Where any problem is concerned the solution is proven to be the solution by the effect that it has on the problem. If what is applied to the problem rids one of the problem, then what was applied has qualified itself as the solution. With this being said the question that comes to mind where the war on drugs is concerned is, how does whats been applied thus far qualify as the answer or solution to the problem? From the time that the war on drugs was declared by then president Richard Nixon in 1971 until now, has there been any real progress made in bringing this problem under control? The policies that have been implemented, the money that has been spent, the judicial attention, the policing efforts both domestically and abroad, none of this has made a significant impact on the problem. As a matter of fact the problem is still epidemic in size.

This title examines one of the world's critical issues, drug trafficking. Readers will learn the historical background of this issue leading up to its current and future impact on society. Drug farmers, producers, smugglers, dealers, and users are discussed in detail, as well as law enforcement against the illegal drug trade. Also covered are legalization of drug use, drug trafficking organizations, programs and organizations against illegal drugs, drug trafficking related to the global economy, and the cost of the U.S. war on drugs. Engaging text, informative sidebars, and color photographs present information realistically, leaving readers with a thorough, honest interpretation of drug trafficking. Features include a timeline, facts, additional resources, Web sites, a glossary, a bibliography, and an index. Essential Issues is a series in Essential Library, an imprint of ABDO Publishing Company.

The nightly news and other media provide a constant reminder of illegal drug transport over American borders and along routes between various U.S. cities. The general public is well aware that law enforcement efforts to address the foreign supply and trafficking of illegal drugs into the United States is an ongoing battle.This useful and readable compendium gives a fascinating account of how illegal drugs are transported into and around the United States and throughout its neighborhoods. Criminologist and geographer George F. Rengert takes a unique approach to the problem of illegal drug distribution and U.S. drug markets. Using maps and charts to illustrate his findings, Rengert applies spacial diffusion models to the illegal drug trade and explains why certain drugs are transported and found in different parts of the country. For example, the highest concentration of marijuana plants is not on either coast, but rather across the middle of the United States?throughout what is known as the corn belt. At the local level Rengert assesses the patterns and processes that interconnect drug sales and neighborhood deterioration and change.The book also addresses the important issues of how illegal drugs in this country operate on wholesale and retail levels and ways in which law enforcement at the federal, state, and local levels contend with this widespread problem. Using ethnographic material to provide real-life examples, Rengert explores how drug dealers on the street expand spatially and predictably in their neighborhoods. He illustrates how this knowledge helps law enforcement in efforts to get these drugs off the streets.

Singer offers a fresh set of ideas for understanding how the global socioeconomic system insures that massive quantities of psychotropic drugs reach the poorest sectors of American society. Drugging the Poor provides a unified theoretical framework to assess how all drugs, including tobacco, heroin, alcohol, cocaine, and diverted pharmaceuticals contribute to maintaining social inequality among the wealthier and poorer social classes in American society. Singers analysis rejects conventional approaches that see tobacco or alcohol manufacturers and distributors, on the one hand, and drug cartels and mafias, on the other, as completely different entities. Instead, he shows how legal and illegal drug corporations share key features and follow the same economic principles. He also emphasizes that mixing legal and illegal drugs to self-medicate against social discrimination, poverty, and structural violence offers short-term relief, but in the long run, it functions to maintain an unjust and oppressive system. Drugging the Poor actively challenges the assumption that how things are is how they always have been or how they need to be.

This book explores global drug trafficking networks’ impact on international security and provides an in-depth analysis of drug trafficking networks globally by integrating international relations and security studies theories. The book acts as a primer, simplifying the complicated world of narcotics and insecurity, while also providing policy recommendations for policy-makers hoping to reduce the power of organized criminal and terrorist networks globally. It will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduates taking courses in International Relations, Global Politics, Defense Studies, Security Studies, and International Political Economy, as well as Criminal Justice, Sociology, and other social science disciplines that cover issues related to drug trafficking, organized crime, and violence.

Despite efforts to reduce drug consumption in the United States over the past 35 years, drugs are just as cheap and available as they have ever been. Cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines continue to cause great harm in the country, particularly in minority communities in the major cities. Marijuana use remains a part of adolescent development for about half of the country's young people, although there is controversy about the extent of its harm. Given the persistence of drug demand in the face of lengthy and expensive efforts to control the markets, the National Institute of Justice asked the National Research Council to undertake a study of current research on the demand for drugs in order to help better focus national efforts to reduce that demand. This study complements the 2003 book, Informing America's Policy on Illegal Drugs by giving more attention to the sources of demand and assessing the potential of demand-side interventions to make a substantial difference to the nation's drug problems. Understanding the Demand for Illegal Drugs therefore focuses tightly on demand models in the field of economics and evaluates the data needs for advancing this relatively undeveloped area of investigation.