One example of the increasingly innovative ways traffickers are smuggling drugs occurred when traffickers smuggled drugs from Mexico, into the United State, and then further into Canada concealed in a special mold of porcelain toilets. Clearly, the present DEA budget is no match for the virtually limitless resources of the drug traffickers disposal (Hamowy, 1987).
According to Massing (2000), governmental agencies would need to spend $783 million more annually, to cut cocaine consumption by one percent. Similarly, prohibition efforts would need to be increased by $366 million, while domestic law enforcement would need to be increased by $246 million, to decrease consumption by one percent. In contrast, relying solely on treatment, the government would only need to spend an additional $34 million to attain that same one percent decrease. According to the RAND study, treatment was seven times less expensive than local law enforcement, ten times more effectual than prohibition, and twenty-three times more cost effective than trying to hunt down the drug cartels. A look at cocaine demonstrates how ineffective current strategies have been.
The DEA has found that despite all of their efforts, both at home and abroad, one only has to look at the stability of cocaine pricing, over the last three decades to see what little progress they have made. Pricing for cocaine has remained low and stable, indicating that the DEA's efforts have done little to disrupt the plentiful supply of this drug into America ("Drug trafficking," 2004).
A New Strategy is Needed:
The last three decades has clearly indicated that the current approaches concerning the war on drugs are not working. Drug trafficking has only increased, despite the increased fiscal and manpower resources of the DEA. Stricter laws and penalties have little to no effect on the problem, thanks to the hundreds of billions of dollars of revenue that makes up the illegal drug industry. Law enforcement simply are out resourced in this arena. As such, a new strategy is needed.
More focus needs to be turned to treatment programs. Currently, many major insurance providers do not cover the cost for inpatient treatment for drugs ("Enforcement vs. prevention," 2010). However, as Massing (2000) notes, treatment is exponentially more effective than any other drug trafficking prevention...
This is troubling because, it means that in spite all of the different efforts to disrupt supplies; they have continued to remain strong. As a result, this is showing how the policy approach that has been taken is a failure, by not having any kind of effect on reducing the total amounts of Cocaine on the street (as the level of prices is an indication of this supply). The
Drug Trafficking In The United States drug trafficking in the united states "Drag trafficking is an activity that involves the importation, manufacturing, cultivation, distribution, and/or sale of illicit drags. In this hierarchical system, narcotics are moved from smugglers, growers, or manufacturers to wholesalers who pass the product down through the chain of distribution to retailers and eventually to the consumer or drug user" (Desroches, 2007, ¶ 1). Despite the problems inherent in drug abuse promoted by
Drug trafficking provides people with money and power. A lot of crimes are connected to drug trafficking. That is because the activity is often run by criminal organizations that make large profits from the selling of drugs and people. When criminals traffic drugs that frequently traffic humans as well. These people are often trafficked for sex, slave labor, and organs. When drug trafficking mixes with these kinds of crimes, national
According to the U.S. Department of Justice there are now 1.5 million individuals in prison facilities in the U.S. For the following types of offenses: Drug Offense 59.6% Robbery 9.8% Property Offenses 5.5% Extortion, Fraud, Bribery 6.8% Violent Offenses 2.7% Firearms, Explosives, Arson 8.6% White Collar 1.0% Immigration 2.8% Courts or Corrections 0.8% National Security 0.1% Continuing Criminal Enterprise 0.8% Miscellaneous 1.5% Source Bureau Justice Statistics online at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/ The following table labeled Table 1.0 shows the drug arrested for each year running from 1986 to 2002, the drug categories and the number of arrested in
The global cocaine seizures in 2002 indicate a 10% fall from 1999 -- the latest peak year for cocaine production. Although the bulk of cocaine seizures in 2002 continued to be in the Americas (55%in South America; 32% in North America), the most disturbing trend is the rise in European seizures (13% v. 6% in 1990 and 8% in 2000). The increase in cocaine trafficking to Europe is mainly due
Domestic Drug Trafficking The illegal drug market in the United States is one of the most profitable in the world, and attracts the most sophisticated and aggressive drug traffickers (Drug pp). According to U.S. Customs Service, sixty million people enter the United States on more than 675,000 commercial and private flights, and another 6 million enter by sea, and some 370 million by land (Drug pp). Moreover, 116 million vehicles
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