The drug problem in the U.S. and around the world is an important issue and seems to be a difficult problem to tackle across the board. The inflow of drugs has become one of the largest growths in transnational crime operations; illicit drug use in the United States makes it very difficult for nation states police and customs forces to get a handle on the issues. War on drugs, drug trafficking has long been an issue for the United States. There has been a proclamation of “war on drugs” for the past 44 years. Drug trafficking and drug abuse has long been a frustrating feature of United States and other country around the world. The United Nations Office of Drug Control and Crime Prevention points out that the fight against drug trafficking and drug abuse has met with some successes in recent years to restrain the trade that affect community as a whole (World Drug Report, 2010). The U.S. need to increase security at the borders and that will help eliminate the drugs brought into the country. I believe when you put a plan in place that is well develop it will help eliminate the number of illegal immigrants that traveling back and forth into the United States who want to drug trafficking in our country. We need better security checks at the border that will help eliminate the drugs that brought into our country. In 1972, Mexican President Luis Echeverría met with President Nixon and, along with several government agencies, developed The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). There has been much effort to fight the war on drugs such as: increase in law enforcement, allowing federal officials to access military intelligence, and training and much more including campaigns. A recent national drug survey, released last October, shows... ... middle of paper ... ...roQuest Newsstand. (Document Palmer, S. A. , 2006-11-01 "The Incidence of Illicit Drug Use in Canada 1977-2004" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology (ASC), Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA Online . 2009-05-24 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p125275_index.html Ruby, M. (1993, December 12). Should drugs be legalized? . U.S. News & World Report., http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/articles/931220/archive_016323.htm Lorraine Mazerolle, David Soole, Sacha Rombouts Drug Law Enforcement: A Review of the Evaluation Literature Police Quarterly, June 2007; vol. 10, 2: pp. 115-153. http://online.sagepub.com/ World Drug Report, 2010, published by the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, New York, 2010, p. 2. http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/WDR-2010.html
Bruce K. Alexander’s essay “Reframing Canada’s ‘Drug Problem’” is about shifting the focus from intervention to prevention. Alexander explains that in Canada there have been three major waves of drug intervention: “Criminal prosecution and intensive anti-drug” (225), “medicinal and psychological treatment” (225), and the ‘“harm reduction’ techniques” (225) being the most resent. The “’harm reduction’” (225) consisted of: clean injectable heroin, clean needles, methadone, and housing for addicts. Although each of the methods is devoted and knowledgeable, they have done little to decrease the deaths or suppress the unhappiness. While clean heroin did work well few addicts quit using and many found
Bruce K. Alexander’s essay “reframing Canada’s drug problem is about how the focus needs to be shifting from intervention to prevention
The U.S. government has instituted the following ways for enforcing its foreign drug policy: interdiction, eradication, legislative reform. Interdiction is the attempt to stop drugs as they are en route to the United States. This remains to be a formidable task; because of the enormous size of the United States, policing its vast borders has proven to be extremely difficult. For example, the United States has over 12,000 miles of shoreline, through 300 ports of legal entry, and over 7,500 miles of border with Canada and Mexico. The jurisdiction of these border points fall under all of the above mentioned agencies and military branches. Herein lays the first problem of foreign policy on drugs, determining which agency/branch has rightful control over which part of the border. The DEA and FBI have overlapping roles in when it comes to enforcing drug policy. Miscommunication often happens when attempting to interdict drugs because of overlapping jurisdiction between two government agencies. According to the Drug Policy Alliance, the United States has spent over $25 billion on s...
Supply reduction is one of the strategies used to control the illegal drug problem. Supply reduction relies on diplomatic, law enforcement, military, and other resources to disrupt the supply chains of illegal drugs by eliminating or reducing (Lyman). The efforts of the resources focuses on foreign countries to identify the smuggling routes outside of the country and interfere the distribution within the United States (Lyman). There are three approaches to supply reduction paradigm and it is to “eradicate or control drugs at their source, interdict or seize drugs as they enter the country, and engage in intense domestic drug enforcement efforts primarily aimed at users and drug consumers” (Lyman).
A former director of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency’s Mexican office once stated:” The heroin market abhors a vacuum.” The truth in this statement can be extended to not only the heroin trade but also the trade of numerous other drugs of abuse; from cocaine to methamphetamines, the illicit drug trade has had a way of fluidity that allows insert itself into any societal weakness. Much like any traditional commodity good, illicit drugs have become not only an economy in and of themselves, they have transformed into an integral part of the legitimate global economy. Whether or not military or law enforcement action is the most prudent or expedient method of minimizing the ill-effects of the illicit drug trade is of little consequence to the understanding of the economic reality of its use in the United States ongoing “War on Drugs”. As it stands, not only has the illicit drug trade transformed itself into a self-sufficient global economy, so too has the drug-fighting trade. According to a CNN report in 2012, in the 40 years since the declaration of “The War on Drugs”, the United States Federal Government has spent approximately $1 trillion in the fight against illicit drugs. Additionally, a report in the New York Times in 1999 estimates that federal spending in the “War on Drugs” tops $19 billion a year and state and local government spending nears $16 billion a year. Given the sheer magnitude of federal, state, and local spending in the combat of the illicit drug trade, one would reasonably expect that the violence, death, and destruction that so often accompanies the epicenters of the drug economy would be expelled from the close proximity of the United States. While this expectation is completely reasonable to the ...
