The Price of Bliss: The Study about Drugs - Essay Example

The Price of Bliss Ecstasy; to some it is a way out of reality, a chance for one to discover the true limits of their emotions. But for what price is it truly worth? This is one of the more major threats in the United States and United Kingdom today. With the recent popularity in night life and clubbing around the world, so to has Ecstasy been looming its ugly head. You never would have heard of the drug even 20 years ago, but recently, there has been a surge of its appearance everywhere. But now, especially in the United Kingdom, Ecstasy consumption has soared. According to a study done by the United Nations, approximately 2.2% of the United Kingdoms population between the ages of 16-59 consume Ecstasy on a regular basis 1. This equates to approximately 730,000 people. These figures have risen an entire percent from a study done five years, which showed only 1.2%. Many problems have attributed to this vast increase in use, particularly due to massive production of Ecstasy in Europe. Approximately 120,000,000 tons of Ecstasy is produced per year, and in the United Kingdom, this has reduced prices to ₤3 for a tablet of Ecstasy. If this sounds startling enough, it’s amazing to know how easy it has become to get a hold of the drug here in the United States. I’ve gone clubbing to several popular venues and some not so popular venues around the Twin Cities areas, and I can’t even count how many times I’ve been offered Ecstasy. In fact, in a few clubs, there are machines where you can get your tablets tested to see if you really purchased Ecstasy. To quote a friend of mine, who is a DJ, he says, “Walking into club is like walking into a candy store, you just have to ask anyone and they’ll point you in the right direction.” 2. On several occasions, I’ve managed to find Ecstasy for less than $10 per tablet. There have been several organizations started to help prevent and stem the flow of drug trafficking within the states and the United Kingdom. In fact, in 1999, the United Kingdom introduced Operation Purple, which was an attempt to crack down on the transporting potassium permanganate, which is a common and essential ingredient in the development of cocaine 3. The initiative was fairly successful, nearly 11,000 tons of the material was confiscated, with multiple shipments raided. But, this is just a small step in the war on drugs. Another operation, labeled Topaz, was also launched in another attempt to not only stop transporting of ingredients in Heroin, but also to discover many of the common trends with drug traffickers. A lot was discovered and discussed. The most common trend was found that almost all of the shipments were either heading to or leaving from South America and Spain. Much of the drugs were traced to many lords within the country of Colombia, which, ever since Johnny Jung opened the market of cocaine up to the United States, has been a central player in the drug war. However, many of the drug lords have become invincible within the Colombian government, bribing officials and running much of the economy. However, the Colombian drug lords have been proven again and again that they are not invincible. Once again, the primary hero being the British, Operation Kingfish was launched as a successful invasion of drug transportation between Colombia and the United States and United Kingdom. The central location of where much of the raid was located was in Jamaica, which is a well known post of transportation for Colombian Cocaine. It is approximated that nearly 80% of all Cocaine traffic goes through Jamaica 4. The operation, although lasting less than three months, was garnered as a huge success, drawing away nearly 20% of all Cocaine transportation to the United Kingdom alone. Ever since the operation, the Jamaican government and the people of Jamaica have been in total support in helping the United Kingdom to stop drug trafficking in the Caribbean. But the military around the world aren’t the only organizations helping to stem the tide of drug transportation. Legislation here in the United States has been cracking down immensely on drugs and drug laws. One of the more major legislative hearings was held on September 22, 2002. The purpose and intent of the hearing was to get real life stories from Ecstasy addicts and to help, with the support of many local parents, to develop methods of teaching children across the country about the evils and facts associated with Club Drugs 5. Since then, many organizations, including Ecstasy.org, have been developed to help educate the population about the facts and debilitating effects of many popular Club Drugs. Being a fellow clubber myself, and with many friends, including my DJ friend, in the club world, I have noticed a huge increase in the awareness of the club drugs. There is an interesting study done by Jo Revill, who has shown many startling facts about Ecstasy in particular. Ecstasy, when taken, reduces the function of your brain and overloads the synapses in your brain with emotions, causing stages of pure lust and euphoria, but within hours, the effects