The Golden Age of Drug Trafficking
In the 21st century, technology and the internet has made it possible for many people to be well aware of what is taking place across the world. Thus, the topic of drugs and how they have affected the world, funded wars, attacks, made people wealthy while taking the lives of millions of people across the world is not new news. This is a topic even media firms have managed to cash in by creating films and documentaries about them.
However, these readings and documentaries, as well as mods of entertainment, fail to capture the truth on the ground on how meth, cocaine, and heroin move around the world, and why this is cancer that is proving to be difficult for even top nations such as the United States and the whole of Europe to eradicate. However, the article published by VICE NEWS titled The Golden Age of Drug Trafficking: How Meth, Cocaine, and Heroin Move Around the World does take a closer look into this challenge and also elaborates more on why this is an issue that is not changing anytime soon.
Thesis
Drug trafficking has been turned into a fundamental business by the traffickers and is only becoming more challenging for authorities to catch up. Agencies and nations fighting drugs and its traffic are only but playing to the tune the traffickers are playing while more of the illicit substance is pouring and flooding more streets, countries, and societies. This study strongly presents this argument from the results attained from the case study article; The Golden Age of Drug Trafficking: How Meth, Cocaine, and Heroin Move Around the World (Hamilton, 2016, April 25). Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
Methods
This is a study that is on the social platform since it looks into one of the largest social dilemmas that have been at the forefront of many nations and agency. This article has applied a practical data collection, and evaluation methodology where it uses the reports over by an array of agencies and determining what the statistics offer. The study reviews different reports dating past several years and comparing them to various plans and targets put in place from meetings that have been held by superpower nations that aim to eradicate drug trafficking.
Considering that the main research question being presented by the article is that of how these drugs move across the world and why it is becoming harder to crack down these channels, the methodology applied is indeed effective. This is so since it uses reported findings that have been published by agencies that have poured through big data containing research dating down to several years on drug trafficking (Hamilton, 2016, April 25). This method is indeed effective since it also compares these reports and determines the most accurate information from the reports.
Evidence and Results
One thing that is presenting itself form the article is that various authorities that are tasked with the mission of mitigating and eradicating drug trafficking are constantly being outsmarted by these traffickers. The article goes on to state that this mission has become more of a cat-and-mouse chase between the two sides, but, with the traffickers emerging out on top. From the article, it is strongly presented that drug trafficking is changing into business since cartels are beginning to walk away from violence since they find it destructive for their businesses and are looking to forming a type of federation (Hamilton, 2016, April 25).
The study states that these cartels and drug operations have always been thought of as being in an expanding stage. However, this has been proven not to be the case since the cabals are already everywhere according to Mazzitelli (the Mexican representative in the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) UNODC (Hamilton, 2016, April 25). These cartels are similar to multinational corporations which a high induction of entrepreneurial spirit with an enabling technical edge. The key takeaway from the study is that the act of drug trafficking has changed from low-level activities of small-time criminals to a more worldwide business with influence in superpower nations, support in regions terror regions such as Afghanistan to the far coasts of Africa (Hamilton, 2016, April 25).
Critical Evaluation
The article The Golden Age of Drug Trafficking: How Meth, Cocaine, and Heroin Move Around the World by Keegan Hamilton does evaluate several reports and finishing made by both local and international agencies from which a core understanding of drug trafficking in their respective categories (meth, cocaine and heroin) is brought to light (Hamilton, 2016, April 25). This is a very relevant study which does offer a better understanding as to what the situation is like in a real-life perspective and not based on the much-celebrated minor crackdowns that are usually aired on media.
The article did ask the right question and it did follow the right, and most informative channel from which compiled findings have been made from (Hamilton, 2016, April 25). The findings were consistent and a year over year development and crackdown as well as the growth of the drug scene was applied. However, Hamilton went on to offer a comparison between what was practically known and to what the drug trafficking world was experiencing. This is why the article has shown how agencies and governments have been mocked over and over again by drug traffickers. Practical data was also applied to demonstrate the quick growth of the drug trafficking environment and the data was obtained from the reports that the article used (Hamilton, 2016, April 25). This does offer an alarming and eye-opening understanding of how extensive drug trafficking has become.
Personal Opinion
This is one of the few articles that does not talk about drugs and drug trafficking in a glorifying or a condemning manner without offering the truth of the matter. Instead, this study has taken a unique path in presenting staggering information that is usually covered up with mounts of works of literature when the agency provides these reports. The article cuts through the clutter and brings the truths, the numbers as well as the real-life interactions that these agencies have come across. This is a well-developed paper that can be used as a scholarly study guide that can further assist in guiding further study on the topic using the facts presented.
However, the author simply seemed to be leaning towards pointing out how agencies and authorities seem to be collecting the data and not acting. This is a negative approach and does make the article seems to be more of an article that is not in support of the authorities. The author could have mentioned several moves the authorities have made to counter the trafficking acts, however, this has not been done to an in-depth manner.
Reference
Hamilton, K. (2016, April 25). The Golden Age of Drug Trafficking: How Meth, Cocaine, and Heroin Move Around the World. Retrieved February 11, 2020, from https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/7xamdg/drug-trafficking-meth-cocaine-heroin-global-drug-smuggling