Drug Trafficking Research Paper

Running header: DRUG TRAFFICKING

Reducing Drug Trafficking in the United States Keith James ENG 122
Prof. Fawn vonFrohling
January 24, 2011

DRUG TRAFFICKING
Reducing drug trafficking in the United States My limited topic for my research paper is Reduction in drug trafficking through accountability within the legal system and through law enforcement. I will attempt to argue the point that through accountability and code enforcement, we can lower the amount of illegal drugs that are transported across our state lines and our boarders as well. The use of boarder patrol along the borders of Arizona, Texas, Florida and California with greater authority can make a difference. I will focus the basis for this claim on a number
of writings, codes, laws, Congressional Bills and surveys. Through better enforcement of the laws drug trafficking can be reduced because Drug dealers are always creating new ways to smuggle their drugs across the lines, co-operating with the police usually gets you a lighter sentence, and The punishment never fits the crime. Through various numbers of government policies, articles, journals and statistical reports a research has been conducted to weigh in on the effect of increasing the penalty for drug trafficking and the ability to empower judges to sentence based on their discretion. It will look at reduction through end user awareness of stiffer penalties for use. All information was collected, analyzed through internet research, and cross-referencing. Reducing drug trafficking in United States is an issue that our country’s struggled with since the early 1900’s. The illegal drug market in the United States is one of the most profitable in the world. This becomes an extremely difficult task for law enforcement to undertake because drugs are being smuggled across state lines and the borders of Texas, Arizona, California and Florida constantly. Trafficking has taken on so many different styles and methods that it has become even harder to detect and detain.

DRUG TRAFFICKING The level to which drug trafficking and dealing has gotten to is so elaborate that it will take a plan that is totally out of the ordinary to combat it. In every state, you have some form of Drug Enforcement Agency. The problem is no one wants to help clean up his or her own streets. We continually look to the government and the local authorities to solve the problem without any information or assistance. To combat the issues of drug trafficking and drug usage there has to be a starting point and that point is the user. Starting with stiffer penalties for the usage of illegal drugs, by doing this you reduce drug usage. Educating the youth of tomorrow about the consequences of drug usage, selling or possession will greatly reduce the demand for drugs in the future. The mass media may be a particularly effective way to reach adolescents and their parents in communities in which adolescent drug trafficking is prevalent and to unite the institutions that could influence adolescents against involvement in the drug trade. However, intervention efforts must also contend with the economic incentives of the drug trade in poor, central-city communities. “We will not win the war on drugs until we make current and potential drug users so scared-if not of the drug, then of the legal sanctions-that they will not take the risk”. (Bill McCollum. (1988, June 30). Sanctions-Against Those Who Use Drugs: [FINAL Edition]. The Washington Post (pre-1997 Fulltext), p. a19) Despite the negativism that our government gets, the efforts put forth on establishing policy for drug usage and trafficking are substantial. “The Comprehensive Anti-Drug Act of 1988 (H.R. 4842) focuses intensely on four key strategies for attacking the drug problem: 1) inhibiting foreign production; 2) interdicting drug shipments across U.S. borders; 3) stopping trafficking through domestic law enforcement; and 4) reducing

DRUG TRAFFICKING demand for drugs in the U.S. “(The Library of Congress, http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d100:HR04842). Take for instance the ability of the local law enforcement agency, when it comes to law enforcement they are bound by mandatory guidelines that have to be adhered too. The Effective National Drug Control Strategy of 1999 states, “The United States is now the operator of the largest prison system on the planet, the Federal Bureau of Prisons budget has had to increase by 1,400% from 1983 to 1997.
It costs nearly $9 billion per year to keep drug law violators behind bars, yet 55% of all Federal drug defendants are classified as low-level offenders, such as mules or street dealers. Only 11% are classified as high-level dealers.” (The Effective National Drug Control Strategy of 1999, p.26) This means that in as little as one or two years the major players in the drug trade can be back on the streets moving drugs from city to city and state to state while the low end street dealer sits in jail for five to
ten. This is where the time needs to fit the crime should come into play but, under current law all you have to do is sing a name bigger than yours or a few names other than yours and you get the reduction in your sentence. When you look deeper into H.R. 4842, you find that there is a Title II. “Title II: Drug Law Enforcement - Subtitle A: Death Penalty for Drug Kingpins- Drug Kingpin Act of 1988 - Amends the CSA to subject to the death penalty any individual who intentionally engages in conduct during the course of a continuing criminal enterprise that results in the death of another individual and who is the principal organizer of the enterprise, if the violation involves a specified quantity of a controlled substance. “ (The Comprehensive Anti-Drug Act of 1988 (H.R. 4842), http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d100:HR04842) Bill H.R. 4842 also deals with the issue of reducing drug trafficking across our southwest border, along with the Obama Administrations National Strategy to Reduce Drug Trafficking
DRUG TRAFFICKING and Flow of Bulk Cash and Weapons across Southwest Border. The Obama Administrations plan of attack is called “The National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy and it will improve the safety of communities on the border and throughout our Nation.” (www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov). The objective of this strategy is to; Enhance intelligence capabilities associated with the Southwest border. Interdict drugs, drug proceeds, and associated instruments of violence at the ports of entry, between the ports of entry, and in the air and maritime domains along the Southwest border. Ensure the prosecution of all significant drug trafficking, money laundering, bulk currency, and weapons smuggling/trafficking cases. Disrupt and dismantle drug trafficking organizations. Enhance counterdrug technologies for drug detection and interdiction along the Southwest border. Enhance U.S.-Mexico cooperation regarding joint counterdrug efforts. (www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov.) Through better enforcement of the laws drug trafficking can be reduced.
When all the laws, adjudications, and policies are given the proper attention and enforcement, the war on drug trafficking can win. The first step in the success of it however small will begin with the one person who stands up and says enough is enough, not in our neighborhood anymore will this be tolerated. We live in a world of instant results and instant gratification, once this mindset is changed to realize that it will take time and a lot of effort from the entire country not just government officials the results can be significant.

DRUG TRAFFICKING References
Bill McCollum. (1988, June 30). Sanctions-Against Those Who Use Drugs: [FINAL Edition]. The Washington Post (pre-1997 Fulltext), p. a19. (Document ID: 73615028).
The Comprehensive Anti-Drug Act of 1988 (H.R. 4842), http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d100:HR04842
The Effective Drug Control Strategy of 1999, http://www.csdp.org/edcs/page26.htm
Obama Administrations National Strategy to Reduce Drug Trafficking and Flow of Bulk Cash and Weapons across Southwest Border,
(www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov.)