Peru and Why They Are Number One
The trafficking of illegal drugs is nothing new, yet most governments have not found a successful way to halt the production and distribution of these drugs. These drugs include cannabis, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine which are widely known and used every day. The drug trade is the third largest in the world, valued at around $300-400 billion by the United Nations. Cannabis remains the most widely produced, trafficked and abused illicit substance in the world, with 147 million people using it, equally to about 2.5% of the world’s population; it is being produced in practically every country. But, second to cannabis and equally as important is cocaine. Traditionally coca leaves have been chewed by the people residing in the Andean countries of South America for thousands of years, to produce a mild, stimulating feeling. It is said to help with the effects of high altitude and with digestion. The production of cocaine all started around the year 1860, when the main alkaloid, cocaine, was isolated from the coca leaf. Since then, cocaine has become a very important substance. The production and distribution of cocaine is the most important to the Andean region of the world, which is made up of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. They are the top producers of cocaine in the world, and "are the source of 95 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the United States”. The cocaine business incorporates more than 1 million people, from peasant growers, to chemists and processors and to the distributors. In 2012, the White House declared that Peru is now the world’s number one producer of cocaine, leaving Colombia, the previous number one, in second and Bolivia in third. “More than 60,000 hectares of coca crops w...
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...purity has increased. “10 million people are in jail worldwide for drug-related offences, civil liberties have been widely infringed and thousands die in the drug war each year. The drug-free world so confidently predicted by supporters of the 1961 Single Convention is further than ever from realization.” Even though many believe that drugs are an evil substance, the trafficking of drugs actually has its benefits. It can generate a substantial amount of jobs. It results in employment for large amounts of peasants, creating drug profits distributed in small amounts to large numbers of people. Along with peasants, the presence of cocaine has created a large amount of jobs for those that are anti-drug like the DEA. "Our drug officials are very irresponsible in global strategies," Paul Gootenberg "They have tunnel vision. They don't look at the global implications."
Did you know that Peru is one of the top ten countries to visit in the world? (UNWTO) Peru has unique music and energetic dances that are fun to see. The people are friendly and charming; they would be happy to help one find their way if they need help. But, the main reason Peru appears on the top ten list is because of its unique geographical features. Some examples are the Andes Mountains, Machu Picchu and Cusco. The art and culture of the Peruvians, as well as the people themselves,and the popular places to go, are what tourists like to see in Peru.
The cartels are now in control of most of the drug trades and are successful. The Mexican border gives them the power to go everywhere they desire, making them a relentless force. “To date operation Xcellrator has led the arrest of 755 individuals and the seizure of approximately 5 U.S. Currency more than 12,000 kilograms of cocaine, more than 16,000 pounds of marijuana, more than 11,000 of methamphetamine, more than 8 kilograms of heroin, approximately 1.3 million pills of ecstasy”(Doj 2). Mexican cartels extend to central and southern America. Columbia is the supply of much of the cocaine exported to the U.S. Colombia is under control of South American gangs, they do business with the Mexican cartels to transport drugs the north. The Northern Mexican gangs hold the most control because the territory is very important (Wagner1). They are many different types of cartel in Mexico it also signifies that there are killing each other so their cartel can expand an...
Gootenberg, Paul. Andean Cocaine: The Making of a Global Drug. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2008.
Nicaragua The area of Nicaragua is 50,193 sq. ft. mi. The Nicaraguan highlands, with an elevation of about 2000 ft, cross Nicaragua from the northwest to the southeast. Several mountain ranges, the highest of which, the Cordillera Isabelia, reaches an elevation of more than 6890 ft, cut the highlands from east to west.
Cocaine comes from the leaves of two specific coca plants that are primarily grown in South America. The leaves contain the specific cocaine alkaloid that is needed to make cocaine hydrochloride (Rhodium). Alkaloids are a class of alkaline amines that are found in nature and amines are organic compounds containing a nitrogen atom bonded to one, two or three carbons (Suchocki 368). The process of going from a coca leaf to the cocaine hydrochloride (powdered cocaine) is done by converting the coca leaves to coca paste and the coca paste into cocaine base which is then moved into the hydrochloride stage (Rhodium). Each coca leaf contains roughly 1% of the desired cocaine (Claustre and Bresch-Rieu). The dried leaves are placed in a container and mixed with water, kerosene and an alkaline material such as sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) or sometimes baking soda. The solution made extracts cocaine alkaloids from the leaves (Rhodium). The kerosene, which is water immiscible, and the cocaine alkaloids become separated and the water and leaves are then discarded. The cocaine alkaloids are then extracted from the kerosene by using a sulfuric acid. The result is a putty like substance of cocaine sulfate or coca paste (“Cocaine”). It takes around 250 pounds of dried coca leaves to produce just 2.2 pounds of coca paste and out of the paste there contains 30 to...
