Drug Violations

Drug Trafficking

The topic that will be discussed in this paper is drug trafficking and the theory that I will be applying to the drug trafficking issue is the social structure theory. This paper will outline what drug trafficking is and what the social structure theory also is. I believe that if the social structure in America was fixed and cleaned up then drug trafficking issue that is so big within America, would be crushed and eventually be stopped. The first paragraph will talk about drug trafficking and describe what it is and also some of the different types of drugs that are being trafficked today within America. The second paragraph will talk about the social structure theory and what it exactly. The third paragraph will combine the two topics, drug trafficking and the social structure theory, and show how the social structure theory can help improve efforts in stopping drug trafficking in America today and the final paragraph will conclude the essay and briefly outline what was discussed in the paper.

Drug trafficking is one of the biggest problems today in America. “Drug trafficking is the most widespread and lucrative organized crime operation in the United States, accounting for nearly 40 percent of this country's organized crime activity and generating an annual income estimated to be as high as $110 billion” (http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/GOVPUBS/amhab/amhabc3.htm). Nowadays anybody at any age could get any drug they want and for a fairly cheap price too. Each and everyday drugs get cheaper and easier to acquire. The illegal drug trade is a global black market consisting of the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of illegal drugs. While some drugs are legal to possess and sell, in most jurisdictions laws prohibit the trade of certain types of drug. The illegal drug trade operates similarly to other underground markets . Various drug cartels specialize in the separate processes along the supply chain, often localized to maximize production efficiency. Depending on the profitability of each layer, cartels may vary in size, consistency, and organization. The chain ranges from low-level street dealers who may be individual drug users themselves, through ethnicity-based street gangs and contractor-like middlemen, up to multinational empires that rival governments in size. Illegal drugs may be grown in wilderness areas, on farms, produced in indoor or outdoor residential gardens or indoor hydroponic grow-ops, or manufactured in drug labs located anywhere from a residential basement to an abandoned facility. The common characteristic binding these production locations is that they are discrete to avoid detection, and thus they may be located in any ordinary setting without raising notice. Much illegal drug cultivation and manufacture takes place in developing nations, although production also occurs in the developed world. In locales where the drug trade is illegal, police departments as well as courts and prisons may expend significant resources in pursuing drug-related crime. Additionally, through the influence of a number of black market players, corruption is a problem, especially in poorer societies. Consumption of illegal drugs is widespread globally. While consumers avoid taxation by buying on the black market, the high costs involved in protecting trade routes from law enforcement lead to vastly inflated prices. Additionally, various laws criminalize certain kinds of trade of drugs that are otherwise legal (for example, untaxed cigarettes). In these cases, the drugs are often manufactured and partially distributed by the normal legal channels, and diverted at some point into illegal channels.

“Many criminologists view the disadvantaged economic class position as a primary casue of crime. This view is referred to as the social structre theory. As a group, social structure theories suggest that social and economic forces operating in deteriorated lower-class areas push many of their residents into criminal behaviour patterns” (Siegal 181). This theory basiclly means that people are being pushed into committing crime. Such crimes committed are drug trafficking, assault