New Topic // Country Assignments

Our new topic for this Thursday (Jan 8) will be: international drug trafficking.

Think about "root causes", problems caused by illegal drug trade, and possible solutions. A solution could either attempt to stop drug trafficking or to treat its negative effects. Based on your country's involvement in this problem, form an opinion on what actions should be taken (or if any should be taken at all.)

Here are some helpful links. Please keep in mind the DATES of these articles. Most are from the last 5-7 years, but at least one is older.

Drug Abuse and Traffic in Mexico News - Breaking World Drug Trafficking in Mexico News - The New York Times (This is a NY Times page with links to articles about drug trade in Mexico.)

Mexico Fears Its Drug Traffickers Get Help From Guatemalans - New York Times (article)

THE U.N. AT 50: CLINTON;U.S. Freezes Assets of Cartel In New Effort Against Drugs - New York Times (article)

World Briefing Asia: China: 59 Executed For Drug Trafficking - New York Times (brief article)

The New York Times > International > Americas > Anti-Drug Gains in Colombia Don't Reduce Flow to U.S. (article)

Cuba Cooperating to Combat Drug Trade, U.S. Official Says - New York Times (article)

Drug Trafficking & Interdiction (Page on drug trade from an organization's web site.)

Drug trade - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Wikipedia, of course.)

international drug trafficking - Google News (Just a Google News search that might have some useful links.)

Most of the articles here have to do with drug trafficking in the Americas (that's what we could find). But remember that other parts of the world are very involved in drug trade - Afghanistan, for example, is a major producer of opium. The last three links above will probably be the most useful to anyone with a country outside of the Americas, because they're more general.

You don't have to read all the articles...focus on ones that pertain to your country, then look briefly at the other stuff so you'll know what other people think.
And of course, if you don't find anything here to help you, do some of your own research.Two places you always want to look for extra info are the CIA World Factbook and the official UN website (the latter has a list of all past resolutions; you can search for ones on drug trafficking).

COUNTRY ASSIGNMENTS

Maddie Adelson - Chair
Celine Hu - Assistant Chair

Alex Falcon - Brazil
Alex Polyak - Afghanistan
Anuj Desai - Burma (Myanmar)
Ayesha - Bolivia
Christina Chan - Turkey
Divya Chandramouli - Ecuador
Eli Keimach - Iran
Eli Schwarzchild - Morocco
Jeremy Adler - Guatemala
Jen Mo - India
Julia Kelley - Chile
Julie Sun - Peru
Kevin Allan - Pakistan
Muaaz - Poland
Matthew Bogen - Colombia
Michael Rabinovsky - South Africa
Mujtaba Ali - Panama
Nick Kondratiev - Mexico
Tareq Enayetullah - Netherlands
Todd Bronshtein - China
Varun Chandramouli - Australia
Olivia Domba - USA
Omer Zaidi - Nigeria
Eitezaz Mahmood - Russia

We will also be posting these assignments on the bulletin board at school, and you should get an email as well. Please contact a board member with any questions.

Please note that this topic should NOT be a discussion on the merits of taking drugs. We don't mind a little humor, of course, but please don't base your country's opinion off the fact that "drugs are cool" or "the harmful effects of marijuana are just propaganda" or the like. This is really much more of an economic issue then a moral one.

We hope you enjoy this topic. Start researching! Please have a position paper ready for Thursday.

If you're reading this and you didn't get a country assigned to you (but you're planning to come to the meeting this week) please contact a board member.