The topic which I am now exploring for this essay is an immigrants success through the black markets narcotic distribution. After listening to many people from different backgrounds talk about the subject, I discovered that my real interest was to study the procedures taken by foreign immigrants in order to establish wealth in this country by their roles used for the buying and selling of drugs. In this essay draft, I will explain the experience I went through in order to narrow my topic.
Research on variegated ways that immigrants can achieve prosperity was the first step I took to constrict my topic. Prior to my research, I never imagined such a wide range in subtopics related to the subject of alien achievement. For example, I found Websites which discussed certain countries and their nepenthe contributions. One such Website called Top Ten Drug War Stories of 2003 mentions Afghanistan being the world’s leading supplier of opium for the heroin trade. I was surprised to learn that out of the 3,600 tons of opium Afghanistan produces each year, 57% is smuggled into the United States.
Another subtopic I found was that the US Government estimates that 500,000 illegal migrants are brought into the United States annually by organized alien smuggling networks; another estimated half-million enter without the assistance of alien smugglers. After finding so many different sources, I have found that there are an infinite number of ways that I could narrow down my topic. I decided to pursue the topic of how immigrants become successful millionaires through opium distribution.
My brother died of heroin overdose three years ago and I have always wanted to study the process in which opiates are brought into this country, and how hard is our national government really taking in order to control the narcotic issue. This is where I am going to focus my exploration. After The Heroin Act of 1924 was passed stating that the distribution and manufacturing of heroin was illegal, a steady one million Americans continue to be heavy users. I also know that heroin is not a natural chemical. It is a synthetic chemical made from morphine. Its effects are similar to the effects of morphine, only stronger.
The effects of both heroin and morphine are quite different from natural opium, because of the mix of chemicals found in natural opium. The buying and selling of opiate derivatives is becoming more common due to the fact that they are the strongest and most potent painkillers known to man. I am concerned that the United States Government hides a dark truth that is meant to be kept from their people. Whether this truth involves supporting drug smugglers or assisting nations with high numbers in narcotic manufacturing, I think it is important to find as many resources as possible to unveil this hidden secret.
According to Alfred W. McCoy, the author of a book called The Politics of Heroin; CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade American diplomats and CIA agents have been involved have been involved in the narcotics traffic at three levels. The first matter includes coincidental complicity by allying with groups actively engaged in the drug traffic. Secondly, they support the traffic by covering up for known heroin traffickers and condoning their involvement, and finally, the governments active engagement in the transport of opium and heroin.
According to McCoy, It is ironic, to say the least, that America’s heroin plague is of its own making”. The second source comes from the Central Intelligence Agency in a book titled From Flowers to Heroin. This book explains in great detail the many ways heroin is smuggled into this country. It is carried in luggage, in shipping containers on cargo ships, and by courier. Recently, drug smugglers have been forced to be more creative because trafficking laws are getting more stringent, and police and customs officials are devising new ways to detect drugs.
Newer smuggling methods are seemingly limited only by a traffickers imagination. Couriers swallow bags of heroin, cross the border, and wait for the bags to run their digestive course. Bags of heroin are also put in the gas tanks and tires of cars and driven across borders, or mixed in with garbage that ends up in refuse containers. Sometimes the heroin is placed inside figurines or in furniture. In an extreme example, recently a border patrol unit in Texas found about $5 million worth of narcotics stuffed in human body partslegs, arms, and intestinesthat had been stolen from a hospital.
The traffickers said this was to hide the drugs smell from drug-sniffing dogs, but it was unsuccessful. The drug goes through many different hands and changes form several times, and there is really no way for a buyer to know how it has been altered or how it was smuggled across the border. The other thing Ive done to help me explore this issue is keep a research log. Before this assignment, I had never taken the time or energy to explore so many different ways to gather references.
Because I have recorded my ideas, I can go back and explore how my ideas are changing. For example, on September 12, I recorded my reaction to a conversation I had with a friend who had once been in the drug game. When he mentioned that the government actually helped drugs get into this country, I laughed and thought he was only kidding. I now understand that this is a major issue not to be taken lightly. While reading various sources, I can only hope that this matter resolves without too many lives being lost on account of unnecessary addiction.