In recent decades, thousands of fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters have been massacred in a heartless and unappeasable manner. The perpetrators, terrorists who don’t hide behind a fa??ade; drug cartels worth billions of dollars whose hands are stained with the tears of families desiccated by lead bullets. The simplicity of such an act leaves the world dumbfounded, pondering how human beings can be so merciless and dehumanizing. As a result drug trafficking has become an increasingly growing problem in the world. Today, more people are purchasing, selling and using illegal drugs than ever before. A large amount of people think that it is a fast and easy way to get money, without knowing the risk associated with the distribution cycle of drugs. In addition, drugs are fast spreading through the high school systems. The most common drug in high school is marijuana, more commonly known as pot or weed, and hashish or ‘hash’. There are always kids in school that drop out and begin dealing drugs on the street and just forget about their education and future because they start making money dealing drugs. Many adolescents are steered in the wrong direction, having their lives ruined. A cease fire is desperately needed; money is not worth the lives of the innocent. Although drug trafficking earns drug cartels billions of dollars, this illegal activity must end to avoid unnecessary murders.
Over the years the amount of deaths steadily risen fed by the large demand for illegal drugs, proving that the dangers of drug trafficking and usage has not decreased. Therefore, the needs for organizations that provides them. Drug traffickers are those who destroy communities and kill people for their own gain. Governments around the world have struggled with drug trafficking, including the United States with people have risked their lives just to bring drugs into this country to satisfy the growing demand. Many people don’t realize the effect that drug trafficking has on the citizens of America and the world, not only harm those who intentionally use drug. The deaths that occur from these actions should be enough for people to stop trying to bring drugs across borders around the world, but unfortunately it is not. Laws have been created to keep these drugs off the streets in order to help people maintain healthy, happy lives. Many laws have made certain drug illegal. Anup Shah, the reporter in this article, ‘Global Issues’ states: ‘Drugs are not dangerous because they are illegal; they are illegal because they are dangerous’ (1). These dangers come as both physical and mental. Thousands of families have been torn apart by people involved with the trafficking of drugs. Marc Lacey, reporter for the New York Times explains in the article ‘Mexico Lawyer Who Defended Drug Traffickers is Shot Dead’ how a young girl was shot and murdered while in the company of a police commander that was charged with working for drug traffickers (1). Not only was there physical harm because of the death of the young girl, but also emotional damage caused by her departure from the lives she had affected while she was alive. It might be argued that the emotions involved after someone’s death might cause a greater impact on communities than the actual death.
For example, Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, one of the most notorious and dangerous drugs traffickers, had a net worth of approximately one billion dollars according to Forbes. Drug Trafficking is a growing market; more drugs are being produced around the globe than ever before. The more drugs produced, the greater the opportunities are to increase profits. Cartels deal with their product in tons and to organizations like those, bigger volumes equal bigger profits. Thousands of tons are moved around the world yearly. In the United Nation’s article ‘Drug Trafficking’ (2008) it is mentioned that, 73.7 metric tons were seized globally (2). In addition, heroin seizures had increased dramatically from 2006 to 2008 by continued burgeoning seizures in the Islamic Republic of Iran. 39% of the heroin was seized from around the Middle East and South-west Asia (2). In 2007 and 2008, cocaine was used by at least 16 to 17 million people worldwide. The significance of this is that number has only increased since then. It is estimated that profits derived from illicit drug trafficking worldwide is about $600 billion, which equaled approximately 7.6% of the total global trade of all imports and export. The amounts of money produced by drug trafficking is staggering. These billions could have been well spent in other fields such as health care and research. Ironically the money made by cartels and other drug trafficking organizations, were spent by governments to fight cartels. Billions of tax payer’s hard-earned money was spent trying to stop the growth of the drug trade. Although it might not be the best solution to allow the selling of currently illegal drugs, the legalization of such drugs could lead to enormous conservation of funds currently used. Despite the global economic opportunities and large tax revenue this new market could generate, laws still prevent legal sale. This prohibition, if reversed could save the tax paying community billions of dollars throughout the years. Aside from the enormous amount of money that goes into trying to put a halt on drug trafficking, thousands of lives are lost while fighting this war to end the illegal distribution of narcotics.
