Instructor: Teresa Plummer
October 28th, 2012
We will be discussing drug trafficking in the United States. I selected this topic because as a teen-ager I had a few run-ins with the drug trafficking industry as I was trying to find myself. It is fast money which is what is enticing about it. I have since learned the dangers that I put myself through. Now I try to educate others so they do not make the same mistakes that I made. Fortunately for me, I was able to get out and change my life before it was too late. I plan to narrow my topic down by talking about the profit of this illegal market, the high intensity areas of drug trafficking and the effects of drug trafficking and drug addiction to the economy. The illegal drug market in the United States is one of the most profitable in the world. As such it can attack the most ruthless and aggressive drug traffickers. There are currently 28 HIDTAs, which include approximately 16 percent of all counties in the United States and 60 percent of the U.S. population. HIDTA-designated counties are located in 46 states, as well as in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia. ( Office of National Drug Control Policy; Whitehouse.gov). Drugs as a whole are affecting our community greatly. The money from the illegal drug market is getting to be more enticing than finishing school and getting a job. I intend to talk about the repeated effect of the drug war. Forty years ago, the world declared war on drugs. Today, after decades of failing to adequately control drug consumption, an even greater problem has emerged: violent drug traffickers have taken the industry hostage and will stop at nothing to preserve their power. ( Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies;Summer2011, Vol.18 Issue 2, p901-927, 27p). Drug trafficking is the most widespread and lucrative organized crime operation in the United States, with an annual income estimated to be as high as 110