The Thinning Silver Lining
How did drugs become so ingrained in our society that weeding it out has become a $45.5 billion dollar a year war against drugs? Where did it come from and how does it seem to flourish even under the watchful eye of the law?
Long before the Chinese had Opium in dens, the Sumerian people in 5000BC already had a name for it, meaning “joy”. It was only three thousand years later that Egyptians began imposing restrictions on this happy drug. Opium still remains to be older than tea in China, and older than any major religion the world has ever known.
In the early 1800s, Napoleon Bonaparte introduces marijuana to France for the first time. France then joins in the fight to keep opium on the market trade by joining the Opium wars against the Chinese.
In the Opium wars, the Chinese unsuccessfully tried to end Opium trade with Britain, losing Hong Kong in the process. But the Americans have successfully banned all opium trading with China. And thus, the war against drugs was born.
The Harrison Act in 1914 became the first official US ban on drugs. Alarming drug proliferation among American youth in the 1960s paved the way to a new era. Nevertheless, the modern day War against drugs is given credit to President Nixon in 1969. A few years later, the French Connection in Marseilles, France controlled by US mafia, on which the movie was depicted from, was discovered and effectively shut down, making the prices of heroin in the East coast skyrocket. In 1973, the Drug Enforcement Administration was formed.
Exactly ten years later, the Colombian Medellin Cartel makes itself infamous through the Medellin Massacre, and successfully makes their presence known as heavyweights in the drug underworld. Around the same decade, Panama joins in the illicit drug trade, making Manuel Noriega one of the US most wanted men on their list.
With the successful crackdown on the Colombian drug cartels, Mexico rushes in to fill the gap in drug demand by supplying from Bolivia and Peru, ferrying the drugs right through America's front door.
The US invades Panama in 1989 in Operation Just Cause. The US accuses Manuel Noriega of overseeing and directly profiting from drug trafficking operations within Panama and effectively overthrow his government, but not without heavy casualties on both sides.
The late 90s saw the last of the Colombian drug cartel leaders hunted down and arrested. Although Mexican drug cartels have taken over and have even been operating within the US, the US seems to be helpless in trying to stamp out illicit drug exchange.
Recent developments unearth a new type of drug cartel. Middle Eastern terrorists have been discovered working with Mexican drug cartels within the United States, and have made this illicit drug business a source of funds for terrorist network overseas.
A policy change must be in order. Focusing efforts on US homeland may be more effective than reaching across foreign nations and babysitting their local governments. Effective policing and drug regulation must start at home.