Lit Review
The following research was collected and presented about the war on drugs. This was a term for an increase enforcement on drugs by the government and law enforcement in America. I wanted to discuss the policy/laws and the historical basis for the war on drugs. Then with knowledge of the historical aspects and the laws in place I can then see how these laws are enforced at the border and how drug trafficking plays a role in the war on drugs. When we have and understanding to how drugs get to the US we can look into how the laws put into place are policed and an insight to how police stops work and the laws that govern them and the ones that are stretched too far and often broken endangering the well being of minorities in the US.
Policy/Historical background:
Let us build a solid background on this war on drugs. In “The War On Drugs a Failed Experiment by Paula Mallea” tells us how it started. The term The war on Drugs was coined and effectively started by president Richard Nixon. He wrote “the country should stop looking for the ‘root causes’ of crime and put its money instead to increasing the number of police” (Mallea,12). This fight against crime focused on young americans who smoked marijuana and did other drugs. The idea of sex, Drugs , and rock and roll was very disliked by politicians. This allowed an easy way to put people in prison and push the position that the GOP was tough on crime and devoted to keep America safe. President Nixon declared drug abuse as public enemy number one, Nixon called it a national emergency and started funding an all out war on drugs in the United States, calling drug dealers and users the slave traders of our time. These actions by Nixon are ironic because in 1972 he recommended legalising marijuana in the National Commision on Marijuana and Drug abuse (Mallea, 12). But before Nixon there are some other acts that helped pave the path to the war on drugs we know today.
In 1914 the Harrison Narcotics Act was passed, this was the United States first drug policy this restricted the manufacture and sale of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and morphine. Also in 1930 the Treasury Department created a new department called the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Until 1962 Harry J. Anslinger headed the agency and molded America’s drug policy. Under his time in office, drugs were increasingly criminalized. In The Boggs Act of 1951 the penalties for marijuana use drastically increased . The Narcotics Control Act of 1956 created the most punitive and repressive anti-narcotics legislation ever adopted by Congress. The Federal Bureau of Narcotics also created propaganda about drugs making horrible stories up about marijuana and how the drug was responsible for driving people insane, of rape and other sex crimes, and for murder.
Even though you would think the United States would be the last country to encourage the growing of drugs overseas. But in an article by Natural News reveals how the US encourages and even protected the growing opium in Afghanistan.In the 1980’s The CIA launched a program called The Golden Crescent drug trade that continues to be protected by US intelligence, in liaison with NATO occupation forces and the British military. The US military has been specifically tasked with guarding Afghan poppy fields, from which opium is derived, in order to protect this multibillion dollar industry that enriches Wall Street, the CIA, MI6, and various other groups that profit big time from this illicit drug trade scheme. More recently, The New York Times (NYT) reported that the brother of current Afghan President Hamid Karzai had actually been on the payroll of the CIA for at least eight years prior to this information going public in 2009. Afghanistan is the largest grower and exporter of opium in the world today it cultivates a staggering 92 percent market share of the global opium trade. So the CIA is actively protecting the growing and distribution of Heroin while actively arresting Americans and putting people in jail with hefty sentences all while our government is encouraging the trade of opium in foreign countries.
