Final video

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Drug policies based on eradication, destruction, and criminalization of consumption simply haven't worked. Violence and the organized crime associated with the narcotics trade remain critical problems in the world. Latin America remains the world's largest distributor of cocaine and cannabis, and is fast becoming a major supplier of opium and heroin. Governments have tried to combat the world drug trade from both the demand side and the supply side. However, these methods are not working. My model to put a end to the trade is to put a hit the demand side. Since the demand for drugs is so high there is always going to be new people to supply it.

In order to drastically reduce the harm caused by narcotics, the long-term solution is to reduce demand for drugs in the main consumer countries. If there are fewer
people willing to purchase drugs, then drug dealers will have less excuse to sell them. To move in this direction, it is essential to differentiate among illicit substances according to the harm they inflict on people's health, and the harm the drug cause to the worlds social order.

There are many different anti-drug campaigns in the world like live above the influence . It is a National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign (a program of the Office of National Drug Control Policy). This campaign reflects what teens across the country have told us is going on in their lives involving drugs. The campaign is not telling you how to live your life, but are giving you another perspective and the latest facts. You need to make your own smart decisions. With the help of these programs we are able to stop and prevent drug users at a early age. Informing kids when there younger will lower the future demand for drugs.

I also propose the careful evaluation, from my own standpoint, of the possibility of decriminalizing the possession of marijuana for personal use. Cannabis is by far the most widely used drug in the world, and we acknowledge that its consumption has an adverse impact on health. But evidence shows that the hazards caused by cannabis are similar to the harm caused by alcohol or tobacco. Alcohol and tobacco are prohibited for certain ages and marijuana should be to. Majority of minorities are not able to get a job do to the fact possession of a certain amount of marijuana is a felony.




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References

"Top Guatemalan Officers Arrested - CNN.com." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. Web. .
Source used for the corruption that happens from law officers.

"2 Mexican Politicians Sought; Drug Cartel Link Alleged - CNN.com." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. Web. .
"A Brief History of CIA Involvement in Drug Trafficking - - - Voxfux." Voxfux - The Real Story - behind the Lies. Web. .
Source used for the corruption that happens from law officers.

Blum, William. "A Brief History of CIA Involvement in Drug Trafficking - - - Voxfux." Voxfux - The Real Story - behind the Lies. Web. .
Source used to find out the history of drug trafficking and why laws were made.

Black, Maureen, and Izabel Ricardo. "Drug Use, Drug Trafficking, and Weapon Carrying Among Low-Income, African-American, Early Adolescent Boys." EBSCOhost. 14 June 1994. Web. .
source used to see the affects on drug laws and the distribution of low income minorities.

U.S. Dept. of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Youth Gang Drug Trafficking. By James C. Howell and Debra K. Gleason. [Washington, D.C.]: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1999. Web.
source used to see who distributes the drugs and why they do it.

Bagley, Bruce Michael., and William O. Walker. Drug Trafficking Research in the Americas. Coral Gables, Fla.: North-South Center, 1996. Print.
source used to see who distributes the drugs and why they do it. Also the differnece between laws in the Americas.

Nadelmann, Ethan. "U. S. Drug Policy: A Bad Export." JSTOR: An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie. Apr.-May 1988. Web. .
source used to get insight of the U.S. drug policy.

Swisher, Karin. Drug Trafficking. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven, 1991. Web.
source used to see what players are involved, with drug they are involved in.

"DEA - Publications - Intelligence - Drug Trafficking in the United States." FDLP Electronic Collection Archive. Web. .
used to see the amount of drugs users and importation of the drugs being trafficked in.

U.S. Accountability. High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas': Annual Report. Washington, D.C.: Office of National Drug Control Policy, 2005. Web.
used to see what laws are used and methods used to stop drug trafficking

Lyman, Michael D. Gangland: Drug Trafficking by Organized Criminals. Springfield, Ill., U.S.A.: Thomas, 1989. Web.
used to see the involvement of organized groups in various Latin American countries in drug trafficking that impacts the United States

"Anti-drug Chief Killed in Honduras - CNN.com." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. Web. .
used to see the killings of law enforcement to keep the drug trade going

"Drug Trafficking & Interdiction." Drug Policy Alliance Network: Alternatives to Marijuana Prohibition and the Drug War. 2010. Web. .
Used for The commercial exchange of illegal drugs including the equipment and substances involved in producing, manufacturing and using

Whitehead, Tony, James Peterson, and Linda Kaljee. "The "Hustle": Socioeconomic Deprivation, Urban Drug Trafficking, and Low-Income, African-American Male Gender Identity." EBSCOhost. Web. .
Used to get a insight on why low-income minorities are involved with the trade

Brownstein, H. "Relationship of Drugs, Drug Trafficking, and Drug Traffickers to Homicide." Journal of Crime and Justice 15.1: 25-44. Web.
used to see the different types of drug related homicides.

