Drugs and drug traffiking - Admission/Application Essay Example

Drug and Drug Trafficking Drugs are things which have biological effect on humans, and they are categorized on the usefulness of the drugs. This paper mainly deals with prohibited drugs as they cause undesirable consequences on the functioning of species. Drug abuse is a widely known notion and its prohibition has led to the development of strong cartels which make it possible to traffic the drugs. Drug abuse has many effects on the society including increased incidences on crime, poverty, and corruption.

The limitations of controlling drug trafficking start from the poor enforcement mechanisms in some countries, the presence of willing buyers and sellers, the strong cartels and finally the inherent problem of being a transnational crime. Drugs and drug traffickingA drug has been described as anything that has a biological effect on species, and it can be used for treatment, recreation, or for preventive measures. There are many forms of drugs, and there is usually a law in every country that regulates the use of drugs to avoid being abused.

Drug abuse is the use of drugs for uses that were intended, and there are many ways in which a person can access drugs, but most drugs require the prescription of a qualified doctor (Lupton, 2012). The prescription has to be made after a diagnosis, so as to treat whatever disease that was. There are also drugs that the law is lenient on, and these drugs can be over the counter. These are drugs for common ailments, and which drugs do not have any adverse effect on the body even when they are taken not in exact doses.

These are drugs for headaches, stomach aches, and for malaria in tropical countries. The danger with over the counter medication is that it is prone to resistance if it is overused. Finally, another form of drug is the prohibited drug, which can only be through drug trafficking and illegal sales (Hucklesby, 2010). Most of these drugs that are prohibited are leisure drugs that tend to affect the brain of the user, and the prohibition is towards the promotion of responsible behavior among the youth who would take the drug to forget about problems.

In this paper, the drug that is dealt with is the prohibited drugs which are subjected to drug trafficking. Drug trafficking is the illegal transfer of a prohibited drug from one place to another. This is black market cartel whereby there are people who have dedicated their lives for the cultivation and production of the illegal drug from countries that allow the growth and distribution of the drugs. In 2003 alone, the drug market contributed up to about 1% of the world economy, by producing about 33million US dollars, and the main areas where drugs are planted and produced are Afghanistan and Mexico.

The prohibited drugs are called psychoactive drugs because of their special ability to cross the brain-blood barrier, entering the brain and affecting the functionality of the brain (Ruggiero & South, 1995). Some of the psychoactive drugs are useful because of the special effect it puts in the brain, and these include anesthesia and anti-convulsing which are of special use by the doctors. These drugs are and can be used only within a certain setting such as a hospital. There are also those psychoactive drugs which have no special use to the medical fraternity, and have been misused by the people especially the youth to change the mood and give someone false impression.

Some affect the senses and perception ability making people so happy and excited even when they are undergoing problems. These drugs are the ones that are most abused, and the overuse brings several undesired effects on the health and behavior of the people using the drugs. Another dangerous factor is that the drugs have the effect of making the body and the brain dependent on the drug to the point the person cannot function without the drugs, and this is the point it is said that a person is addicted to drugs (Pearson & Hobbs, 2001).

Drug addiction is not a good thing because the person who is addicted must increase the consumption of the drug gradually because the body continuously becomes resistant to the constant dose. Therefore, it leads to the point the addicted person takes so many drugs that they just black out.Effect of drugs in societyDrugs affect the society in so many ways, and that is why most governments have come up with laws that prohibit the use of psychoactive drugs for recreational purposes. The first reason is that it gives a false illusion by blinding the senses of the person who is using the drugs, and the false illusion which is created is just a continuation of the problem, as it is noted that the continual use of the drug creates addiction at which point the user of the drug has to be continually high.

Addiction is also a very hard habit to leave and it is a slow death because when a person who is addicted to drugs is the drugs, they get a very high hangover, so high that the user can commit suicide (Ward, 2011).Another effect of continued drug abuse is that the users who continually use the drug become so useless that they cannot be of any use to the economy. This is a very expensive situation for the economy because the people are fed and taken care of the government yet they cannot contribute to anything to add on the economy although they are healthy and can actually be useful.

This effect is worse in developing countries because the government is still struggling to provide facilities such as security and infrastructure, and the country has no surplus to maintain those who do not contribute to economic development.A third effect of drug abuse is that it is a problem that leads to other problems. The drugs that are abused are in the black market, and mostly the drugs are overpriced to compensate the risk of the people who risk their lives trading for the drugs (Murphy, 2000).

