Drug abuse: Tendencies and ways to overcome it
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Economic Aspect of Drug Abuse:
The economic aspect of drug abuse is associated with its affect on economy, such as large sums of money in possession of drug dealers, a decline in labor productivity of drug addicts; an increase in spending on law-enforcement engaged in combating drug-related crimes; and a drain on national budgets due to preventive and rehabilitation measures to combat drug addiction. Experts claim, for example, that in the former USSR, the cost of illegal drug trafficking within the "narco-business-shadow economy" amounted to billions of troubles.
Biological Aspect of Drug Abuse:
The biological aspect of drug abuse is associated with the notion that
it is "a disease manifested by a constant and insurmountable craving for
drugs (morphine, for example) causing euphoria in small doses and stupor in
large ones. The regular use of drugs arouses a desire to increase the dose.
The abstinence syndrome usually accompanies withdrawal.
Narcotics damage the internal organs of drug takers, destroy their nervous systems, their state of mind, and bring about their social degradation.
Since drug addiction is a disease, there is a need to find a cure for it. Hence, the need to have qualified medical personnel, special drug rehabilitation centers and branches offices, effective medicines and curative methods.
Ecological Aspect of Drug Abuse:
The ecological aspect of narcotics is associated, on the one hand, with the natural existence of drug-bearing plants, and on the other, with their man-made cultivation. These plants are a source of obtaining and preparing narcotic substances. From the ecological point of view there is a need, first, to do away with the spread of wild drug-bearing plants, and second, to ban their man-made cultivation. The economic, biological and ecological aspects are subjects for research by experts.
Drug-related Crimes:
It is possible to define drug abuse as a negative social phenomenon
touching upon the social, legal, criminological, economic, biological and
ecological areas accordingly. One part of the phenomenon is drug addiction, as a disease, and other, embraces all the law-breaking actions related to
drugs: those carried out to secure means for purchasing drugs or those
committed under the influence of drugs. Such law-breaking actions cover the
use, preparation, purchase, storage, transportation, parcel mail, sale and
theft of narcotic substances; attempts to force other people to use drugs
and the creation of conditions conducive to such use; attempts to sow and
grow drug-bearing plants; attempts to violate the established rules
regulating the production, purchase, storage, control, sale, transportation
or parcel mail of narcotic substances; and, drug smuggling. The law-
breaking actions also cover various mercenary crimes (violent crime) that
are not drug-related but are committed in order to buy drugs subsequently
(theft, robbery, plunder, fraud, blackmail and others) and also violent
crimes committed under the influence of drugs (e.g., hooliganism against
individuals). This notion reflects the essence and the confines of the drug
use and serves as a guideline for determining its scale and developing
strategies against it. Yet the true scale of this phenomenon is obscured by
a high degree of latent drug-induced diseases and law-breaking drug-related
actions.
Narcotics and Crime:
The above-listed law-breaking actions are crimes proving an
interrelation between drug abuse and crime. Drugs and crime are not only
closely interrelated, but actually blend fully, and in fact, becomes what
is known, as narco-crime. But to merely establish this fact is not enough.
The danger drug-related crimes pose to the public surpasses the danger
coming from other crimes. Drug-related crime is largely interrelated with
various other kinds of crime and even merges with one of its most dangerous
varieties such as organized crime. This becomes clear studying the dynamics
of drug-related crimes. Central here are the drug users who represent a
consumer of narcotics, and the ultimate target of drug trafficking - the
sale of drugs. When people become dependent on drugs they concentrate all
their efforts on getting drugs at any cost. They engage in criminal
activities ranging from the cultivation of drug-bearing plants and the
preparation of "stuff", to its sale.
Tendencies of Development:
The number of drug users grows in direct proportion to the rise in crimes committed under the influence of narcotics and, in the long run, to the profits earned by the drug dealers. Hence, drug dealers seek to 1) expand the drug sales; 2) increase the output of drugs or receive more of them from medical and pharmaceutical centers; and, 3) further promote criminal activities connected to drugs. The latter seems to ensure the realization of the former. A high degree of organization paves the way for expanding drug sales, increasing the output and boosting drug trafficking.
Expanding Drug Sales:
The expansion of drug sales is achieved by persuading more people to take drugs. Drug dealers set up drug pads and stores where narcotics are available. They try to advertise them in indirect ways. They make sure that more powerful drugs are continuously being developed.
In order to increase drug output drug-bearing plants are grown on remote plantations in regions with difficult access. Illegal shops and laboratories for developing new types of narcotics are set up there. Funds for increasing drug output are raised by blackmailing or bribing public officials. Drug-dealers practice violence, make threats against officials and encourage theft of large amounts of drugs.
Boosting the Level of Organization of the Illegal Drug Trafficking
Business Methods to improve the level of organization include mergers of
criminal groups and associations, severe disciplinary measures within
criminal organizations, greater degree of cohesion among group members, conspiratorial rules, and tougher actions against those who violate the
rules in such groups. Other methods are: increasing attempts to draw
government officials into criminal groups, taking control of persons
engaged in drug-related crimes on their own, centralizing finances and
monopolizing drug prices.