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...
Colombia is a country that is rich in soil and the most fertile in the world. Because Colombia has such rich and limitless resources it comes at a high price. One of these resources is considered to be a life line to a better life, which is called the coca leaf. Cocaine is a drug that has been around for many years. This drug hasn 't always been for recreational uses but just known as a pure coca leaf in the jungle. The coca leaf has not only transformed it 's self into a money-making drug but it has also transformed Colombia into the main supplier to all countries for its pure cocaine drug, making Colombia one of the most dangerous places in the world.
A “drug-free society” has never existed, and probably will never exist, regardless of the many drug laws in place. Over the past 100 years, the government has made numerous efforts to control access to certain drugs that are too dangerous or too likely to produce dependence. Many refer to the development of drug laws as a “war on drugs,” because of the vast growth of expenditures and wide range of drugs now controlled. The concept of a “war on drugs” reflects the perspective that some drugs are evil and war must be conducted against the substances
The official name of Panama is the Republic of Panama or (República de Panamá). Panama is located on the narrowest and lowest part of the Isthmus of Panama that links North America and South America. This part of the isthmus is situated between 7° and 10° north latitude and 77° and 83° west longitude. Panama is slightly smaller than South Carolina, approximately 77,082 square kilometers.
This supports the conservative’s claim that the war on drugs is not making any progress to stop the supply of drugs coming into America. Conservative writer for the magazine National Review, William Buckley, shows his outrage towards the Council on Crime in America for their lack of motivation to change the drug policies that are ineffective. Buckley asks, “If 1.35 million drug users were arrested in 1994, how many drug users were not arrested? The Council informs us that there are more than 4 million casual users of cocaine” (70). Buckley goes on to discuss in the article, “Misfire on Drug Policy,” how the laws set up by the Council were meant to decrease the number of drug users, not increase the number of violators.
For over 4,000 years coca, has been used as a medicine and stimulant in what is now Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia and goes back to the earliest days of...
Within the United States there is a huge diversity of cultures. Culture is many different things, it is a tradition, it is the values and beliefs passed down from generation to generation, and culture is the identity of any country. Culture helps to identify one cultural group from the other. Although we may live in the same country,city, or state we still differ from one another by the way we dress, our beliefs, language, traditions, music, art, food, religion, and politics.
This failure is due in large part, Benson and Rasmussen explain, to drug entrepreneurs’ adoption of new production techniques, new products, and new marketing strategies in response to greater law enforcement. Their “innovations” include lengthening the drug distribution chain and using younger drug pushers and runners (to reduce the risk of arrest and punishment), increasing domestic drug production (to avoid the risk of seizure at the border), smuggling into the country less marijuana and more cocaine (which is harder to detect), development of “crack” cocaine (a low-cost substitute for higher priced powdered cocaine and for marijuana, which the drug war made harder to obtain), and development of drugs with greater potency (because they are less bulky and because punishment is based on a drug’s weight, not its potency).
There are three methods of source control that are directed in limiting the planting and manufacturing of illegal drugs in foreign countries. They are crop eradication, control of precursor chemicals, and the U.S. certification process. Crop eradication focuses on the reduction of agricultural output of opium poppies, coca plants, and marijuana from their respective countries of origin. The eradication of the crops is done both manually and through the use of herbicides that kill the plants. The theory is that by decreasing the cultivation for the manufacturing of the illicit drugs, it in return causes the drugs to be more expensive, thereby reducing the level of drug use. Despite the theory, growers have found ways around the crop eradication, so the method proved to be successful for a limited period (Levinthal, 2012).
Drug trafficking is the largest and most extensive illegal activity of transnational organized crime. By definition, drug trafficking, “occurs when psychoactive substances are moved across international borders in violation of international law.” The laws were formulated and ratified by members of the United Nations after the three major international drug conventions that were held in 1961, 1971 and 1988. Prior to these conventions, there were no distinctions made between legal and illegal substances. The conventions attempted to regulate the distribution of drugs by controlling their production and identifying the most dangerous. They also tried to streamline efforts to combat drug trafficking and included the regulation of plants grown as the raw material for illegal drugs, and chemicals used to create illegal drugs, through the creation of the International Narcotics Control Board. Despite the efforts of these international initiatives, illegal drug trafficking remains the most lucrative enterprise for the criminals and the most confounding and difficult issue facing the countries involved.