There is usually a very long cartel starting with the farmer, the informers, middlemen, drug lords and the dealer to the consumer. Each and every person in this cartel has to get something out of the drug, and the person who bears the biggest burden of paying these people is the user. This user has been turned into a slave by the drugs, and they do not even notice when they are overpriced and exploitative. It is above that the long-term effects of the drugs are addiction at which point the user cannot avoid the drug.

Another effect is to make the user useless and unable to work for a living. Therefore, since the users have to buy the drugs that are overpriced yet they do not have any source of income, they resort to illegal activities in order to get money to purchase the drugs, and the illegal activities range from theft, robbery, fraud and even money laundering. Money laundering and drug trafficking go hand in hand, because they are both products of the black market. It is that a drug addict would rather purchase drugs than purchase necessities such as food and clothing.

Therefore, drug addicts from poor backgrounds are found to have spent many times in jail, and unless something is done to rehabilitate them, they will still steal, and they will still be jailed. It is, therefore, a circle that ends when the drug addicts reforms of dies.Another effect of drug addiction is that it affects the whole society including the family of a drug addict, because the families, especially mothers, feel that they failed in bringing up the drug addict, and they tend to seclude themselves, at times even failing to seek medical and other attention for the affected person because they embarrassed of them.

This further aggravates the problem, and if the family is not strong, those who are extremely affected may resort ways of feeling well again, and it may include drug use (Tiger, 2011).The final effect of drug use is the contraction of diseases and the drugs that are used by addicts vary from one drug to another, and also there are various ways in which the drugs are administered to the person. Swallowing and chewing have no effect on the user, but those that are intravenously are dangerous because the drug users end up sharing needles, and hence the transfer of bad diseases such as HIV.

This has been a very strong debate in many countries on whether to give the drug users free needles. Human rights activists claim that giving the users free syringes is good because it would save their lives while most governments claim that giving syringes will encourage the taking of drugs that is prohibited by most governments.Drug treatmentsWhen someone is already addicted to drugs, they can be enrolled into one of the programs that try to help drug addicts regain their consciousness back.

Drug abuse leads to utter dependence on the drugs, and it is almost impossible for an addicted person to come out and seek help without a sober-minded person entering in withdrawal. Detox processThe first step in any drug related addiction treatment is the detox process, as addiction occurs because the person using the drug has a lot of drugs in the blood stream, and the detox is the removal of the drugs from the bloodstream and preventing further intake of drugs by the person. Detox is use of natural substances, and at times drugs to compel the drugs out of the blood stream.

The detox process can take up to 60 days depending on the level of addiction the person had, and the response the body is receiving towards the drug. The detox process is monitored by professionals to help the person deal with withdrawal symptoms that may lead them into taking drugs again.Behavioral therapyThis is a cognitive therapy which enables the drug addicts to get into the cause of the problem, which led them into taking drugs, and this can be as a result of stress, or peer pressure. The addict is then taken through a healing process and helped to take positive steps towards solving the problems.

It is that if the problems are not solved, the person will still go back to taking drugs because the causal mechanism is still there. Therefore, if the drug addict is helped deal with his addiction, and then his problems solved, he will not go back to drugs when he gets sober, and this will have a reduction effect on drug trafficking because the drug users will have reduced.Outpatient programsThese are programs that are developed to help those people coming out of rehabilitation, or helping people who are dealing with light addiction.

The person is accountability partners who are meant to encourage and monitor the behavior of one another. Accountability partners will report on the progress of the partners during a group come together, and this is a long process which helps even long after the group meetings are completed. Accountability partners stay in the lives of the addicts as long as both of them are committed to each other, and they are medals that show the level of abstinence they have reached.Drug traffickingDrug trafficking is the black market of drug smuggling between countries who have laws legalizing and illegalizing the trafficking of drugs.

The use and possession of addictive psychoactive drugs such as cannabis and cocaine have been prohibited by countries since time immemorial. A notable point is the opium wars in the 19th century between China, Britain, and France (Hough, 2003). There was a prohibition of opium use almost all over the world including China, but the UK and France forced China to allow the trading in illegal opium. These colonizers saw that the trade in opium was a lucrative venture since it gave out good money that could be used to run the government.

This led to an increase of drug use in both countries, detrimentally affecting the economy. The use trafficking of drugs for political use is something that is still done even in the present day economies. Politicians are thought to be major parts of the international drug cartels such as the Sinaloa cartel, whose cooperation between the cartels is reported to have increased, in a bid to enable the successful transatlantic trade. The politicians use the money that is received from drug trafficking to further political activities by allowing them to have a lot of disposable income.

