” This paper aims to demonstrate the extent to which the illegal drug trade has become a foreign policy issue and argues that all states, including South Africa, are required to respond to it. On the one hand, failure to act decisively is likely to earn pariah status, much as human rights abuses and
support of terrorism have isolated certain states who stray from the internationally accepted norms. On the other hand, the most important reason is one of enlightened self interest: to act against this trade is to protect the integrity of one’s own state and society.”
