Identifying Various Narcotics

Narcotics and intelligence
Name
Student number
Subject
Course
Date
Question one
The use of illicit substances in American culture has been a longstanding concern, a one that has been particularly urgent in the last 30 years. At the beginning of the 1960s, the presidential committee said: "Every day, journals, scientific journals, public forums, and the home are concerned and concerned by the American people about the national problem in drug usage.
Cocaine
Cocaine is a stimulant made from the coca plant leaves, which grows wild in South America. Cocaine is still illegal, although it can be used for recognized therapeutic purposes by health care practitioners, such as a local anesthetic in specific surgeries. Several factors, including lower Colombian cocaine production and increased drug efforts, have most likely caused a significant and long-term change in cocaine traffic in Mexico, higher drug cartels, and sustained interceptor pressure and cocaine flow to non-US economies, particularly in Europe. Despite decreases in output, the newest cocaine signature data suggests that Colombia produces most of the cocaine consumed in the United States. The Colombian government has been highly effective in dismantling the country's largest drug trafficking groups, resulting in a shift in the market's character. While significant organizations such as the Rastrojos and Urabeos exist, they are insufficiently powerful to challenge the state or expel all intruders. Rather, there is a free market in which a diverse range of players may get cocaine, as seen by the variety of trafficking tactics and techniques. Colombia's focused law enforcement has also decreased the number of shipments leaving the nation directly. The majority of aviation shipments take off from Venezuelan territory, close across the border. Shipments departing from Ecuador on the Pacific and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on the Atlantic are becoming more common.[Glickman, Stuart P., and Emil H. Levine. "Use of Microform in Federal Narcotics Intelligence and Law Enforcement." Journal o_fMicr0graphics (March 1976) (2018).]
Heroin
On the other hand, heroin seizures along the Southwest border have been rising due to increased Mexican involvement in heroin manufacturing and trafficking. This surge in heroin seizures along the Southwest Border is accompanied by a reduction in heroin seizures on commercial flights. For the first time in history, the total amount of heroin confiscated along the Southwest Border (556.1 kg) surpassed the total amount of heroin intercepted from commercial airplanes (398.1 kg) in 2008. This change appears to be linked to production patterns as well as DTOs' shifting duties. Production estimates for Mexican heroin, which is largely trafficked overland through the Southwest Border, have consistently grown in recent years, reaching new highs in 2008. In addition, the trafficking of South American heroin has been increased by Mexican DTOs. Meanwhile, South American heroin production estimates have gradually dropped, although it has traditionally been carried into the United States through commercial flight. Because of the increased availability of Mexican heroin and the growing engagement of Mexican DTOs in trafficking South American heroin, considerably more heroin has undoubtedly been trafficked across the Southwest Border.[Kenney, Michael C. "Intelligence games: Comparing the intelligence capabilities of law enforcement agencies and drug trafficking enterprises." International Journal of Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence 16, no. 2 (2015): 212-243.] [Glickman, Stuart P., and Emil H. Levine. "Use of Microform in Federal Narcotics Intelligence and Law Enforcement." Journal o_fMicr0graphics (March 1976) (2018).]
Marijuana and Methamphetamine
Seizures of methamphetamine and marijuana have also risen along the Southwest Border, owing to increasing manufacturing. The rise appears to be drug-specific, similar to heroin. After a protracted period of restricted production due to legislation that finally prohibited pseudoephedrine in Mexico, methamphetamine manufacturing appears to be growing again. A rise in marijuana smuggling might be due to several causes, including reduced GOM cannabis eradication operations, which have resulted in higher production levels. Caribbean-based criminals utilizing Puerto Rico and Florida coastlines pose the greatest threat from drug smuggling via private yachts.
Most of the traffickers carried cocaine from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico and smuggled heroin and MDMA, sometimes mixed with cocaine. Caribbean trafficking people from the Bahamas also trafficked cocaine, heroin, and marijuana to Miami and Palm Beach in South Florida. Total seizures and roads were fairly unchanged compared to previous years. There is a much smaller number of medicines smuggled into the U.S. via courier and freight on commercial flyers than other modes of transport. In 2009, the overall number of commercial airplanes confiscated cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana, and MDMA was lower than any other transit. According to data, only 24% of heroin seizures, 15% of the seizures of MDMA, 6% of the cocoa seizures, and less than 1% of the seizures were made aboard commercial aircraft.[Levine, Emil. "Applications of information science to U.S. naval intelligence and narcotics intelligence." Covert and overt: Recollecting and connecting intelligence service and information science (2017): 41-54.]
Conclusion
To summarize, there is still more work to be done before the drug problem can be resolved. Perhaps, a step behind is essential before we can take a stride ahead, but the government and the entire community must make a sincere effort...