In developing countries, campaigns are mostly done by giving out money to desperate populations, and the amount of money one has is likely to influence the election of the person into an elective posts. Therefore, there is an increased report of drug trafficking around election periods of these countries, because the money is needed to campaign.There is a widening debate between liberal and conservative countries, those who believe that drug possession and use is something which can be negotiated on, and can be legalized based on the existing circumstances, and the conservative who believe that drug use is bad, and should not be legalized in no way.

The liberal side approach the issue from a human rights approach on the kind of punishments that have been meted on drug traffickers that range from flogging to even death. This raging debate and constant advocacy for more liberal laws has led to the legalization of cannabis by Uruguay, and which sparked a lot of debate on the UN Commission on Narcotic drugs, who believe that the war on drugs is taking a new twist.Legal implicationsIn most countries where drug trafficking is carried out, there is a blanket ban on the possession and use of Narcotic drugs.

The drugs that are include opium and cocaine, and the penalties for drug possession and use are very severe, with some countries enforcing death penalties for the use or possession of drugs (Duke, 2009). Indeed around mid 20th century, a young man from Singapore faced the hangman by being found trafficking drugs into the country. However, it is admitted that the penalties that are attached to drug trafficking are varied, and depend on various factor. The dominant factor is the nature of the drug that one is found to possess, and the second factor is the amount, and the third factor is the circumstance where one is with the drug (Dorn & South, 1990).

For example, if one is found selling drugs to young people who are not of age, there is a tendency that he will face stiffer penalties than another person selling the drugs to an older person.Drug CartelsSince drug trafficking is a prohibited venture, yet lucrative in its all means, there have been formed structures that ensure that the drug trafficking is a success. Drug cartels are any arrangements that are formed by the drug smugglers to ensure that the drugs are from the producer or supplier to the consumer.

There are some complex drug cartels that are known to have levels of authority making them very discreet and smart. It should be that drug cartels are interrelated with other activities that are undertaken in the black market such as money laundering and the production and supply of illegal arms. These are complimentary groups that enable the drug trafficking be a smooth venture. The head of a drug cartel is called a drug lord, and drug lords are very powerful and control the operation of the whole group, mostly transnational.

They are also very rich since they get the highest commission on any drug trafficked and at times they receive even more than the farmer or the producer of the drug. Drug lords are because most of the words they speak are final and are executed without question or variation. The drug lords appoint leaders into the group, and they also plan on how the drugs are to be trafficked, dangerous spots, and even alliances with the other drug cartels when the need arises, and they also authorize high profile executions.

The next in line is the lieutenant, who is like a deputy to the drug lord who is charged with the managerial activity of that which has been ordered by the drug lord. They also authorize non- high profile assassinations and can even carry assassination without seeking authority from the drug lord. The work of the lieutenant is to complicate the drug cartel and protect the drug lord since he will not be in contact with many drug dealers, mostly maintaining anonymity. It is to be that drug lords heading cartels are people who are most wanted by the police, and creating many complex structures in the cartels is beneficial because it enables longer anonymity.

However, notable is that most of the drug lords and lieutenants are after a long chase with the police.Since drug trafficking is a dangerous affair, every cartel requires a group of hit men whose main function is to carry assassinations and protect the drug lords and lieutenants. The hit men are with state of the art weapons, and usually kill on command. They have also been taught how to kill without leaving any traces any person who the cartel believe is a threat to its existence. It is to be that a good percentage of assassinations are done within the cartels on hit men and falcons who decide to back off in the fear that they will expose the secrets of the cartel.

Therefore, once somebody enters the trafficking cartel, the only option for them is to die there or to be caught by the police.The lowest rank of the drug cartel is the rank of the falcons, and this is of those people who go around collecting information on the operation of the police, and other administrative structures which have seen set to curb the trafficking activity. Most of the falcons are killed within the drug cartel as soon as they start showing lack of interest in the job. They are the lowest in ranks, and therefore their deaths have very little effect or none on the operation of the drug cartel.

There are so many cartels all over the world, but Mexico is considered to have the highest number due to the fame attached to its criminal scene.The most notable drug cartels are:1. Guadalajara cartel that was disbanded in 1989 due to the arrest of its main leader, Felix Gallardo (Collison, 1995). The drug cartel survived for long due to the strategy that was adopted by its leaders in managing the cartel. The top leaders, the drug lords, hardly made any public appearance. Finally, all the drug lords were arrested, and the cartel split into two major cartels.2. The second drug cartel, and which split from the Guadalajara cartel, is the Sinaloa cartel which is led by Joaquin Guzman.

