ABSTRACT
Some regions of the world are closely associated with the drugs issue, and some are not. The academic study of illicit drugs and the related issues of corruption and terrorism are most closely integrated in Latin American studies. In Afghanistan, opium poppy and its derivatives are emerging at the centre of broad debates about security, state-building and agricultural development. Narcotics may be less closely connected to social scientific enquiry in Asian Triangle states like Myanmar, but the importance of these areas for the production and trafficking of opiates is long established. Regarding the rest of the world, regions tend to be viewed mainly as consumer markets (Europe and North America), or as largely unimportant (Africa). In the minds of most today, the Middle East would probably be filed under the latter.
