the global economy. Unfortunately we have to state today that the drug traffic market is bigger than the automotive industry & its volume is approaching that of the oil & gas sector,” Viktor Ivanov said during a ministry meeting with BRICS countries to discuss the war on drugs.
 
Ivanov singled out Afghanistan & South America as major drug production hubs, noting that more than 80% of heroin is produced in Afghanistan & 100% of cocaine in South America, by his estimates.

Unfortunately, production has once again started to increase in the so-called Golden Triangle of Thailand, Myanmar & Laos,” said Ivanov.
 
Before, Ivanov estimated that underground drug dealers in the informal sector inject $1 trillion into the global financial system per annum. Many of these drug revenues end up being funneled to criminal organizations, & often terrorism.
 
Sales of autos in the US alone was $1.1 trillion in 2014. Revenues from the top 10 car retailers already surpassed $1 trillion in revenue, not even counting some of the smaller players like Kia, Chrysler, Renault or Mazda. The global oil& gas market in 2015 will see more than $4 trillion in revenue, according to IBIS World’s Global Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Market Research Report released in March 2015.
 
It is difficult to precisely quantify the exact figure of the illegal drug market, as most transactions are kept off the books due to their illicit nature.

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