The cartel is very strong owing to its leader who is said to be worth more than 1 billion US dollars, and he is also the most wanted drug lord of the time, and the cartel won a battle of supremacy with Juarez cartel in which the ultimate prize was the control of the major drug routes.3. The third cartel is the Juarez cartel, and it is thought to be the most dangerous drug cartel because of the way it kills and displays the bodies of its rivals in public. It controls the major drug routes into Texas, and the cartel employs top of the art assassins such as the gang La Linea.4. The fourth cartel is the Tatiana cartel which also split from the Guadalajara cartel, and it is not only a cartel, but a criminal gang which performs other criminal activities.

It has been termed as the most violent of all the cartels by the police, and it is also accused of internal rivalry which has led to the assassination of most members of the cartel, leading to a diminishing members.5. The final cartel to be in this paper is the Gulf cartel which has the most pronounced of the trade routes in the US, and the cartel is also famous for kidnapping and assassinations which had led to its branding as the most violent cartel ever existed. Most of its leaders have been arrested and incarcerated, but the cartel is still well operational because of upcoming leaders.

This is a cartel that can teach a lesson on succession planning, because it continues to operate well even in the case of an important arrest.Effects of drug traffickingThe effects of drug trafficking as an offense are in the community as a whole as opposed to the drug use which is mostly individual. The use of a country as a country of transit has a lot of effects on the population even on those who are not using drugs. The most affected countries are those countries that act transit points to the intended destination of the drugs.

Examples of those points are Ecuador and Honduras, which constitute transit points in which over 80% drugs are passed to the South America. These countries report a major crime rate including murders. Last year alone, there were over 300,000 drug crime-related murders in Honduras. There was also a widespread of social unrest in Ecuador with populations moving into seek asylum and to live illegally from Columbia. A major reason the transit zones are thought to be dangerous zones is because drug trafficking is illegal, and the drug traffickers follow strict instructions from the drug lord who instruct on anonymity and assassinations.

A huge price is also tied to the drugs, and if a lieutenant loses the drugs, he will suffer a stiff penalty from the cartel even death. Therefore, the best way to move safely through the country is to cause chaos, and move through the chaos (Duke, 2009). Informers and other government spies and detectives are also eliminated in drug transit zones if they do not agree to be bribed. Like consumption, the drug trafficking is also responsible for high rates of crime in the country because of the expensive drugs such as cocaine and heroin, and it is that drug-related crime in the UK is over $15 billion dollars and is composed of shoplifting, burglaries, and robbery.

The shoplifted items are to be so as to recoup some money to purchase the drugs. The shoplifted items could also be used to get the commodities that could have been bought by the user hadn’t he spent all the money on drugs.However, the drug trafficking menace, unlike the drug consumption has a positive effect on the economy. Drugs are expensive commodities with supernormal profit and have been ranked alongside guns and arms, and this is because everyone in the cartel has to get something. The positive impact on the economy is widespread the way the e cartel is widespread.

It is that in the 2008 financial crisis, most of the financial institutions in drug trafficking areas such as Mexico survived because of the drug trafficking. The drug trafficking produced liquid capital that was a main problem during the period of recession. The liquid capital also helped interbank borrowings and helped many banks stay afloat. Therefore, in economic sense, the trade in drugs has positive impacts on economies and leads to a better distribution of resources. Some of the states have developed as a result of drug trafficking and included Columbia, Peru, and Ecuador.

However, this is morally wrong because they money is gotten from exploitations and also from mental problems that are developed by the drug traffickers. Therefore, it acts against the legal notion that somebody should not benefit from a wrong that he has inflicted on others.An inquiry has been made between the drug trafficking success and free trade, which is the dismantling of nation barriers and quarters, and allowing free flow of economic goods and services into the country. The free trade is continuously getting recognition because of globalization, and so is the drug trafficking (Bean, 2014).

Those who advocate free trade among countries claim that free trade hence increased trade helps to strengthen enforcement mechanisms along the barriers and blocking drugs from passing through. However, the opponents claim that the drugs can easily pass amidst of the bulk created along the borders. When the borders are receiving a lot of goods, it is possible for the drug traffickers to hide the goods together with other things making it very hard for them to be discovered. It is that free trade has made it possible for people to do extensive money laundering because it makes it possible to change the dirty money into clean money easily without being noticed.

The money from money laundering is also used to engage in other activities, thereby increasing wealth for the drug lords making them strengthen their territories. Therefore, it is both ways, and a cost-benefit analysis should be before deciding whether to continue free trade or not. Free trade can curb or decrease drug trafficking depending on the enforcement mechanisms at the border. However, it is should be noted that free trade has so many other advantages, like the reduced cost of trading, and thus should not be on drug trafficking alone.

