Reducing Drug Trafficking in the United States - Research Paper Example

? Reducing Drug Trafficking in the United s Reducing Drug Trafficking in the United s Prescription drug abuse is an increasing phenomenon in America, with statistics indicating that the case is now ranked second after marijuana abuse. Drug abusers now revert to abusing prescription drugs, which they get from doctors through lying, buying them from illegal vendors, or stealing. According to Van Pelt (2012), prescription pain medication is now a public health crisis, with more than 15,000 deaths per year attributed to the problem. One of the facets of prescription drug abuse is opioid abuse, which is abused by more than 7 million people. In discussing this problem, this paper will indicate the breakdown of statistics related to this problem, discuss the factors that drive this high prevalence of prescription drug abuse, the main prescription drugs abuses and then give proposed solutions to the problem. This section will also propose treatment methods for prescription drug abuse. In the United States, the more than 7 million people reported to be abusing prescription drugs make up about 2.7 percent of the whole population, a statistics that indicates the seriousness and prevalence of the problem. The main prescription drugs abused are those that focus on the central nervous system and the drugs that are used medically for psychiatric problems. This means that the main drugs abused fall under pain relievers, tranquilizers, stimulants or sedatives. Reports indicate that adolescents and young adults mainly abuse prescription drugs that are served over-the-counter. This is also the same for other individuals, although a significant number do doctor-hopping; the process of getting the same prescriptions from different doctors. This high prevalence of prescription drug abuse is usually driven by three main factors. The first factor is the misperception that people have about the safety of the drugs. Many individuals assume that since the drugs are prescribed by doctors, they should be safe to take, and even with the increasing abuse, are not as bad as illegal drugs. What the public fails to understand is that prescription drugs work on the central nervous system in much the same way as illicit drugs. Another driving factor is the increasing availability of these drugs. With the ease at which people get prescription drugs over the counter, statistics for abuse are steadily increasing. The last reason that mainly drives prescription drug abuse is the motivations for their use. Most individuals start taking the drugs for disease or some problem. However, the continued attachment to these drugs increases the prevalence of abuse. Drugs like opioids, when abused, have severe risks to the human body. The first risk factor associated with opioid abuse is addiction. From research, it is seen that opioids act on the same receptors in the brain as heroine and similar drugs. Causes Drug trafficking is made possible when there is a demand and supply chain. It is an opportunity created by a communities’ dependence on substances that enhance abilities or suppress emotions that a person is not ready to handle. Nevertheless, dependence alone is not the cause; the cause comes when one starts abusing the drug. These drugs vary from prescription drugs to those that are illicit. However, in recent times there has been an upsurge in the abuse of prescription drugs. According to recent data from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health, (NSDUH), a third of the people above twelve years of age who started using drugs in 2009 started by taking prescription drugs without a medical reason. Additionally, the report ‘Epidemic: Responding to America’s Prescription Drug Abuse Crisis, shows that the number of people refilling ‘Opioid pain relievers’ prescriptions has increased as has the dosage prescribed to them. In the same report, prescription drugs come second as the most abused drug after marijuana. Prescription drugs are easy to access especially painkillers. This is because families and friends tend to share their drugs when one of their own is in pain such as a slight headache after being out in the sun. These subtle acts of kindness may be the cause of increasing dependence on drugs. This is not to say that prescribed drugs are not good. However, according to an essay summary, all drugs carry the potential to destroy people’s lives. This destructive potential pointed out by Courtwright affects mainly the young people and stimulate the need for drug control. (Courtwright, David T., (2004.). Most people are not aware when they are abusing drugs. Passing on prescribed drugs to someone for whom the drugs were not meant for may seem right because the general assumption is that the drugs are FDA approved and thus cannot harm. This is what makes parents who are not aware of their children’s drug habits, to leave their prescriptions openly oblivious of the potent danger they are exposing to them. Ironically, they are the same that lock up their alcohol cabinets to protect their children. Families then become the basic contact points with prescription drugs, but they are not the only ones. According to the action plan ‘Epidemic: Responding to America’s Prescription Drug Abuse Crisis’ prescribers and dispensers also play a vital role on dependence of prescription drugs. They need to know of the significance of appropriately prescribing and dispensing drugs. In the Hatsing Center Report 2007, an article by Jon O. Neher, suggests that some patients may not be entirely truthful about how they use their prescription. He tells of a patient whose injured knee caused him a lot of pain. The patient was seeing him for a refill of the prescription, and he requested for an increase since he complained that the dosage he had was not enough for his pain. After he increased the dosage, he noticed that the patient was travelling a long way just to get a refill of the drugs. This exposed two things either he was abusing the drug, or as his assistant suggested he was peddling the drugs to other people. Although the doctor stopped seeing the patient, such an incidence serves to show how patients can use a legally prescribed drug illegally. In this instance, there was a high possibility that the patient had