US Drug Use: 24M Americans Use Illegal Drugs Every 30 Days - Research Paper

Introduction

According to Astorga (2010), an average of 24 million people in the United States uses illegal substances in every 30 days. Up to 12% of these people are children aged 13years and above. While most of them use illicit drugs such as heroin, marijuana, and cocaine, most of them use non-medicinal prescription drugs. The overall use of drugs in the U.S has increased from 20 million to 24 million within the past eight years (Knox, 2014). While there is a varying increase or decrease in various substance abuse, the use of drugs has so far become one of the country's biggest epidemics. Many people die as a result of drug abuse, while others have become homeless, and children have been left orphans. Moreover, the increased use of narcotics in the U.S has led to increased crime rates and gangs. The first section of this research paper discusses available drugs in the U.S, drug trade organizations, and the trafficking routes of drugs into the U.S. the second section of the paper discusses international policies, strategies, and objectives on war against narcotics in the U.S.

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Availability of Drugs, DTO's and Trafficking Methods

Availability of Drugs

The list of available illegal drugs in the streets of the U.S is long. However, the list is broken down into the top five major illegal drugs, which include marijuana, cocaine, MDMA, and meth. A lot has been done in the past to try and diminish the amount of these narcotics in the U.S. (Rengert, 2018). However, the exercise has proven futile because of the low price and availability of these drugs.

Marijuana is among the utmost used narcotics in the U.S. More than 40% of the U.S. populace has confessed to using or to have used marijuana in the past year. Unlike most of the illegal drugs, marijuana is very available and the most affordable. A few years ago, many states legalized the use of marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes. Marijuana is obtained over the counter or in coffee shops. While cocaine is available in the streets of the United States, it does not surpass marijuana availability. The availability of this drug has decreased since the year 2006, unlike a decade back. Due to its decreasing availability, its price has struck high; as a result, reducing the number of consumers. Its availability has been tremendously affected by increased law enforcement on drugs in Mexico, high levels of cartel violence. Therefore, the amount of transported cocaine into the U.S. has reduced.

On the other hand, methamphetamine is highly available in the U.S. According (Rengert and Henderson, 2000), an average of 1.6 million people is using this drug in the united states. Every year, the number of meth users constantly increases. This indicates that meth is easily available, supported by the fact that children of 12 years are addicted to this drug. Meth is highest available in the western and mid-western regions of the United States. At least 17 million people in the U.S. have admitted having used MDMA once in their lifetime. This is an indication of the availability of the drug. The drug is highly available because it is cheap and easy to obtain.

Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs)

So far, the Mexican Drug Trafficking organization is the most dominant DTO in the United States. The main drugs sneaked through the Mexican-U.S. border are cocaine and meth. As the most dominant Organization, the Mexican DTO deal with cocaine and meth transportation and distribution in the U.S. also, they distribute huge amounts of marijuana and heroin. They have gone a mile to extend their drug distribution network over the wholesale and middle-level distribution of these drugs (Beittel, 2011). The second-largest DTO in the U.S. is the Colombian Organization. They are the primary source of cocaine and meth distribution in the North East and Southeast regions of the United States. To decrease friction between the Organization and the DEA, the Colombian Organization mostly uses criminal groups to transport and distribute the drugs across the U.S. border.

Drug Trafficking Methods

Several tons of cocaine, marijuana, meth, and MDMA are successfully trafficked into the United States. There exist different and unique techniques used by smugglers to transport these drugs into the country. Of all the available techniques, transportation through vehicles exceeds all other techniques combined. These organizations create makeshift compartments on vehicles where they hide the drugs when passing over the U.S. border (Beittel, 2015). Often it is hard for border security to uncover the drugs from the vehicles. Also, overland smuggling of drugs across the border is a cultivated practice for drug smugglers. Although this method is consistent, the DTO's change the routes to avoid being tracked and arrested by the DEA. Maritime smuggling of drugs is another technique frequently used by the DTO's to transport these drugs into the country. However, less than 5% of maritime smuggled drugs enter the United States every year. (Dolliver, 2015)

International Policies, Strategies, and Objectives

Similarities Between UN Drug Control Treaties and the United States Drug Laws

Similarities are existing in both the UN drug control treaties and the United States drug laws. A combination of these treaties and laws form the international law framework to help in the international regime of narcotics control. The main agender between the two is to create appropriate control procedures to make psychoactive drugs available for medicinal use. Also, they aim to prevent psychoactive drugs from being used for illegal recreational activities (Room and Reuter, 2012). The U.S. drug laws and UN drug control treaties include the general provision of the use and trading of narcotics.

