[1] International pressure and prioritization by regional governments has fuelled the rise of drug control organizations in many West African countries, shifting the focal point of political, economic, and social domestic action.
The drug trade became a problem, and the Nigerian government issued a decree stating that anyone found guilty exporting cannabis would get a ten-year jail term.
It has been speculated that the origins of mass drug exports started with West African students living in the EU and US who failed to receive payments of their study grants, and were then hired by Nigerian naval officers in training who were stationed in India to deliver the heroin they bought, and bring it back to the countries where they resided.
[6] However, falling prices of more expensive illicit drugs as well as expanding methods of consumption have made such substances more readily accessible to working-class West Africans, particularly in city centers.
[6][7] As a result of expanding trends in globalization in recent years, demand for substances, especially harder drugs, has spread to tourists and short-term residents of many West African countries.
[7] The expansive drug trafficking routes through West Africa that fuel this high demand are sustained in some part by complicit governmental forces.
Unlike routes from Latin America or Asia that have gained growing amounts of attention from international drug enforcers, traders face relatively fewer obstacles in trafficking illicit substances through West Africa.
Most West African countries do not have sufficient services or policies put in place to properly run substance abuse and local anti-drug campaigns.
[11] The Casamance conflict in Senegal is an example of how the growing domestic demand for substances has additionally created financial opportunity for insurgent groups within the region, leading to further political instability.
[10] Supply-centered drug control policies have negatively impacted different groups in West Africa that have experienced higher rates of demand for illicit substances with little to no government interference.
The World Drug Report stated, “The cocaine found in Africa originated mainly in Colombia and Peru and frequently transited through Brazil”.
When traveling on overland routes, traders hide substances with other products such as charcoal, cocoa, and fruit, to conceal the smell and appearance at different police checkpoints.
[6] Products are also moved by way of taxis and individual vehicles during times when government posts and trade routes are unregulated, and the chance of detection is significantly lower.
Lastly, drug traffickers will also pay law enforcement and border officials to move substances through land and sea routes freely and without punishment.
This caused the Mexican drug cartel to branch out and seize control of a profitable smuggling route that goes through West Africa and ends up in Europe.
The local trade of imported cocaine and heroin has skyrocketed in recent years and, in some countries, has spread drug abuse to virtually every city.
Within the last century, marijuana (primarily cultivated in its hashish form) has transitioned from a profitless drug to one that is sold locally and trafficked on the routes previously used for cocaine and heroin.
This focus on arrests and seizures has been shown to have little effect on the size of the West African drug trade and has caused traffickers to simply employ new methods of subversion and concealment.
[9] This control methodology has, however, served to target small-scale cannabis growers and substance users, rather than larger traffickers that have the money and influence to avoid punishment.
[15] At a more local level, drug traffickers pay border agents and law enforcement to pass substances through overland networks safely and at low risk.
[16] Facing mounting pressure from international institutions, some West African governments have created anti-corruption organizations to start reversing the trend of drug trafficking in their countries.