Drug trafficking is an illegal drug trading system to which drugs are brought from other countries into the United States; to list just a few of these drugs; cocaine, heroin, hashish, marijuana, LSD, ecstasy, methamphetamines, and opiates. Terrorists are being funded by many of these drug trafficking operations in America. Another huge issue in The United States is the drug trafficking inside our country. In Florida and Texas, it is epidemic, the pill mills and grow houses are a major concern because they are supplying the entire United States with access to these drugs at a steady rate. As a result, there are many individuals and families that are being affected by addiction, illness, overdose, and death. The United States Government believes they have this under control and are helping to solve the situation, but in reality, drug trafficking in the United States is out of control.
“Drug Trafficking is an activity that involves the cultivation, manufacturing, processing, importation and distribution of drugs” (Desroches, 2007). Going down the line of drug trade you have what is similar to an assembly line. You have the manufacturer or grower who grows and makes the actual drug which then is processed and packaged to be smuggled into the country. Eventually, making its way into America’s neighborhoods, by which is called the dealers. This is a process that has no end, because once one batch or shipment of drugs is distributed, there is already another on its way into America, or being made in America.
First, let us look at the prescription drug trafficking, which is at an epidemic level and a major concern in America right now. There are illegitimate doctors who are acting as almost legal drug dealers. They are supplying the entire United States with prescription drugs and making millions of dollars each year. They are doctors who will supply just about anyone, with a complaint with hundreds, if not thousands of prescription pills a month. They are prescribing amounts of medication that a terminally ill cancer patient could not even take. These doctors should be held accountable for the deaths caused by overdoses from the prescriptions that they wrote. These doctors know without a doubt, that these persons who are walking into their clinics cannot possible be taking the amount of medication they are prescribing. To make it worse, these individuals are then “doctor shopping.” Doctor shopping is when a person goes to more than one of these doctors in a single day, week, or month. Then these people go out onto the streets and sell them, and make an astounding profit. Some of these medications are going for as much as one hundred dollars a pill. This also in turn, gives easy access not only drug users, but also school children, who are looking to experiment. High school and college students are targets of drug dealers. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (2009), everyday 2,500 teens in the United States use prescription drugs to get high for the first time. Most teens believe that because these drugs have been given out by a doctor that they are playing it safe, and these prescription drugs are safer than illegal drugs such as cocaine and marijuana. Over 27,500 deaths were reported in 2007 from prescription drug overdoses; that is more than all other drug and traffic deaths in the United States (CDC, 2011).
According to The Almanac of Policy Issues (2004), “The illegal drug market in the United States is one of the most profitable in the world.” This global black market is directly linked to the nation’s largest organized crime and terrorist groups. These operations are bringing in the most ruthless, sophisticated, and aggressive drug, crime, and terrorist individuals and groups from all over the world. In 2006, 93% of the United States opiate supply originated from Afghanistan, earning them 3.1 billion US dollars; two billion was earned from the sales in the US of cocaine from Latin America (UNODC, 2011). Narco-Terrorism is the official term for the link between drug trafficking and terrorism and has been a problem for many years.
Drug traffickers and smugglers are steadily bringing these drugs into our country by many means of transportation: by boats, on freighters, by commercial and private airplanes, through the Mexican and Canadian borders, and even as low as to smuggle these drugs in by putting them in our United States soldiers caskets when sending their bodies home. The United States have seized billions and billions of drugs over the last decade and made hundreds, if not thousands of arrests, but there still is no end in sight. In 2007, President George Bush developed a program that was approved by the United States House of Foreign Affairs Committee that cost 1.6 billion dollars and three years to complete, which trained and equipped security forces to help strengthen our judicial system (Graham, 2008). The United States Border Patrol have brought a military strategy to our borders to attempt to protect foreign threats, such as terrorism and drugs from reaching U.S. territories (Nagengast, 1998). According to (The National Drug Control Strategy, 1999) it says “the U.S. Border Control is the primary federal drug interdiction agency along our land borders with Canada and Mexico. The border patrol specifically focuses on drug smuggling between land ports of entry.” But still the illegal drug trafficking and marketing continues to grow and become more and more of a problem. As the United States fights back against these drug cartels and smugglers harder and harder, the criminals fight back just as hard, rerouting their plans and continue to push forward.
