How Can International Law Better Address Illegal Transnational Drug Trades

This paper seeks to analyze how international institutions and treaties can effectively suppress the occurrence of transnational drug trade. Different primary and secondary sources regarding current drug-related global conventions and organizations were analyzed to pinpoint reasons for their inadequacy in combatting the international exchange of drugs. We drew upon previous drug-trade cases and examined United Nations (UN) documents to offer a comprehensive solution to the issue. Research has suggested that the responsibility does not lie alone with drug-specialized international corporations: with corruption and money laundering heavily related to the drugs trade, non-drug specialized institutions must collaborate with the former in order to tackle illegal transnational drug trades both regionally and on a global scale. Although efforts have been made to address this issue with the establishment of various conventions and committees, the lack of enforcement, commitment from different States, as well as collaboration between relevant institutions lead to the drug market being a relevant issue in todays society, threatening the lives of thousands both directly and indirectly. Furthermore, few papers have dedicated attention to international law and illicit drug trafficking.