Drug trafficking in the US has taken a toll not only on our economy but our people. Most kids have tried some type of drug before they get out of high school. Suicide and murder are more common when drugs are involved. The drugs come from places like Mexico, Canada, South Africa and Columbia. They are imported through the border mostly by the drug cartels.
Mules are one means of smuggling drugs across the border. These are people who hide the drugs either on or inside a body opening. The lure of making a couple of thousand dollars for a single trip is so tempting that poor people often do not consider the medical risk to themselves.
Sometimes, drugs are hidden in secret compartments of vehicles and smuggled across the border that way. Small private planes are a favorite way of bringing in large quantities of some drugs. Cruise ships are often used to transport drugs in containers with false bottoms.
People get creative when it comes to smuggling drugs to make a lot of money. One cartel group figured out how to make the cocaine into Plexiglas. They would then make DVD cases or car lenses as a means to smuggle the cocaine into the US. Others have tried making a cast out of cocaine for a person with a broken leg, stuffing the drugs inside garden gnomes, spreading them over hair extensions, and making them into Pringles chips.
The new front on drugs has become the sale of prescription drugs illegally. In many states there are pain clinics that almost anyone can go into and claim that their back hurts, in order to be prescribed Oxycontin. In Florida the pain clinics are known to prescribe Oxycontin five times as much as any other state. These pills can be bought legally for about five dollars and sold on the black market for eighty dollars each. They are just as addictive as heroin or cocaine but are made by drug companies instead of individuals. People will drive from other states to Florida to get Oxycontin because they do have a statewide tracking system for prescription drugs like other states do. This is how dealers get multiple prescriptions from different doctors to obtain their supply to sell to the addicts. Of course Oxycontin is not the only legal prescription drug that is sold on the black market and abused.
Meth is often manufactured in small labs in homes or cars across America. Meth is made from common household items such as drain cleaner, brake cleaner and lye. There are many different recipes for it but the one thing they all require is pseudoephedrine. This is a common ingredient in cold medicine. Making Meth is extremely dangerous and leaves a residue over anything in close proximity to where it is made that can be hazardous to your health. Addicts don’t care about anything except getting their next fix.
There are drugs in nearly every neighborhood in America. Enforcement agencies cannot seem to control the trafficking of drugs because of the money that can be made from such risky businesses. Educating our kids about the effects of drugs seems to be the most effective means of trying to take back our streets and neighborhoods from the drug pushers.
