RESEARCH REPORT A RISING TIDE Trends in production, trafficking and consumption of drugs in North Africa MATT HERBERT | MAX GALLIEN MAY 2020 A RISING TIDE Trends in production, trafficking and consumption of drugs in North Africa W Matt Herbert and Max Gallien May 2020 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors are indebted to research assistants in North Africa who aided their work, interviewees who took time to speak about key trends in narcotics on the issue, and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime for excellent operational and editorial support. The authors are thankful to Mark Micallef, Tuesday Reitano and Laurent Laniel for their comments and feedback. We would like to thank the government of Norway for funding this project. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Matt Herbert, PhD, is the research manager for the North Africa and Sahel Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. Max Gallien, PhD, is a research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies. © 2020 Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the Global Initiative. Cover photo: A farmer walks in a cannabis field near the town of Ketama in Morocco’s northern Rif region. © Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images Design: Glenn Jooste, FreeFlow Publishing Services. Please direct inquiries to: The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime Avenue de France 23 Geneva, CH-1202 Switzerland www.globalinitiative.net CONTENTS Executive summary .........................................................................................................................................1 The spaces of production .............................................................................................................................5 Cannabis ...............................................................................................................................................................5 Poppies .................................................................................................................................................................8 The spaces of transport ..............................................................................................................................11 Cannabis ........................................................................................................................................................... 11 Cocaine .............................................................................................................................................................. 17 Prescription medication and synthetic drugs .............................................................................21 How prescription medication and synthetic drugs enter the Maghreb ................................................. 22 How psychotropics move within the Maghreb ........................................................................................... 24 Drug consumption in the Maghreb ....................................................................................................27 Cannabis and cannabis resin .......................................................................................................................... 28 Prescription medication and synthetic drugs ............................................................................................ 29 Cocaine .............................................................................................................................................................. 32 Heroin ............................................................................................................................................................... 33 The impact on states and state responses.....................................................................................35 Changing production and the risk of instability .......................................................................................... 35 Trafficking, corruption and violence ............................................................................................................. 37 Consumption, securitization and public health .......................................................................................... 39 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................................................................43 Recommendations ........................................................................................................................................... 45 Notes.......................................................................................................................................................................... 47 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY he houses of Angad, Morocco, they say, have two doors: one to Morocco and the other to Algeria. The small rural community in the north of the country has Tknown the smuggling trade for generations. ‘This is a heritage,’ the head of one household explains. ‘The first generation, after independence, smuggled products to Algeria. The second, beginning in the late 1970s, smuggled subsidized Algerian goods into Morocco. Today, we are witnessing the third generation.’ He pauses. ‘The generation of karkoubi; the generation of hashish.’1 The impressions of the man from Angad ring true across the four countries of the Maghreb: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. The drug trade is both growing and changing in form and impact. Historically a zone of production for cannabis destined for the European market, the region has increasingly become a key thoroughfare for drug trafficking, notably for cocaine headed to Europe and various psychotropic pills coming from the continent. Crucially, as the opinion in Angad highlights, the consumption of drugs in the region itself is increasing. The use of highly addictive psychotropic drugs has become a significant issue in nearly all of the Maghrebi countries, along with cannabis and, in lesser quantities, cocaine and opiates. The impact of drugs on the Maghreb is also changing. Environmental degradation is starting to afflict cultivation points. Corruption linked to narcotics has become noticeable both among high-level officials and low-level security-force officers. However, perhaps most destructive of all and most frequently overlooked are the public-health challenges posed by rising drug use. Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya are facing new challenges around drugs, which in turn tax their capacity to respond. The paucity and isolation of available information prevents the development of a clear, region-wide understanding of the magnitude, drivers and impact of the problem. Too frequently, security, economic and public-health issues are not integrated into their analysis and prevention. This in turn has stymied efforts to build a comprehensive, holistic, cross-regional strategy to counter what is, at heart, a region-wide challenge. AfarmerdisplayscannabisresinnearKetamainMorocco’snorthernRifregion. © Fadel Senna/AFP via Getty Images ExEcutivEsuMMARy 1 This report offers a sizing and analysis of the Survey-based studies on consumption are often based developing trends around drugs in the Maghreb. It on insufficient samples, and lack standardization across begins by detailing the production of narcotics in the the region, particularly around the classification of Maghreb, including both cannabis and poppies. Next, it psychotropic substances. focuses on the trafficking of these products, exploring The paucity of data poses a problem for research of the types of drugs that transit the region, the routes this kind, and has an effect on both policy making and they take and the groups involved in their movement. the public perception of these issues. More openly The report then looks at drug consumption trends in available, detailed and systematic data would help the Maghreb, before detailing the impacts of narcotics to dispel rumours, identify populations in need and on state capacity, security and public health and ending contribute to a more productive conversation on with brief recommendations. this issue. It is important to note upfront that comprehensive In order to address these data challenges, this report data on drug production, trafficking and consumption draws on a wide variety of sources, including interviews in the Maghreb is sparse. Government reports and with various stakeholders, confiscation and usage press releases concerning confiscations and arrests statistics from regional governments and international offer a glimpse as to the types of drugs that are organizations, medical studies and media reports. The prevalent – but these are also subject to significant use of diverse data sources from across the region is biases. Security services in the region are not intended to address – to the greatest degree possible apolitical actors, and changes in confiscation levels – the deficiencies in data highlighted above. We have can indicate variously growing trafficking, changing tried to flag throughout the challenges that remain, and enforcement levels, or simply more governmental are therefore conservative in our analysis. transparency and open communication. In the report, drug prices and payments in North African currencies are presented alongside the euro equivalent. These currency conversions reflect the