The impact on the economy should also be considered, and the drug routes because there are some routes that are more prone to drug trafficking than other routes.United Nations Office on Drugs and CrimeUNODC is an office of the United Nations which was started in 1997, and its primary objective is to regulate the trafficking of illegal drugs in member states, and also address drug-related crime in those member states. It is that drug-related crime in states that traffic drugs is higher than non-drug related offences.

The office works through a well-established legal framework which is applicable to all member states, and also committees that have been formed to implement the policies that are formulated by the committee. The office deals with four major drugs; heroin, cocaine, amphetamine and cannabis, and produces a yearly report on the status of the drug trafficking in member states, tabulating the various ways in which the entity intervened on the drug trafficking menace, and the legal framework applicable relates to drugs and also crime.

The single convention on narcotic drugs and convention on psychotropic substances are two important conventions which address the issue of drugs, and their mandate is to consolidate all the law applicable to drugs in member states. The other function of these important conventions is to ensure that even though drugs and psychotropic substances should be banned, doctors and scientists should get enough supply to enable them carry out their functions without impediments. The other convention on drugs is the convention against illicit traffic on narcotics and psychotropic substances which controls the trafficking of drugs in and out of member states, and this third convention is also instrumental in boosting member state cooperation in curbing the drug menace and the accompanying criminal activities such as money laundering.

These laws are very instrumental in the fight against drugs and drug trafficking and ensuring that member states implement measures to control illicit trafficking of drugs.The office also works through campaigns that are targeted at the prospective consumers of the drugs, like the campaign duped ‘Do drugs control your life?’, which is a worldwide campaign which was initiated to target the youth mostly, and to discourage them from getting themselves involved in the drug menace. These campaigns are extensive, and they are at the consumer rather than the laws that are mostly targeted at the distributors.

The aim of the campaign is to disable the drug trafficking by affecting demand and reducing it as much as possible.Challenges faced in controlling drug traffickingTrade in drugs is a trade like any other trade and thus is a private law matter. Therefore, since there is a willing buyer and a willing seller, it becomes very hard for the law enforcement agencies to find out and interfere with incidences of drug trafficking. This is mostly because the parties to the transaction know that it is illegal and are doing all they can to conceal the menace.

Another challenge that presents itself is the cartels that have been created to implement the drug trafficking. The cartels are well organized to include the leaders, hit men and even spies, and this makes it very organized and efficient because the cartel covers all the countries which the drug has to go through. It also makes it hard for enforcement agencies to get information on trafficking because the public is afraid to divulge information on the cartel for fear of getting killed. These cartels also pay well, and in developing and least developed countries, some of the law enforcers are attracted to the cartels due to the inadequate salaries they get from the government.

Conclusion In conclusion, it is noted that drugs are those substances that have a biological effect on the human body. The normal human feelings can at times be bad as the person is facing down challenges. There is, therefore, a tendency that the human beings will use the drugs to bring back their physiological feelings to normal. There are some drugs that can be bought over the counter, other prescription and other prohibited. The subject of this paper is psychoactive drugs that can cross the blood-brain barrier causing perception and mood changes.

They have the effect of making one euphoric and forgetting problems. These drugs are addictive, and the prohibition has led to the development of far-reaching cartels through which the drugs reach their intended markets. The drugs have various detrimental effects on the economy of the country, because they affect the youth and end up being unable to work. However, the drug trafficking as a concept is beneficial to the economy because it introduces liquid assets to the financial institutions and also leads to wealth distributions.

Some towns also grew and developed because of drug-related trade. The disadvantages of using drugs are many because they affect the working of the person; hence making them live in continuous illusion. This has been said to be the cause of crime related activities such as murder, robbery and shoplifting. There are some factors that have been seen to lead to a flourished drug market, and they include free trade, political manipulation and breakdown of barriers. Free trade has been seen to increase the commodity volume providing a haven for hiding the drugs during trafficking.

It also provides with an easier way of exchanging dirty cash for clean money. The war on drugs is beneficial or detrimental depending on the lens of the person looking at it.ReferencesBean, P., 2014. Drugs and Crime. London: Routledge Collison, M., 1995. Police, Drugs and Community. London: Free Association Books.Dorn, N. & South, N. 1990. Traffickers: drug markets and law enforcement. London: Routledge Duke, K., 2009. "The focus on crime and coercion in UK drug policy", in MacGregor, S. (ed).

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