At the Border (how drugs move around the world):
Globalization has led to an explosion of drug trafficking. 420 million shipping containers cross the ocean every year, transporting an estimated 90 percent of the world's cargo. Most carry legitimate goods, but not all of these containers can be inspected, and some are used to smuggle drugs or just as importantly, the chemicals used to make meth and cheaply process coca leaves and opium poppies into cocaine and heroin. Airplanes, submarines, speedboats, trucks, tunnels — taken as a whole, the systems used to move illegal drugs around the world comprise a logistics network likely bigger than Amazon, FedEx, and UPS combined. The Globalization of drugs and drug trafficking has led to a huge increase in drug use world wide. About 420 million shipping containers cross the oceans transporting an estimated 90% for the world's drugs and the chemicals needed to make them in the case of methamphetamine. These global traffickers use planes, boats, trucks, and even tunnels to transport product into other countries. This system is so vast and complicated it would likely compromise logistics systems like Amazon, Fedex and UPS combined. (Vice)
There are 4 main drugs that are processed in huge quantities Heroin, Marijuana, Cocaine, and Methamphetamine. But where do these drugs originale from? Currently Colombia is the world's biggest producer of cocaine surpassing Peru by 44% in 2014 (Vice) Cocaine starts in Colombia and is shipped by boat or via land to Honduras, Guatemala, and El salvador. Then from Mexico drugs pass across the border to main cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. From LA drugs are shipped up the west coast primarily by land all the way up to canada. Drugs that cross through the border from Mexico through states like California, Texas, and Arizona. Drugs that make it to Chicago are distributed by air or by land to the middle of the united states. Drugs from chicago also go through new york which then passes it down the east coast. (Vice)
Heroin follows a similar but slightly different route except that it originates in Afghanistan, the Golden Triangle, or Mexico. Mexico out of the 3 biggest heroin producers in the world produces 26 metric tons of heroin a year, the Golden Triangle an area between Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand produces an average of 50 tons of heroin annually. But these two don't even add up to Afghanistan that produces an average of 375 tons of heroin per year. This market is valued at 55 billion dollars. The vast majority of the heroin that comes into the US is from Mexico while the Golden Triangle and Afghanistan supply a huge portion of the rest of the world. "About a third of the heroin produced in Afghanistan is transported to Europe via the Balkan route, while a quarter is trafficked north to Central Asia and the Russian Federation along the northern route," the UNODC says. "Afghan heroin is also increasingly meeting a rapidly growing share of Asian demand. Approximately 15-20 metric tons are estimated to be trafficked to China, while a further 35 metric tons are trafficked to other South and Southeast Asian countries." (Vice)
Policing/laws and Regulations:
These drug laws are often crafted historically to target minorities a study by Hannah LF Cooper on the NCBI site gives insight to some of the history behind police brutality on minorities because of drug laws. To truly understand this issue we need some historical information. According to the research the roots of formal policing in the US lie in slave owners’ efforts to control slaves. Slave patrols were the first ever state-sponsored police forces. These patrols consisted of White wealthy property-owning men who were charged with preventing slave uprisings and escapes. These patrols were particularly vital to maintaining White control in areas where there were more slaves than Whites. South Carolina was the first state to use these patrols establishing them in 1704 these groups were given almost unlimited authority and could enter slaves homes and punish them violently without retribution.
Now when we look at modern policing many things are similar. And arrests were not equal In fact by 1992 Blacks accounted for 40% of all drug-related arrests while whites accounted for 59% of them; throughout these years Blacks comprised about 12% of the total population while Whites were about 82%. This shows how even though more white people use drugs they get arested way less. Between 1982 and 2007, the number of arrests for drug possession tripled, from approximately 500,000 to 1.5 million. (Cooper) This shares a direct correlation to the fact that police funding increased between 1992 and 2008, state and local expenditures on police doubled, from $131/per capita to $260/per capita. In addition federal expenditures increased as well meaning many more officers patrolling the streets. The number of sworn officers in the US increased by 26% between 1992 and 2008. (Cooper)