In a just five years, 4800 people were slaughtered in Mexico because of drug cartels. The brutality seems to have no end: the motionless, lifeless corpses of thousands of innocent Mexican civilians are piling up like a stack of playing cards being used as an object of personal amusement. As bullets fly through the air, which cartels believe to be the key to power, bodies drop breathe full of emotion, realizing that they are at the brink the abyss of death. Those who are responsible for the hundreds of thousands of ignited gun powder chambers and the massacres more often than not, go absolutely unharmed themselves. Violence and murders have seen a steep incline in less than half a decade. Mexican drug cartels are especially notorious for their tactics. There have been outrages amount of times that dismembered bodies have been found. Dismembered bodies have even been displayed as warning signs for rival cartels or law enforcement officials. Thousands of innocent civilians have been mutilated. Families are being torn apart on daily. Aside from violent acts, said cartels have also taken part in other extremely illegal activities. Some of these atrocities include human trafficking and production and distribution of pirated goods. Eduardo Castillo, a reporter, stated in this article ‘Cartels Makes More Mining than Trafficking’ that the Mexican government has now acknowledged that cartels, a major organized crime group, have moved beyond drugs (1). Drug and human trafficking go hand in hand, both acts have violent consequences. Violence has been on a steady incline recently. Staff members of My Health News Daily, wrote an article titled ‘Illegal Drugs Cause 250,000 Global Deaths Yearly, Report Finds’ mentioned that in 2004 250,000 deaths worldwide were tied to drugs. These numbers are staggering considering that in the same year, 2.25 million people died because of alcohol related incidents and 5.1 million deaths were claimed by tobacco. These deaths could have been prevented if more help from the government was provided. However, many politicians turn their head away and open their hands to receive generous ‘donations’ from the same people who they are supposed fight.
Corruption is something that exists in every single government of the world. The lives of the architects of the suffering comes around producing and distributing drugs, extortion, terrorism, billions of dollars and have reached the highest ranks of governments through corruption. It destroys governments slowly while aiding organizations that should not exist. Money is a powerful too used to persuade people to do anything. Many politicians and law enforcers have been tied to drug trafficking and aiding drug traffickers. Whether the help is political protection or redirecting police to look away, the fact is that absolutely nothing positive comes from corruption. Marc Lacey, the reporter for the New York Times, in the article ‘Mexico Lawyer Who Defender Drug Traffickers is Shot Dead’ stated:
Silvia Raquenel Villanueva, a tough-talking criminal defender whom the authorities accused of getting too close to the notorious figures she represented, was celebrated by Mexico’s underworld. She had at least six different songs were written about her with titles like ‘The Lady of Steel’ and ‘The Bulletproof Lawyer” Ms. Villanueva was one of six children in a working-class family, represented people with links to a variety of drug trafficking organization. (1)
She was a working woman who represented corrupt people who were tied to various drug trafficking groups (1). Ms. Villanueva was violently attacked in the year 2000; she was shot while entering a hotel in Mexico City while she was accompanied by a police commander who was charged with working for drug traffickers whom she was representing. A few months later she was shot eight times by an attacker who entered her office, and in 2001, yet another gunman shot at her outside a courthouse in Monterrey. She was guilty by association because of whom she represented and who ‘protected her’. Fox News Latino, reported in the article titled ‘Former Mexican Governor Indicted in Texas on Corruption, Drug Trafficking Charges’ that in December of 2013, a former governor of Tamaulipas, Mexico, was charged with allegedly accepting bribes from drug cartels as well as with taking part in drug trafficking (1). Corruption has reached the highest positions of state governments in Mexico. Also the last president of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, has been speculated to have been associated with drug traffickers by either aiding them or turning a blind eye to them. However, not all politicians or law enforcement agencies are in the pockets of drug traffickers. Many governments are doing many things to rid their streets of illegal drugs.
There has to be solutions to drug trafficking, but these solutions have to work at a global scale. Having one working solution is all the world needs. Mexican cartels rely heavily on bribes and corruption as a means to get them deep into the Mexican political system. To the Mexican cartels, bribes and corruption are viewed as nothing more than the cost of doing business or something that has to be done. Mexico’s effort of destroying is deadly but very enriching drug industry have been severely strained by the omnipresent manipulation and corruption of the Mexican and American political system. A high level of corruption in Mexico remains as one of the most significant obstacles from eradicating the illicit drug trade operations and brings a solution and end to the ongoing drug war. As long as corruption continues to dominate the Municipal Judicial system of Mexico, it will remain a ‘failed state’. And Mexico’s search of a prosperous and stable democracy will continue to slip its grasp. As long corruption as exists in Mexico’s government, drugs will keep reaching every end of the world.
Drug trafficking is a problem that seems to have no end. Governments have fought and struggled with cartels and other organizations whose primary objective is the distribution of narcotics for decades. We still don’t have a solution but, the world as a community is desperate for an answer. We need change. And we need it soon. Drugs have flooded our communities for far too long and they are causing enough pain and suffering too last an eternity. Drug trafficking related violence still runs rampant through the streets of the world. Ending lives and families as if it was a hobby. No amount of money or power will ever be worth more peace.