Concerned authorities have focused essentially on criminalization and punishment, to find remedies to the ever-increasing prevalent drug problem. In the name of drug reducing policies, authorities endorse more corrective and expensive drug control methods and officials approve stricter new drug war policies, violating numerous human rights. Regardless of or perhaps because of these efforts, UN agencies estimate the annual revenue generated by the illegal drug industry at $US400 billion, or the equivalent of roughly eight per cent of total international trade (Riley 1998). This trade has increased organized/unorganized crime, corrupted authorities and police officials, raised violence, disrupted economic markets, increased risk of diseases an...
Drug policy is a crucial topic in the country today. Substance abuse, as well as drug-related crime rates, are a huge problem. This is a fact. The way to fix the problem of substance abuse, however, is widely disagreed upon. Some think that stricter laws regarding drug possession and use would solve the problem, while others believe that loosening the restrictions would be a better option. The issue of legalizing drugs, especially marijuana, is one that is debated all the time. In fact, in 1995, a survey was conducted on the most important policy issues and eighty five percent of the country placed drugs at the top of the list (Falco 1996). Many states are actually beginning to decriminalize, and even legalize, marijuana use for medical perposes. In fact, two states, Washington and Colorado, have legalized the recreational use of marijuana for anybody over the age of twenty-one since 2012. (Hawken, Caulkins, Kilmer, and Kleiman 2013)
Drug abuse is a plague that is taking over the United States; not just the possession of drugs, but also the sale and use of illegal drugs. People in America depend on the stock of drugs as a breakout for a number of reasons. For some, illegal drugs are the only concern they have through past experience. For others, it’s a way to make money and gain more power over their peers. In other words, it’s their way of climbing to the top of the socioeconomic pyramid. Illegal drugs lead to substantial problems such as health issues, death, and murders. Illegal drugs are also becoming an obstacle when coming in and out of the United States via the Mexico border. Anderson and Gardner states, “Illegal smuggling goes both ways on the United States-Mexico
The drug control policy of the United States has always been a subject of debate. From Prohibition in the early 1930’s to the current debate over the legalization of marijuana, drugs have always been near the top of the government’s agenda. Drug use affects every part of our society. It strains our economy, our healthcare, our criminal justice systems, and it endangers the futures of young people. In order to support a public health approach to drug control, the Obama administration has committed over $10 billion to drug education programs and support for expanding access to drug treatment for addicts (Office). The United States should commit more government resources to protect against illegal use of drugs by youths and provide help for recovering addicts.
Office of National Drug Control Policy. The Economic Costs of Drug Abuse in the United States, 1992-2002. Executive Office of the President. 2004. Web. 21 August 2011.
The drug problem that overtook the United States was not just your average run of the mill small time street hustling drugs. The problem was much larger, with several contributing factors. During the 70s, at the beginning of the war on drugs, there
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) 2009, Annual Report 2009, viewed 2 April 2014, http://www.unodc.org/documents/about-unodc/AR09_LORES.pdf
“Drug use is associated with an outstanding 20-40 percent of criminal activity in the U.S. today” (Keene, 2005, p.3). The use of illicit drugs can almost always be considered when discussing property crime, theft, burglary, murder, rape, aggravated assault, etc. There is a significant relationship between drug abuse, of both legal and illegal substances, and the effects it has on crime. The major correlations between drugs and crime portray primarily in heroin, cocaine, pcp (Phencyclidine), and opiates. However, alcohol even though it is legal, has an impact on crime more than most people realize. Ordinarily much prevention to include the increase in rehabilitation centers, heightened levels of law enforcement, stricter laws, and the legalization of illicit drugs may be tactics to limit drug use and crime.
From the United States point of view, the war on drugs has done nothing but affect the nation and its people negatively. In 2015, 31,027 arrests were made for drug related incidents by the DEA, which in turn causes overcrowding in prison. (DEA) Since 2010, the DEA has seized 2.034 million Kgs of marijuana, 4,864 Kgs of heroin and 156,821 Kgs of cocaine; which
He also announced the creation of the SAODAP Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention. Three years later on August 9, 1974, President Nixon resigns, but not before founding one of the greatest assets of the war on drugs, the (DEA) Drug Enforcement Agency. Established in July of 1973, this “super agency” (pbs.com) consisted of agents from the CIA, Customs and ODALE. This agency was designed to handle all aspects of the drug problem in America and would be headed by Myles Ambrose. Throughout the first years of the program, the DEA was established; their main focus was to stop the flow of marijuana from Mexico to America.