Cardoso, Fernando Henrique. "The War on Drugs Is a Failure - WSJ.com." Business News & Financial News - The Wall Street Journal - WSJ.com. 23 Feb. 2009. Web. .
used to see why war on drugs is failing.

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Concepts from class

As i talked about in the introduction, drug trafficking is a billion dollar market that creates jobs for millions of people from the low-level street dealers who may be individual drug users themselves, through street gangs and contractor-like middle men, up to multinational empires that rival governments in size. Drug cartels depend on low economic social class to distribute their narcotics. Low economic people like street gangs, prison gangs, and outlaw motorcycle gangs have long been and continue to be the predominant organized retail drug distributors. Many gangs have evolved from turf-oriented gangs to profit-driven, organized criminal enterprises whose activities include not only retail drug distribution but also other aspects of the trade, including smuggling, transportation, and wholesale distribution. In poorer neighborhoods, many of the young enter the illegal drug market in search of job opportunities and huge incomes. And worst of all, there is no light at the end of the tunnel in terms of government cracking on trafficking in illegal drugs.

At the core of the drug-prohibition movement in the United States is race. Race is the driving force behind the first laws criminalizing drug use, which first appeared as early as the 1870s. In an era in which African Americans, Asian and Mexican immigrants, as well as most European immigrants—Jews, Slaves, and Catholic Irish and Italians—were considered racial others, white racial fears amplified the sense of public menace posed by drugs and drug users. based on beliefs that certain communities of color commonly abuse certain substances. Which Blacks prefer crack cocaine. Five grams of crack constitute possession with intent to distribute. Whites prefer powdered cocaine. In which 500 grams or 1.1 lbs constitute possession. It is easier to find black drug users or dealers with small quantities of crack than whites lugging around a pound or more of cocaine.

Not least, the objective of the war on drugs is to break up trafficking rings. Since the big bosses are difficult to nab. Therefore it is easier for Law enforcement to catch people in areas that tend to be poor, dense, and black. "Although African Americans comprise only 12.2 percent of the population and 13 percent of drug users, they make up 38 percent of those arrested for drug offenses and 59 percent of those convicted of drug offenses." Mainly from racial profiling, practice of substituting skin color for evidence as grounds for suspicion, by law enforcement in traffic stops. Racial Profiling in traffic stops have led many to name the practice "DWB" (Driving While Black or Brown). “The dehumanizing process behind forming variable capital ‘converts the worker into a crippled monstrosity’” (Wright 73)Due to black men being incarcerated with felony disenfranchisement laws, they are not able to find jobs ad not feel as a regular citizen. The racial disparities in drug arrests and convictions have had a devastating effect on families. Leaving black family farther behind in the white hegemonic system deciding what is legal and illegal.

Read more: Drugs - Drugs Arrests By Race http://social.jrank.org/pages/1309/Drugs-Drugs-Arrests-by-Race.html#ixzz0jzwLp8nU

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Corruption

From previous blogs The main illicit drugs are the heroin, cocaine, cannabis, and ATS (amphetamine-type stimulants) such as amphetamines, methamphetamine and ecstasy. This busineThe money made from these drugs makes many people steal and kill, including law enforcement agents."The UN estimates that some 200 million people (4.8% of the world’s population aged 15-64) use illegal drugs annually with 25 million being classed as problem users." A common approach is that drugs should be made illegal and there should be strong emphasis on clamping down on the illegal drugs trade.

In many countries, this has led to extra law-enforcement costs and overflowing prisons. Many of these officers take advantage of the fact that they are the ones who seize the drugs when offenders are captured. "The only way to gain a market share of the business is to make a deal with the existing drug dealers or to gun some of them down in a "turf fight." The only way to stay outside the hands of the law is to pay bribe money to law-enforcement agents and government officials or set an example for the others by occasionally killing one of them." Like the case for the Guatemala's national police chief and the country's top anti-narcotics official who have been arrested in connection with the drug trade. They were arrested and charged in connection with a shooting last year over some stolen cocaine that left five police officers dead.(http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/03/04/guatemala.officials/index.html)This kind of corruption makes up not able to trust the vary people who are suppose to stop the illegal activity that is making billions of dollars. Instead they are prospering off of the fact that they confiscated these drugs legally. Then go and do illegal activities by reselling them.