several doctors from whom he was getting the same prescription. He was a critical person in the ring a prescribed drug peddling and thus needed to have many ways of how to satisfy his customers. Although prescription drugs that deal with acute anxiety disorders or acute medical pain treatment or even stimulants have immense value on the medical field, they are addictive, and this causes a high dependency on them, voluntarily or otherwise. For this reason, ‘doctor shoppers’, people who hop from one doctor to the other getting the same prescription (Epidemic: Responding to America’s Prescription Drug Abuse Crisis, 2011) feed their drug habits and provide an illegal float for their consumers. Another cause that is creating a demand for drugs is the crime level and delinquent nature of juveniles. Most of this happens as a way of building one’s ‘street cred’ through caving in to peer pressure. Taking drugs is also part of the initiation process for gangs, and this is where most delinquents start using them. Marijuana has been the most abused drug, not just for the effect that it gives the user, but also because people have found ways to grow and peddle the drug. Methamphetamine, which is also another common drug on the streets, has also been a problem especially because of the ‘meth labs’ that keep cropping up, feeding in to the drug trafficking cartels. In the recent data, one in nine high school seniors had used the synthetic drugs that contain Cannabinoids. Solutions On the front of the illegal drug trafficking, efforts made to combat the causes of drug use as well as the channels used by the drug peddlers have proven to be fruitful. The U.S borders should be secured to curb the movement of the transnational drug trafficking cartel. Curtailing these movements in and out of the country helps in the fight to reduce domestic drug production and trafficking. An amplified cooperation with international partners is critical in ensuring the borders are well sealed to ensure an effective disrupting of the transnational criminal activities. In the 2012 National Drugs control strategy report, one of the accomplishments of the coordinated law enforcement efforts was a national takedown to bring down the La Familia Mochoacan drug cartel. The effort was rewarded by 1900 arrests as well as impounding thousands of pounds of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and marijuana. Such a huge burst meant a reduction of drugs in the trafficking channels and moved the war against drug abuse closer to a win. Law enforcement efforts against drugs and narcotics need to be channeled further into disrupting the production of synthetic drugs such as ‘Spice’ or ‘K2’ (National Drugs control strategy report, 2012). These are some of the synthetic drugs that have been camouflaged in the market being sold as ‘bath salt’ or as ‘herbal incense’. The dangers presented by the smaller laboratories are reduced greatly by countering the production of drugs. To curb the prescribed drug abuse and consequent prescribed drug trafficking, there has been a policy act that proposes the education of all stakeholders. The parents, youths prescribers and dispensers are to be educated on the awareness of the risks involved by the abuse and misuse of prescribed drugs. Additionally other measures that have been taken up in the reduction of trafficking prescribed drugs have been the use of tracking and monitoring devices by the implementation of the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program PDMP. Although forty-three states have authorized this program, only thirty-five states have rolled out the programs in use. Studies on the effectiveness of the PDMP programs have shown it as an approach that may be fruitful, but it remains to be established how effective they really are. (Epidemic: Responding to America’s Prescription Drug Abuse Crisis, 2011). Peer pressure, ignorance and coercion are just some of the ways through which people start abusing drugs. Once the cause has been established, one is able to curtail any further progression of the habit. However, taking note of the strides that have been made in the progress to curb drug trafficking, It is paramount to note that there remains a lot to be done to ascertain the war against drug trafficking is won. There have been many recommendations passed to deal with the causes such as the youth initiatives that work towards ensuring the youth are engaged productively and therefore factors like idleness are dealt with (National Drug Control Strategy, 2012). The criminal justice system has also played a huge role on reducing drug trafficking in the country. The system acknowledges that drug abuse is a progressive and chronic disease that needs to be treated to reduce the number of drug related crime. The recommendations offered are all effective in reducing drug trafficking in the United States. However, the family structure needs to be reinforced for these reforms to take place effectively. Failure to do this only uses up the countries resources dealing with the symptoms rather than the cause. By helping families deal with their dysfunctional relations, the number of kids that are recruited to gangs will reduce significantly as the role models in society increases. This is not to say that the current efforts have been futile, but a change in perspective is necessary to ensure that the root cause of drug misuse, abuse and trafficking are nipped at the bud. Therefore, the reduction of drug trafficking is a possible feat and so far has been work in progress, but for the reforms to be realized there will need to be closer relations within the communities to ensure a free flow of information that will be vital in the reduction of drug trafficking. References Courtwright, David T., (2004.) Drug Wars: Policy Hots and Historical Cools. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Volume 78, Number 2, pp. 440-450 (Article) Epidemic: Responding To America’s Prescription Drug Abuse Crisis. (2011). Neher, Jon O. (2007.) You're Fired Hastings Center Report, Volume 37, Number 3, May-June 2007, p.7-8 (Article) Published by The Hastings Center. DOI: 10.1353/hcr.2007.0045 National Drug Control Strategy. (2012.) Van Pelt, J. (2012). Pain Care Advocacy in an Era of Opioid Abuse. Social Work Today Vol. 12 (5). Pp. 16. Read More