rp21 situational analysis - Pacific Health Voices

6.2 Drug and alcohol
overview
The Marshall Islands was not included
among the countries considered in the
2004–05 situational analysis of illicit drug
use and responses. In addition, it has not
been represented at PDARN meetings held
to date. In 2009 a delegate was identified
to participate in the network but was unable
to attend the 2009 meeting. The relationship
with the United States distinguishes the
Marshall Islands from other Pacific Islands
nations, and this special relationship is reflected
in the drug use profile.
6.3 Illicit drug trends
In 2008, a comprehensive epidemiological
overview of substance use in the Marshall
Islands was prepared. This report focused on
alcohol and tobacco. It attempted to identify
‘other’ substance use patterns, but included
only self-reports from pregnant women concerning
use prior to pregnancy. Substance
use included betel, marijuana, kava and other
drugs, with marijuana the highest at 2.6 per
cent ever used. The study highlights the limited
data available and is inconsistent with
reports of increasing trafficking and seizures,
but consistent with police and court data
for 2000–04. 397
A number of large-scale seizures of illicit
drugs have taken place in the Marshall Islands
in the last decade. Drugs seized include
cocaine, methamphetamine and cannabis. In
2008, the United States Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) reported increased
problems with methamphetamines. 398 The
DEA contact identified source countries as
China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Hawaii and
the mainland of the United States. At a conference
in Saipan, the Micronesian Police
Executives Association reportedly told delegates
that transhipment of drugs in the
region is so common that drugs are ‘falling
off ships’ and washing up on shore, with the
DEA agent suggesting ‘wash up’ of cocaine
in the Marshall Islands is commonplace. 399
In July 2007, Marshall Islands police confiscated
more than 30 kilograms of marijuana, 400
with an estimated street value of over
US$200 000, which was washed up in a boat
on a remote outer atoll. There was some
suggestion of links between the boat the
drugs were found in and a group of Mexicans
who were rescued in September 2006
after nine months drifting across the Pacific.
Accusations of involvement in drug-running
were emphatically denied by the Mexicans. 401
83
397 Above, fn.392; Republic of the Marshall Islands Economic Policy, Planning and Statistics Office
(2007), available at:
(accessed March 2009).
398 Drugs washing ashore on northern Pacific Islands [interview with DEA special agent Dan
Holcom], Radio Australia, 7 August 2008. Available at: (accessed January 2009).
399 Ibid.
400 Big Marshall Islands drug haul marijuana not cocaine, Radio New Zealand International, 16 July
2007. Available at: (accessed July
2009).
401 Ibid.
Marshall Islands