Dear Editor,
There is a group of people in and out of Guyana who happen to be largely pro-government apologists that continue to propound the empty supply and demand argument to justify the flourishing of the drug trade in Guyana. These tunnel-vision types claim that the drug trade and Guyana’s ascent to a booming narcotocracy is due to nothing more than a strong demand for illegal drugs in foreign nations and predominantly so in North America. There is no issue or minor issue with lax policing, the failure of the government to rein in Guyana’s cartels or the rigor mortis of government forces when it comes to combating the scourge. Their inane conclusion: it is all due to the demand of foreigners who crave the illegal substance.
Well, here’s a reality check for these deniers and obfuscators. The demand is not the problem, supply is. In developed countries, demand is countered by a determined campaign of anti-drug messages, medical treatment, active prosecution, national strategies and dedicated law enforcement. Statistically, demand for illegal drugs and particularly cocaine has steadily decreased in North America due to these factors. Moreso, demand for and use of illegal drugs, particularly cocaine, has decreased at a higher rate among middle and upper class users. A slower rate of demand for and use of cocaine has occurred within the urban lower class demographic of North America. This group tends to be comprised heavily of minorities. It is this group that the Guyanese narcotic traffickers target.
It seems the apologists who are not known for analytical thinking are concluding that illegal demand justifies illegal supply. In Guyana there is a growing statistic of addicts who have easy access to a ready supply of cocaine imported into Guyana by local cartels. In the twisted logic of the apologists, the expansion of addiction in Guyana and the growing army of addicts crawling the streets is not a supply problem but a demand problem. If there is no supply problem then supply should be aggrandized. By extension, the crimes committed by this growing army of addicts on an exaggerated level to fuel their habit is really a demand problem too. And what about the practices engaged in by cartels of pressuring drug pushers who in turn use force, coercion, intimidation and threats to push the young and vulnerable to consume their merchandise of doom? It cannot be a supply problem to these maintainers.
Further proof of why the problem is decidedly more with supply than demand. Cartels know that cocaine is extremely addictive. Addiction leads to repeat business and guaranteed demand. Most critically, cartels target the young and vulnerable. Are the apologists saying that the addictive demand for an illegal drug by a 16-year-old is just a matter of simple demand? Are the apologists claiming that the nefarious targeting of a 16-year-old by a drug dealer is a simple demand problem? If left unchecked the drug cartels will flood our schools and streets and condemn our children to a fate of life on the edge. Guyana is already bearing witness to the painful consequences of untrammelled access to narcotics by its people. Tragically, Guyana either does nothing or does nothing of significance to combat this rising affliction. The rendering of the descent of this nation into a drug trafficking quagmire and the mindless excuse of a demand problem are insulting to the decent few that remain and struggle within its harsh confines. We have a problem as a nation when we have no forcible restraints over our supply of narcotics to our own people and children in the diaspora.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Maxwell