But how did these new officers make so many arrests on minorities. Well the supreme court passed 2 different laws that lowered the threshold of what was needed to make an arrest. In Whren v US (1996) the supreme court ruled that officers were allowed to make pretext stops, basically stopping a person for a small violation where the officer's suspicion is something else. This is a easy way to search for drugs and an easy way to make an arrest.. The other case illinois v Wardlow (2000) it was clarified in court that running from a police car was suspicious behaviour enough to justify a stop and search, meaning officers could pull people over based on suspicion alone with no facts. Another thing that was really important for policies battle on the war on drugs was to lift and get rid of the The Posse Comitatus Act created in 1879, made it a felony for the Armed Forces to perform the law enforcement duties of the civilian police. This law was passed in the aftermath of the US Civil War to maintain a clear division between the Armed Forces and domestic law enforcement. (Cooper) The first challenge to the Act came in 1981, over a century after it was passed. The military was permitted to give civilian police departments access to military bases, research, and equipment to wage the War on Drugs. The military also was allowed to train civilian police departments in using military equipment. Five years later, Ronald Reagan declared drugs a national security threat; this declaration sanctioned greater collaboration between the military and police. Additionally a 1993, the ban on the US Army’s ability to train police departments in urban warfare and close-quarters combat was lifted. In 1994, the Department of Defense authorized the large scale transfer of military equipment and technology to police departments. (Cooper)
The main effects of the counteracting of the Posse Comitatus Act lead to an increase in SWAT a militarized sub department of the police. Only a handful of police departments had SWAT teams in the 1960s and 1970s. But by 1997 89% of cities with populations greater than 50,000 had at least one SWAT team, as did 70% of smaller cities. SWAT teams are heavily armed with military-grade weapons. Between 1995 and 1997, the military transferred 3,800 M-16s, 2,185 M-14s, 73 grenade launchers, and 112 tanks to local police departments and trained police officers in how to use this equipment. (Cooper) A perfect example of these increased stops by police is demonstrated in New York. Between 2002 and 2014 approximately 5 million New Yorkers were stopped and frisked; in any given year during this period between 82% and 90% of people stopped had committed no offense and just 9–12% of people stopped were Non-Hispanic White, though approximately 33% of New Yorkers were non-Hispanic White in 2010. Stop and frisks were highly geographically concentrated: in a single 8-block area of a predominately Black and Latino neighborhood (home to just 14,000 people), the police conducted 52,000 stop and frisks over a four-year period; 94% of people stopped had committed no offense. (Cooper)
Conclusion:
In this lit review we introduced the war on drugs and walked through the history and laws, and policies that led us to the war on drugs. From there we went through how drugs travel around the world. We looked at the most common type of drugs and how they get to the US and abroad.
The following research was collected and presented about the war on drugs. This was a term for an increase enforcement on drugs by the government and law enforcement in America. I wanted to discuss the policy/laws and the historical basis for the war on drugs. Then with knowledge of the historical aspects and the laws in place I can then see how these laws are enforced at the border and how drug trafficking plays a role in the war on drugs. When we have and understanding to how drugs get to the US we can look into how the laws put into place are policed and an insight to how police stops work and the laws that govern them and the ones that are stretched too far and often broken endangering the well being of minorities in the US.
Policy/Historical background:
Let us build a solid background on this war on drugs. In “The War On Drugs a Failed Experiment by Paula Mallea” tells us how it started. The term The war on Drugs was coined and effectively started by president Richard Nixon. He wrote “the country should stop looking for the ‘root causes’ of crime and put its money instead to increasing the number of police” (Mallea,12). This fight against crime focused on young americans who smoked marijuana and did other drugs. The idea of sex, Drugs , and rock and roll was very disliked by politicians. This allowed an easy way to put people in prison and push the position that the GOP was tough on crime and devoted to keep America safe. President Nixon declared drug abuse as public enemy number one, Nixon called it a national emergency and started funding an all out war on drugs in the United States, calling drug dealers and users the slave traders of our time. These actions by Nixon are ironic because in 1972 he recommended legalising marijuana in the National Commision on Marijuana and Drug abuse (Mallea, 12). But before Nixon there are some other acts that helped pave the path to the war on drugs we know today.
In 1914 the Harrison Narcotics Act was passed, this was the United States first drug policy this restricted the manufacture and sale of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and morphine. Also in 1930 the Treasury Department created a new department called the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Until 1962 Harry J. Anslinger headed the agency and molded America’s drug policy. Under his time in office, drugs were increasingly criminalized. In The Boggs Act of 1951 the penalties for marijuana use drastically increased . The Narcotics Control Act of 1956 created the most punitive and repressive anti-narcotics legislation ever adopted by Congress. The Federal Bureau of Narcotics also created propaganda about drugs making horrible stories up about marijuana and how the drug was responsible for driving people insane, of rape and other sex crimes, and for murder.
