It's been half a century since Richard Nixon declared his "war on drugs" yet the international drug's market continues to flourish. According to UN estimates the illegal drug trade is worth 500 billion USD a year. This book seeks to investigate why law enforcement has had a negligible impact on reducing both the consumption and production of drugs. In addition the author examines alternative strategies to prohibition in an increasingly interconnected and globalized world. After all can policies defined by the Westphalian state, where sovereignty encapsulated by rigid national boundaries' that once limited trade both licit and illicit still function in our now interconnected world? The amalgamation of states into regional bodies such as the EU, ASEAN, NAFTA or the Eurasian Union coupled to neoliberal policies has radically changed notions of the Westphalian state and eased the distribution of merchandise, goods, capital and people in both a logistical and financial sense. Processes which have been meticulously exploited by both transnational organized crime and international terrorism, that in turn constitute a security threat to states across the world. With these questions in mind the author goes beyond the traditional rather individualistic approach to the drugs debate, one that essentially reduces drug consumption to a matter of "rights" "freedom" and "morality" and seeks to address the issue from a security point of view. Key here is how organized criminals and terrorists have proven adept at exploiting the insecurities and social pathologies that have arisen with neoliberalism and globalization and how this impacts on the role of the state. In seeking to address the issue the book examines the drugs problem from various corners of the world. It looks to the opioid epidemic in North America, Dutertes "war on drug's" in the Philippines, drug consumption in Russia, following the fall of communism, the increasing involvement of terrorist organization's in the narcotics trade in places such as Afghanistan or Libya among others, before concluding that we do have options to the drugs problem and that the only thing holding us back is a fear of ourselves. ABOUT THE AUTHORCim Fez was born in Canada in 1976 Most of his secondary education followed in the UK. He was awarded his Bachelor degree in modern languages from the University of Essex, where he would also conclude studies in the Modern History of Russia. In 2014 Cim would complete his postgraduate studies in international crime in Cambridge. Cim has obtained many years of experience working for social services with people afflicted by drug addiction. This work gave him a first hand account of the social problems that can arise from drug misuse, whether this be due to the dysfunctional lifestyles drug addiction invariably promotes or due to its associated brushes with the law. While working for social services it also became apparent how these socially maladjusted individuals at times manage to perpetuate cycles of dysfunction in further generations. This generally being associated with a mindset that is beholden or at the very least prioritises drugs over any other issue in their individual orientated worlds.Cim is a regular contributor for the news outlet East & West where in addition to crime he writes on Russia and the post Soviet space, international relations, current affairs and international governmental organization's.Cim is a regular contributor for the news outlet East & West where he writes on Russia and the post Soviet space, international relations, current affairs and international governmental organization's.