According to various studies there are quite a few syndicates and
cartels in the world that have divided drug trafficking regions among
themselves. Activities of these groups are guided by a clear-cut system of
criminal actions, such as promoting the sowing and cultivation of drug-
bearing plants, the production of narcotics, their wholesale purchase, and
the transportation and sales of drugs to consumers. Drug syndicates and
cartels, for whom drug trafficking is the main source of income, act under
the guise of legitimate companies, trying to come across as legal as
possible. They have airplanes, modern weapons and the newest technology in
their possession. Leaders of the criminal drug associations do their utmost
to oppose the actions of law enforcement agencies. With this purpose in
mind, they not only try to check police actions but make attempts, successful at times, to infiltrate police ranks. Professional criminals
deploy defense measures that may prove to be so effective in challenging
the worthiness of surveillance of suspects and the bugging of their phones.
United into cartels and syndicates and organizationally divided into groups
and associations, drug- criminals are usually aware that they remain under
constant surveillance. To ensure their personal safety they resort, as a
rule, to various counter-surveillance measures, thus putting well-trained
police officers in a difficult position. Experience shows that criminal
groups usually keep the approaches to places where narcotics are turned
over under their own close watch.
Ways to Legalize Drug Profits:
Drug dealers seek not only to build up profits from drug trafficking
but to legalize them as well. To that end they engage in criminal
activities where by legal and illegal operations are inextricably
intertwined. The money earned from the trade in narcotics is invested into
legitimate businesses or in real estate. It may also be laundered in
financial transactions, such as, the purchase of shares and securities or
other newly invented and constantly perfected operations. The income thus
obtained allows drug dealers not only to pour more money into drug
trafficking or finance more drug-related crimes but also provides for a
legal coverage of drug trade, or for the participation in legal activities.
Speakers at the international seminar on combating organized crime in the
Russian city of Suzdal in 1992 held in accord with the resolution of the
45th session of the UN General Assembly, pointed out that "in the majority
of countries, organized crime developed along two directions: participating
in prohibited activities (property crimes, money laundering, illegal drug
trafficking, violation of hard currency transaction rules, intimidation, prostitution, gambling, trade in weapons and antiques) and joining legal
business (directly or using such parasitical means as extortion. This
participation in legal economic activities is always bent for the use of
illegal competition methods and may have a greater economic impact compared
to the involvement in totally illegal kinds of activity). In short, criminal methods are used in both cases leading to the situation in which
criminal elements form the majority of organized criminal formations.
Organized Narco-crime:
Typically, drug cartels and syndicates are highly organized. Present in
the organizations are: strict and precise distribution of functions; very
rigid hierarchies; internal discipline maintained by interest, authority
and force; stringent conspiracy; ramified networks of groups bound by firm
organizational ties; branches existing and functioning in various
countries; contacts with other criminal groups (counterfeiters, smugglers, murderers etc.); the use of professional criminals; the
internationalization of group members; and, the use of violence to meet the
desired ends. To protect their huge profits and spheres of interest, the
subjects of narco-criminals stop at nothing and employ violent means, such
as the contract murders of their rivals and of law enforcement agents. The
money brought by the trade in drugs is often used to finance dangerous
crimes and acts of terrorism. It becomes a source, which finances
subversive activities of all kinds. Profits obtained from the drug trade
make it possible to finance large-scale armed operations against government
forces (like in Columbia or Mexico). Profit gained from the drug trade is
often compared with the profits earned by whole industries. The drug trade
is regarded as the world's second largest economy. All this enables drug
dealers not only to pay generously for the participation in crimes but also
to set up a common financial fund, a common bank, so to speak. Narco-money
is also used to exert influence on policy-making, particularly, by
nominating the associates of drug dealers to key posts in the economy and
politics or by bribing persons who already hold such posts and turning them
into supporters of the drugs trade. These financial investments are
reinforced by threats of violence against them or their close relatives
(wives, children or parents). This proves convincingly that narco-crime is
a well organized and well planned business incorporating the mutually inter-
related criminal activities of individuals, groups, associations, syndicates and cartels with a division of mutually interrelated functions.
This is the reason to regard this kind of crime as a variety of organized
crime. Some researchers believe that drug profits are the economic
foundation of organized crime. This can be seen in comparison of elements
forming narco- and organized crimes. To get a clear understanding of the
elements of the latter it is necessary to look in retrospect at the history
of organized crime. While crime and drug addiction have been known to the
world for at least several centuries, the existence of organized crime has
been officially recognized quite recently, only in this century. Yet both
national and foreign researchers date the origin of this phenomenon, in one
way or another, to a much earlier period.
Various stable criminal organizations used to appear and operate on territories of almost all modern states. Gangs of brigands and smugglers were at work not only on land but also at sea (sea pirates). They had in their possession caches of weapons, stocks of gold and food and, sometimes, entire fleets of pirate boats furnished with everything necessary for an attack and ready to go into combat with regular troops or ships. They thereby challenged borders and laws. Already at that time members of such gangs observed their own internal rules and traditions strictly, contrary to the ones obligatory in society. Among them there was the principle of mutual help, the recognition of the leaders' authority, the distribution of duties and spoils, as well as a system of reward and punishment. Gangsters knew exactly the kind of work they were responsible for and also knew their zones of influence (slave trade, cattle stealing, smuggling arms, narcotics, gold, diamonds, etc). They talked their own language and stuck to other conspiratorial rules. Taking hostages and bribing officials were their usual practices, very much like the actions of the present day organized crime groups.
With the passing of time, of course, these organizations kept transforming and modernizing, adjusting to changes of state borders, governments and economies. They were turning more and more into organized criminal associations that posed a serious threat to public safety, to the supremacy of the law and to other state institutions. As researchers point out, a particular danger of organized crime is that it becomes more and more arrogant, aggressive, ingenious and diverse. In the 1980s, organized crime became increasingly apparent throughout the world.
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