However, the treaties and drug laws do not consider prescribed narcotics as a criminal offense. However, they are in place to establish a system to control the production and distribution of proactive drugs. They have limited these drugs to be used only for scientific purposes or medical treatment. They both prohibit the illegal production and distribution of drugs such as cocaine, marijuana, MDMA, and meth for other purposes. The similarity between the two conventions is more restrained with regards to growth, possession, or acquisition of these drugs. It limits individuals from possessing these drugs, not unless they are used for medical purposes or under the doctor's prescription (Carstairs, 2005). Moreover, the two conventions have emphasized trafficking and have imposed laws, which, if broken, it is considered as a punishable offense. The Un drug control treaties and the United States drug laws have both experienced positive outcomes. They have had positive impacts in most countries, within the streets, and within the prison systems.

Policies

Drug policies in the United States drug laws and the UN drug control treaties share similar aspects in their policies. The drug policies cover everything from illegal drug classification to legal punishment possession of drugs classified as illegal. Furthermore, both policies have components that promote drug campaign awareness, inhibition of trafficking drugs, and cultivation for the drug market in foreign countries. The policies of these treaties have both et different levels of punishment for individuals found in possession of illegal drugs (Jelsma, 2011). For example, cannabis is considered a milder drug and therefore carries a light punishment. However, the possession of hard drugs such as meth, cocaine, or heroin is considered a felony offense.

Similar to the UN drug control policies, United States drug laws have made drugs like marijuana to become legal in most countries. The legality of this drug is based on the purpose of use. While other states allow the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes only, other states have the freedom to grow and use marijuana for recreational purposes. Possession of huge amounts of marijuana can, however, be met by a prison sentence of at least ten years (Jelsma, 2016). Therefore, while there are sections of drug policy that allow the use of some drugs, they do not permit the sale and distribution of the drugs.

Another objective shared by both the U.S. drug laws and the UN, drug control policies, is to fight the Drug Trade Organizations. Different DTO's are existing in most countries around the world. They participate in the manufacture and supply of narcotics. Most of the illegal drugs supplied across the globe are carried out by these organizations. Therefore, the treaties are objectified towards preventing the DTO's from selling and distributing illegal substances. The treaties have set in place harsh punishments for members of the organizations who carry out the illegal trade. Also, they both facilitate the law enforcement organizations with facilities necessary to fight the DTO's.

Strategies

The United States drug laws and the United Nations drug control have set up strategies aimed to reduce the use and distribution of illegal substances. The strategies are meant to reduce the negative consequences of illicit drug use and trafficking. Furthermore, they are designed to address the current global drug abuse crisis and their resultant effects such as deaths and violence. Successful implementation of these strategies has resulted in a healthier, stronger, and drug-free society. Despite this, the strategies have been unable to eradicate the use and distribution of illegal substances. However, at least, they have managed to reduce the number of drugs accessible through the drug markets.

Of the many strategies to meet these goals is ensuring a deliberate, sustained, and well-coordinated education system. This strategy will, over time, decrease the number of drug-dependent individuals throughout the globe. Another strategy used by the two agencies is increasing treatment services availability individuals with substance use disorder. Achieving this will help many people globally to achieve sustained recovery. Furthermore, the successful implementation of this strategy will cut down the size of the illegal drug market. In a way, they will be fighting a winning war against the Drug Trade Organizations (Csete, 2016). By successfully reducing illegal substance availability, the public health efforts will take hold. As a result, it becomes possible to increase the successful prevention of drug abuse and treatment efforts.

References

Astorga, L., & Shirk, D. A. (2010). Drug trafficking organizations and counter-drug strategies in the US-Mexican context.

Beittel, J. S. (2011). Mexico's drug trafficking organizations: Source and scope of the rising violence. DIANE Publishing.

Beittel, J. S. (2015). Mexico: Organized crime and drug trafficking organizations. Congressional Research Service, 3.

Carstairs, C. (2005). The stages of the international drug control system. Drug and alcohol review, 24(1), 57-65.

Csete, J., Kamarulzaman, A., Kazatchkine, M., Altice, F., Balicki, M., Buxton, J., ... & Hart, C. (2016). Public health and international drug policy. The Lancet, 387(10026), 1427-1480.

Dolliver, D. S. (2015). Evaluating drug trafficking on the Tor Network: Silk Road 2, the sequel. International Journal of Drug Policy, 26(11), 1113-1123.

Jelsma, M. (2011). The development of international drug control: Lessons learned and strategic challenges of the future. International Drug Policy Consortium.

Jelsma, M. (2016). UNGASS 2016: Prospects for treaty reform and UN system-wide coherence on drug policy. Journal of Drug Policy Analysis, 10(1).

Knox, J., & Gray, D. H. (2014). The National and International Threat of Drug Trafficking Organizations. Global Security Studies, 5(3).

Rengert, G. F. (2018). The geography of illegal drugs. Routledge.

Rengert, G., Chakravorty, S., Bole, T., & Henderson, K....