Even though you would think the United States would be the last country to encourage the growing of drugs overseas. But in an article by Natural News reveals how the US encourages and even protected the growing opium in Afghanistan.In the 1980’s The CIA launched a program called The Golden Crescent drug trade that continues to be protected by US intelligence, in liaison with NATO occupation forces and the British military. The US military has been specifically tasked with guarding Afghan poppy fields, from which opium is derived, in order to protect this multibillion dollar industry that enriches Wall Street, the CIA, MI6, and various other groups that profit big time from this illicit drug trade scheme. More recently, The New York Times (NYT) reported that the brother of current Afghan President Hamid Karzai had actually been on the payroll of the CIA for at least eight years prior to this information going public in 2009. Afghanistan is the largest grower and exporter of opium in the world today it cultivates a staggering 92 percent market share of the global opium trade. So the CIA is actively protecting the growing and distribution of Heroin while actively arresting Americans and putting people in jail with hefty sentences all while our government is encouraging the trade of opium in foreign countries.
At the Border (how drugs move around the world):
Globalization has led to an explosion of drug trafficking. 420 million shipping containers cross the ocean every year, transporting an estimated 90 percent of the world's cargo. Most carry legitimate goods, but not all of these containers can be inspected, and some are used to smuggle drugs or just as importantly, the chemicals used to make meth and cheaply process coca leaves and opium poppies into cocaine and heroin. Airplanes, submarines, speedboats, trucks, tunnels — taken as a whole, the systems used to move illegal drugs around the world comprise a logistics network likely bigger than Amazon, FedEx, and UPS combined. The Globalization of drugs and drug trafficking has led to a huge increase in drug use world wide. About 420 million shipping containers cross the oceans transporting an estimated 90% for the world's drugs and the chemicals needed to make them in the case of methamphetamine. These global traffickers use planes, boats, trucks, and even tunnels to transport product into other countries. This system is so vast and complicated it would likely compromise logistics systems like Amazon, Fedex and UPS combined. (Vice)
There are 4 main drugs that are processed in huge quantities Heroin, Marijuana, Cocaine, and Methamphetamine. But where do these drugs originale from? Currently Colombia is the world's biggest producer of cocaine surpassing Peru by 44% in 2014 (Vice) Cocaine starts in Colombia and is shipped by boat or via land to Honduras, Guatemala, and El salvador. Then from Mexico drugs pass across the border to main cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. From LA drugs are shipped up the west coast primarily by land all the way up to canada. Drugs that cross through the border from Mexico through states like California, Texas, and Arizona. Drugs that make it to Chicago are distributed by air or by land to the middle of the united states. Drugs from chicago also go through new york which then passes it down the east coast. (Vice)
Heroin follows a similar but slightly different route except that it originates in Afghanistan, the Golden Triangle, or Mexico. Mexico out of the 3 biggest heroin producers in the world produces 26 metric tons of heroin a year, the Golden Triangle an area between Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand produces an average of 50 tons of heroin annually. But these two don't even add up to Afghanistan that produces an average of 375 tons of heroin per year. This market is valued at 55 billion dollars. The vast majority of the heroin that comes into the US is from Mexico while the Golden Triangle and Afghanistan supply a huge portion of the rest of the world. "About a third of the heroin produced in Afghanistan is transported to Europe via the Balkan route, while a quarter is trafficked north to Central Asia and the Russian Federation along the northern route," the UNODC says. "Afghan heroin is also increasingly meeting a rapidly growing share of Asian demand. Approximately 15-20 metric tons are estimated to be trafficked to China, while a further 35 metric tons are trafficked to other South and Southeast Asian countries." (Vice)
Policing/laws and Regulations:
These drug laws are often crafted historically to target minorities a study by Hannah LF Cooper on the NCBI site gives insight to some of the history behind police brutality on minorities because of drug laws. To truly understand this issue we need some historical information. According to the research the roots of formal policing in the US lie in slave owners’ efforts to control slaves. Slave patrols were the first ever state-sponsored police forces. These patrols consisted of White wealthy property-owning men who were charged with preventing slave uprisings and escapes. These patrols were particularly vital to maintaining White control in areas where there were more slaves than Whites. South Carolina was the first state to use these patrols establishing them in 1704 these groups were given almost unlimited authority and could enter slaves homes and punish them violently without retribution.
