The topic which I am now exploring for this essay is an immigrant’s success
through the black market’s 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 government’s
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 trafficker’s 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 parts-legs,
arms, and intestines-that 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 I’ve 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.