of the drug wear off. In particular, the drug has a long term effect by damaging the serotonin levels within your brain, which is attributed to memory loss, loss of emotion, loss of appetite, and sleeplessness 6. What is more dangerous is that although many people know the dangers of the drug, casual users have even begun mixing Ecstasy with Cocaine or Heroin to “heighten” the lustful effects of Ecstasy. But, to truly understand the dangers of the drug, you truly do have to see its effects first hand. Although I haven’t been clubbing in a while, there are countless stories I could tell. Often, people on Ecstasy, may not even be harmed so much by the drug itself, but rather, are often overly lustful and “X” users are known to have sex with random partners nearly everyday, most of the time unprotected. This in itself is dangerous with the massive rise in STD’s. Also, many users of “X” will fall under a deep trance, and will often dance until the waking hours of the night without having water, which can cause dehydration. Or, even worse, some users feel they must over hydrate and literally drown by drinking too much water. I have never personally witnessed a death, but several cases of both have been recorded since the drugs introduction into the club scene in 1989. Currently, a lot is being done around the world to help crack down on the usage and trafficking of drugs. In particular, the FBI has been spending millions upon millions to develop crack tactical drug unit teams, and the problem is labeled as a major threat everywhere. In fact, on the CIA’s website, the United States is labeled as a major location for drug trafficking. Over three million people in the United States are reported to have major drug problems, and although this is a smaller percentage than the United Kingdom’s 2.2%, it is still a significant number. So, what can congress and legislation do to help reduce the problem of drug trafficking around the world? There are literally hundreds of things for our government and the United Kingdom’s government to do. One thing I have noticed is that although drug awareness programs are displayed throughout the suburb areas throughout the country, the inner city schools and children are often left without such knowledge. There is often too little money floating around for inner city schools to teach children about the harmful effects of drugs. Government could propose an equal opportunity fund to develop said drug awareness programs that is based on population rather than the economic situation of a community. Better still would be to develop more programs to enforce random searches or strict guidelines for many new and current night clubs to keep levels of drug trafficking down. I personally have yet to speak to or see a single under cover agent or police officer working within a club around the Metro area myself. But in the end, the most important thing to do is to increase drug awareness by word of mouth. It’s free advertisement and the more you know to protect yourself, the more you can tell other people to protect them. And if you ever go clubbing, bring a friend and if you must drink, make sure you watch your drink all the time. The only way to truly crack down on drug abuse and increase action to reduce its consumption is to educate people about it. Works Cited Page Jo Revill, Ecstasy.org, Ecstasy: A Human Neurotoxin?, November 22, 2005 http://ecstasy.org/info/novartisarts.html Key areas near the beginning and end of article cited NCIS (National Crime Intelligence Service of United Kingdom) Threat Assessment of Organized Crime, November 22, 2005 http://www.ncis.co.uk/ukta/2003/threat03.asp Key areas throughout article cited OLPA, 107th Congressional Meeting, Drug Awareness and Club Drugs, November 22, 2005 http://olpa.od.nih.gov/hearings/107/session2/reports/ecstacy.asp Tony Thompson, The Observer, Ecstasy Use in the United Kingdom, November 22, 2005 http://mdma.net/club-drugs/uk.html Statistics throughout the beginning cited BBC News, Navy helps in major cocaine raids, November 22, 2005 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4116731.stm Information of Operation Kingfish noted Common Sense Drug Policy, Drug War Facts, November 22, 2005 http://www.drugwarfacts.org/causes.txt Statistics on drug usage and deaths recalled Endnotes 1 Tony Thompson, Ecstasy Use in the United Kingdom, [cited November 22, 2005] http://mdma.net/club-drugs/uk.html 2 Commentary from Andrew Mickelson, November 22, 2005 3 NCIS, Threat Assesment, sections on Operation Purple and Topaz, [cited November 22, 2005], http://www.ncis.co.uk/ukta/2003/threat03.asp 4 BBC News, Navy helps cocaine raids, cited section on Jamaican smuggling, [cited November 22, 2005], http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4116731.stm 5 OLPA, 107th Congressional Hearing, Club Drugs, cited entire section, [cited November 22, 2005], http://olpa.od.nih.gov/hearings/107/session2/reports/ecstacy.asp 6 Jo Revill, Ecstasy: A Human Neurotoxin?, cited sections with facts about brain damage due to ecstasy usage, [cited November 22, 2005], http://ecstasy.org/info/novartisarts.html Read More