As the illegal drug trafficking market continues to grow and become more out of control, the U.S. tries to keep a steady fight in return. The U.S claims they have many different types of security programs set up to help stop the drug trafficking, it is still getting worse with little or no improvements really being made. In the meantime, in almost every city in America, there continues to be drug addicts, overdoses, gangs, violence, and homicides every day. Many people in America watch as their family and friends become addicted and prosecuted, without helping the real problem. These same drugs, that the U.S claims they are doing everything they can to stop from entering our country, continue to kill individuals’ every day. Some say this is out of control, due to what is called Trade Openness; which is where other countries do trading with businesses to help their economies. “Trade openness has a displacement effect on a country’s work force. People who have lost jobs due to trade reforms are more likely to turn to the drug industry for alternative means of employment, therefor strengthening the drug industry with ample supply of recruits” (Bartilow & Eom, 2009). Then there is the politicians that believe the drug reform acts are only hurting us and robbing us of our own money.
As for our countries complications with the prescription drug trafficking, they are trying to halt the operations, but encounter several complications. One of these complications being the budgetary constraints; the government has many possible solutions, but they cost billions of dollars, which many fight because there is no guarantee of them working. Then there comes the complication of federal, state, and local regulations and laws running into and combining with other laws. This meaning, some individuals need these medications to ease their pain and suffering, cure their diseases, to improve their quality of life, and to save some of their lives. There has been a proposed solution to put an end to individuals seeing more than one doctor at once, but then you run into legitimate patients whose rights are being violated. This in turn, makes it a complicated matter.
The “Pill Mills” in our country should be able to be stopped. If a patient truly needs these medications, then they will not have a problem changing to a legitimate doctor. The individuals seeing these doctors, do not understand these doctors do not care about the wellbeing of their patients, and that they are actually damaging them for the rest of their lives. Thousands of people, most of them barely adults, die each year ultimately caused by these physicians failing to uphold their Hippocratic Oath they took when becoming a physician. These doctors are enabling the needs of drug addicts, as well as turning many into drug addicts or individuals who are dependent on these medications; ones who cannot function properly without them. This is easily said, but not done. This is where the complication mentioned earlier comes in again. When does the government have the right to say when a patient is in need of these medications, and when are they denying individuals of their rights.
Is there a way to completely control and stop drug trafficking? If there was, would it not have already been done? The Government faces many difficulties when trying to find new approaches and is always faced with road blocks. Can it be done without the complete cooperation of other countries? Can we afford this process? These are questions that our government has faced for many decades and still does not have a single solution. All they can do is keep doing what they are doing and continue to fight and become more powerful than the criminals, such as the drug lords and kings, and terrorists.
President Nixon was known for his “War on Drugs” campaign in 1971, which was intended to provide foreign military aid and intervention being funded by the United States with participating countries, to help reduce the illegal drug trade. In 2011, the Obama administration released the comment “The global War on Drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world. Fifty years after the initiation of the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and years after President Nixon launched the US government’s war on drugs, fundamental reforms in national and global drug control policies are urgently needed." President Obama has pledged three hundred million in foreign aid just to Mexico and Central America in 2011 (Wikipedia, 2011).
The problem that The United States faces is the fact that we cannot control foreign drug trafficking, not even into our own country. Until we can completely control what is being brought in, we cannot control the drug trafficking that in happening inside our country. The politics of the proposed issues and solutions are complicated and brings a lot of diplomatic tensions between governments. This also brings many issues within our country on what we are going in debt over; many Americans do not understand the need for us to give foreign aid to these countries.
There have been many cases where law enforcement, including CIA, FBI, federal, state and local law enforcement individuals have been involved in drug trafficking. They go in to help combat the war on drugs, but when faced with the propositions of the financial gain available, they cave. Many politicians have been accused of their involvement with drug trafficking as well. It has been said that many of the campaigns in America have been funded by drug money. Then there are the American business men who get involved with drug trafficking for the financial gain, especially those in the importation and shipment businesses.
Drug trafficking is going on all over the United States and world; this is a global problem. We as individuals cannot make a huge impact on the overall problem, but we can try to help just one individual at a time. We need to help the citizens of our country to do positive things; we need to help the individuals who want and need help. It can make a difference a little at a time, town by town. The U.S claims they are doing what they can to protect us, but there still is drug trafficking happening every day. Many people believe more can be done, and in my opinion drug trafficking in the United States is far from under control.
The United States will inevitably continue to have drug trafficking problems until the countries can come together and take a stand. Will it ever end? One of the biggest issues is that the monetary gain is too much for some to turn down. There are too many deaths caused by drug trafficking, which included overdoses, along with the criminal violence and deaths directly related as well. Until the entire globe can decide to combat this growing problem, the United States can simply keep doing what they are doing, by continuing to fight back, and keep bringing more and more force against these criminals.
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