Squeezing the balloon: international drugs policy *

Recent experience of supply reduction activities in a major opium‐producing country, Pakistan, is reviewed. It is concluded that international efforts to reduce the supply of illicit drugs are ineffective, inadvertently promote use of more dangerous forms of drugs and exacerbate health problems in supplier countries. In addition, source country supply reduction activities are associated with serious unintended negative consequences, including corruption and poor governance in supplier countries. This leads to a vicious circle as these adverse social consequences make it harder to restrict drug production.