Drug Trafficking in the United States

Drug Trafficking in the United States

  • Submitted By: mjgmjg
  • Date Submitted: 09/20/2013 12:36 PM
  • Category: Psychology
  • Words: 1992
  • Page: 8
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Drug Trafficking in the United States

Can the war on drug trafficking actually be won? Absolutely not, the war on drug trafficking will never be won. “Drug trafficking in the United States is the most lucrative business in this country” (Customs, Tuesday, March 15, 2011). But can the war on drugs be won? Many believe that America is winning the war on drugs, and numerous believe that it’s a losing battle. Statistical data shows that drug abuse and trafficking has declined, but by no means has the war been won or lost. In 1971, the phrase "War on Drugs" was first used by Richard Nixon in order to describe America’s fight against the production, distribution and use of illegal drugs. President Nixon called drugs, enemy number one in the 70’s (Wright, 2011). Our generation today drugs/drug trafficking is still considered to be our enemy. On the other hand, everyone has their own opinion on how to fight the war on drugs; increase law enforcement/DEA, legalization, educational and drug treatment programs. Drug trafficking will never be stopped, but is it important to make the attempt to reduce the demand for drugs to benefit our younger generations to come; Educational and drug treatment programs.
The Opium war shows that drug trafficking has been around for centuries. However, the United States has been battling drug trafficking since the 1900’s. In 1972, Nixon combined four government agencies to fight the “war on drugs”, which is known as the DEA. According to Ojeda, the worldwide drug trafficking is estimated to produce three hundred to four hundred billion dollars annually (Ojeda, Drug Trafficking, 2002). With the means of that much money it allows drug traffickers the advantage of all kinds of technology, in order to traffic drugs to the United States (Ojeda, Drug Trafficking, 2002). “Because the traffickers have a higher budget than drug enforcement officers do, they are able to develop more sophisticated means of producing, transporting, and hiding their...

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