“This paper analyses the impact of drugs on agriculture, the youth, health and education, as well as the role of drugs in fuelling conflicts on the African continent. While the focus is mainly on a range of illicit narcotic and psychotropic drugs, the paper touches on licit substances such as tobacco and alcohol – as they have an impact similar to that of illicit drugs. It is argued that, given the capacity of drugs to impact on a number or developmental areas and their negative influence on other forms of crimes,
addressing the drug problem could be an important step in enhancing the capacity of African countries to deal with development challenges and prevent conflicts. Against this background the paper makes a number of recommendations that call for an integrated approach to the drug problem.”