Now when we look at modern policing many things are similar. And arrests were not equal In fact by 1992 Blacks accounted for 40% of all drug-related arrests while whites accounted for 59% of them; throughout these years Blacks comprised about 12% of the total population while Whites were about 82%. This shows how even though more white people use drugs they get arested way less. Between 1982 and 2007, the number of arrests for drug possession tripled, from approximately 500,000 to 1.5 million. (Cooper) This shares a direct correlation to the fact that police funding increased between 1992 and 2008, state and local expenditures on police doubled, from $131/per capita to $260/per capita. In addition federal expenditures increased as well meaning many more officers patrolling the streets. The number of sworn officers in the US increased by 26% between 1992 and 2008. (Cooper)
But how did these new officers make so many arrests on minorities. Well the supreme court passed 2 different laws that lowered the threshold of what was needed to make an arrest. In Whren v US (1996) the supreme court ruled that officers were allowed to make pretext stops, basically stopping a person for a small violation where the officer's suspicion is something else. This is a easy way to search for drugs and an easy way to make an arrest.. The other case illinois v Wardlow (2000) it was clarified in court that running from a police car was suspicious behaviour enough to justify a stop and search, meaning officers could pull people over based on suspicion alone with no facts. Another thing that was really important for policies battle on the war on drugs was to lift and get rid of the The Posse Comitatus Act created in 1879, made it a felony for the Armed Forces to perform the law enforcement duties of the civilian police. This law was passed in the aftermath of the US Civil War to maintain a clear division between the Armed Forces and domestic law enforcement. (Cooper) The first challenge to the Act came in 1981, over a century after it was passed. The military was permitted to give civilian police departments access to military bases, research, and equipment to wage the War on Drugs. The military also was allowed to train civilian police departments in using military equipment. Five years later, Ronald Reagan declared drugs a national security threat; this declaration sanctioned greater collaboration between the military and police. Additionally a 1993, the ban on the US Army’s ability to train police departments in urban warfare and close-quarters combat was lifted. In 1994, the Department of Defense authorized the large scale transfer of military equipment and technology to police departments. (Cooper)
The main effects of the counteracting of the Posse Comitatus Act lead to an increase in SWAT a militarized sub department of the police. Only a handful of police departments had SWAT teams in the 1960s and 1970s. But by 1997 89% of cities with populations greater than 50,000 had at least one SWAT team, as did 70% of smaller cities. SWAT teams are heavily armed with military-grade weapons. Between 1995 and 1997, the military transferred 3,800 M-16s, 2,185 M-14s, 73 grenade launchers, and 112 tanks to local police departments and trained police officers in how to use this equipment. (Cooper) A perfect example of these increased stops by police is demonstrated in New York. Between 2002 and 2014 approximately 5 million New Yorkers were stopped and frisked; in any given year during this period between 82% and 90% of people stopped had committed no offense and just 9–12% of people stopped were Non-Hispanic White, though approximately 33% of New Yorkers were non-Hispanic White in 2010. Stop and frisks were highly geographically concentrated: in a single 8-block area of a predominately Black and Latino neighborhood (home to just 14,000 people), the police conducted 52,000 stop and frisks over a four-year period; 94% of people stopped had committed no offense. (Cooper)
Conclusion:
In this lit review we introduced the war on drugs and walked through the history and laws, and policies that led us to the war on drugs. From there we went through how drugs travel around the world. We looked at the most common type of drugs and how they get to the US and abroad.