Drug Smuggling In America

Drug smuggling is on a current up rise and is a critical problem both nationally and in Texas. What makes it so critical is the fact that it leads to violence, corruption, and is the reason for over half of criminal activity. The rise in popularity for recreational drugs over many years has created hosts of addicts that in turn feed the business for drug trafficking. This pandemic has national and state governments such as Texas thinking of policies to adopt and implement a goal of greatly reducing the flow of illicit drugs from abroad.

In past years, policies to reduce drug trafficking have failed because it undermined foreign policy interests and had the possibility of bringing political instability and significant economic loss to countries where narcotics production has become entrenched economically and socially(1). But nevertheless, government hasn't been deterred from accomplishing its goal of reducing drug smuggling. Both national and state governments have thought of possible policy options. A few being expansion of efforts to reduce production at its source, expansion of interdiction and enforcement activities to disrupt supply lines (expanding role of military), expansion of efforts to reduce worldwide demand, expansion of economic disincentives for illicit drug trafficking and of course the Bush Administration Anti-drug strategy(2).

While all the policy options seem to be great, there isn't just one best option. There a several. In the past, government has not only failed because of foreign and economic interest, but also because it had only one policy in effect. Something as intricate and complicated as drug smuggling needs to be combated with several policies to strike at different fronts.

These policies should be adopted by both national and state government including Texas.