Even activities were the drug lord is going to be captured or messes up the investigation on him by killing officers. Which was the case for the director of the Office for Combatting Drug Trafficking, was gunned down in his sport utility vehicle by two people on a motorcycle.(http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/12/08/honduras.drug.chief.slain/index.html#cnnSTCText) A person died at the hands of organized crime because of his job. However, he knew that kind of danger involved in organized crime.

Mexican authorities were searching for two politicians accused of belonging to the Familia Michoacana drug cartel, which is blamed for killing more than 30 federal police officers in a series of attacks.(http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/07/15/mexico.violence/index.html#cnnSTCText)Even government officials are involved in the illegal activities that go on in the drug trade. Government officials are involved in corrupt practices all over the world, in the drug trade. They are helping drug king pins or taking over for themselves. “Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one.”(Benjamin Franklin)

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History of Drug Trafficking

While drug trafficking has been around for centuries in one form or another, drug trafficking as it is recognized today became prominent starting in the 1960s. Drug trafficking started with the time of the century and the kind of drug that is popular at the time. Drug trafficking is done in all parts of the earth. Countries like Southeast Asia, West Africa, Panama, Central America, and Afghanistan. House Speaker Dennis Hastert states that "The illegal drug trade is the financial engine that fuels many terrorist organizations around the world, including Osama bin Laden."
(http://www.voxfux.com/features/cia_drug_trafficking.html) Showing that American drug addiction is helping fuel the people that are trying to kill them. Afghanistan's output provided up to one half of the heroin used annually in the United States.

It attracts criminal organizations because the potential profits are significantly more than from other criminal commodities like firearms, diamonds, and human beings. In the drug trade industry there isn't one main supplier for a certain amount of time because of the violence and illegal factors that are invloved in traficking. Also, depending on the type of drug."All phases of the cocaine trade, including cultivation, processing and distribution have expanded since 1984, and the industry shows no signs of diminishing despite the fact that cocaine supply already exceeds consumer demand." Control of the cocaine industry has traditionally been maintained by a cartel of Colombian traffickers. Colombian groups are the largest, wealthiest, most sophisticated organizations trafficking in cocaine. By 1965, Colombians supplied nearly 100 percent of the cocaine moving through the Cuban networks. Colombians refined the drug and Cubans trafficked and distributed it in the United States.Through the late 1960's and early 1970's they became more involved in cocaine production, and increased their trafficking role.

Heroin trafficking in America first became big in the 1920's, when organized criminals based in New York City's Jewish community began to control the importation and distribution of the drug. By the late 1930's, La Cosa Nostra,Italian organized crime groups, joined the Jewish groups in the heroin enterprise, importing the drug from France, Asia and the Mideast. When these sources became inaccessible during World War II, Mexico became the major U.S. heroin supplier. Mexican heroin production decreased in the late 1970's due to enforcement, eradication and poor weather conditions. However,by 1984 Mexican traffickers provided 32 percent share of the heroin consumed in the United States.

Cocain and Heroin are just a small part of the drug trade business because entering these business opportunities cost tens of thousands of dollars. Unlike Marijuana trafficking which only cost couple of hundred dollars to enter. Throughout its history it has allowed a constant influx of small-scale and mid-size operators as limited suppliers. This is because marijuana sales generate a small profit in comparison to other illicit drugs like Cocain and Herion.

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Introduction

Drug Trafficking is a billion dollar market that creates jobs for millions of people from the low-level street dealers who may be individual drug users themselves, through street gangs and contractor-like middle men, up to multinational empires that rival governments in size. Through the drug trade many people in poverty countries are employed more through these illegal means than through legal legit means.Consumption of illegal drugs is widespread globally.
While the U.S. is the biggest opponent of the drug trade, Americans unquenchable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade.Globalization opens up the drug trade to use deregulated and privatized markets to spread their activities worldwide. Opens up for things like the U.S. feeding the Mexico drug trade. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/world/americas/26mexico.html?ref=world
This relates to the course because there economic and global inequalities of the players involved in the drug trafficking business. Drug trafficking creates more inequalities between government and those involved.
What i want to get from the drug trafficking is to see the reality of the underground black market of it. what countries are effected by it? Who benefits from it? Why and how this market continuing to flourish?

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