Andrea Garcia
Govt 2306-21002
Professor MacArthur
November 20, 2017
Proposal
Throughout history people have been making and distributing drugs all over the world. North America in particular has been in an ongoing war with drugs for around 45 years. The United States interdiction policy first emphasized border enforcement starting with Nixon in 1971 and his "war on drugs" idea. Nixon's legacy was to shift attention abroad, focusing on drug policy as a piece of U.S. foreign policy. Nixon called for a supply-side reduction policy, which he proposed "to strike at the supply side of the drug problem to stop drug traffic by striking at the illegal producers of the drugs (Keck 50). Law enforcement has tried many things such as, tightening border security and increasing the money going toward these efforts to prevent drug
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The increase of border enforcement has played a key role in helping slow the growth of drug trafficking; however, there are has been for years a call for better security at the border with Mexico, which has grown only stronger in recent years and resulted in US border vigilantes taking it upon themselves to take arms and positions along the border (Cooper 472). According to the Cooper, Associate Professor of Law and Director of International Legal Studies at California Western School of Law in San Diego, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), states there are several major drug trafficking organizations in Mexico today including the Sinaloa Cartel, Los Zetas, Tijuana Cartel, Juarez Cartel, Gulf Cartel, and La Familia Mochoacana (Cooper 474). Together they roughly account for an estimated $30 to $50 billion in revenue, since there are many opportunities to make money there is an increasing use of violence