Nursing Research Paper: Drug Trafficking in Texas (Research Paper Sample)

Drug Trafficking (Marijuana) in Texas
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Institution
Drug Trafficking (Marijuana) in Texas
The aspect of drug trafficking involves the process of trading illicit drugs subjected to the drug prohibition law. In many states globally, the act of trafficking drugs has increased drastically, which has made the practice become a global concern for the society and the government in the nations where the act is growing with no limit. One of the reasons motivating societal members to participate in the drug trafficking business is due to its massive profit that it generates regardless of the type of the drug being sold illegally. For instance, it has been reported that overall, drug trafficking is generating more than $322 billion in terms of profit annually (The General Assembly of the United Nations, 2012). Although a number of international bodies like the United Nation Convention are making an essential effort to minimize the drug smuggling business, less has been achieved, as the act continues to increase and to venture into the community.
In most cases, smuggling of illegal drugs is being associated with all kinds of drugs, but among them, the sale of marijuana illegally has escalated beyond expectation. For example, in Texas, the government continues to face a hard task in the quest to eliminate the distribution of the marijuana substance illegally, which is affecting the area’s economy adversely. A report prepared by the American Civil Liberties Union suggests that in the U.S. Texas is one of the states where the prevalence of selling marijuana illegally has gone up, since the year 2010 (Gray & Jones, 2017). With this understanding, this project focus on examining the practice of drug trafficking, which is marijuana in Texas. Upon the review of the activity, the project will present findings concerning marijuana smuggling in Texas and solutions that will apply in need to minimize the illegal trade of marijuana in the region. Finally, the project will give a conclusion statement by summarizing the discussion based on the findings that will be gathered regarding trafficking of marijuana in the State of Texas.
Statement of the Problem
With report suggests that it has become difficult for the head officials to control the trafficking of marijuana, the evidence shows that the practice of smuggling marijuana is affecting the society negatively. Apparently, when the drug is being smuggled without control, the society members become exposed to the problem of risk of addiction, generating mental illnesses, brain problems, and performance of the young adults in the school (Volkow et al., 2014). The illegal trade of marijuana is also likely to affect the well-being of the people in the community in terms of their cognitive process because the more the drug is being sold to the people illegally, the more people will be exposed to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) component (Filbey et al., 2014). The THC element is known to affect the brain of the individual consuming marijuana, which can cause long-term problems related to the cognitive function of the victim. In essence, this means that marijuana trafficking in Texas is likely to affect the lifetime achievement of the people in the society if the effort to tackle the sale of the drug illegally is not given the attention it requires.
American Civil Liberties Union (2013) writes that in Texas, marijuana has become a drug of choice and due to the high rate of its consumption illegally, the community is being affected severely in different ways. The people who are being affected more by the illegal sale of marijuana are the people of color, as it is the Blacks who are found by the law in possession of marijuana products. As such, it is proposed that in 2010, black Americans in Texas were four times more than the white Americans to be associated with the act of marijuana trafficking. Here, one can see that when the marijuana smuggling in Texas is dealt with efficiently, the minority group in the area will be less considered as criminals because the act of minimizing the community from continuing to sell the commodity illegally will make the blacks seek other legal life opportunities. Typically, research demonstrates that the American Civil Liberties Union has requested the officials in Texas twelve counties to change the law enforcement regarding marijuana distribution in the society, statistics on the same show that to dealt with the problem of trafficking of marijuana needs more than just changing the laws of illegal drugs in the region. Thus, with the problem being identified based on the available literature, the findings that this project present will be used to support the proposed solution for marijuana trafficking in Texas.
The Research Plan
For this project, the researcher used the report from the American Civil Liberties Union and other articles with relevant information regarding marijuana trafficking in Texas. In the research process, the investigator started outlining key findings from previous reports and studies on marijuana smuggling in the U.S., mainly focusing on the status of the practice in Texas. As the purpose of this project was to review marijuana smuggling and to come up with a proposal for the solutions that can be applied to tackle the issue in Texas, the findings from the American Civil Liberties Union and other secondary sources in the form of published journals were significant. From these sources, the researcher would compare the perspective of various scholars regarding the issue of study in this project.
In the context of selecting the solutions for the problem in this project, the investigator focused on the secondary sources discussing the way the act of drug trafficking and addiction can be minimized completely. The articles that the researcher used mostly discussed issues such as the need for rehabilitation centers for drug dealers in the society, the context of family therapy on drug usage, and significant of group counseling and support for people using illegal drugs such as marijuana. Based on this plan, the investigator came up with a list of solutions and discussed them in reference to the issue of solving the marijuana smuggling and consumption in Texas.
The Project Timeline
In this section, the timeframe of this project is presented aimed at showing the steps that were followed in the quest to study about the illegal trade of marijuana in Texas. The timeline is important because it will display what the investigator considered first for this project, and provide the breakdown of the information that the project focused on to attain the esteemed objective.
Time (days)

1

2

3`

4

5

Activities






Introduce the project






Examine the problem statement






Collect the relevant data concerning the project






Analyzing data recorded by the ACLU and Gray, Granberry & Jones article






Recording the number of marijuana possessed arrests in Texas






Analyzing prevalent arrests (youth-adult arrest)






Proposing the strategies and discussing them






Hand over the project and make changes reflecting on the supervisor’s remarks






Presents the final project






The Research Findings
Based on the report that the U.S. Department of Justice National Drug Intelligence Center (2010) presents, it is found that in Texas, marijuana is mostly being transported illegally in North Texas, which poses major threats to the people living in the region. In this case, it has been written that because North Texas is a High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, the smuggling of marijuana in this region happens in regional and national level, which would require the political and community leaders in the area to come together and work with a major goal of eliminating the transportation of the illicit components (marijuana). The development of marijuana smuggling in Texas has continuously expanded due to the operation of the Mexican Drug Transportation Organizations. As such, report claims that the Mexican DTOs are focusing on developing their illegal business of drug (marijuana) smuggling into rural areas within their neighboring states. Consequently, this has led to their adjacent to the marijuana trafficking in the North Texas region, where the law on drug trafficking is limited (U.S. Department of Justice National Drug Intelligence Center, 2010).
More so, North Texas has experienced large cases of marijuana trafficking and criminal activities related to the same operation. Moreover, with the introduction of ‘portable one-pot or shake-and-bake,’ between 2009 and 2008, it has been tipped that the sale of marijuana illegally is likely to escalate in the coming years, as more people will be seeking to consume marijuana using portable one-pot, despite the illegality context relating to the activity. Furthermore, in 2008 and 2009, the seizures of hydroponic cannabis increased drastically, in which in this period, it doubled (U.S. Department of Justice National Drug Intelligence Center, 2010). Therefore, from the increase of hydroponic marijuana, this an indication of the fact that between 2008 and 2009, the rate of marijuana consumption in this period was high and it continues to increase. From these findings, it is vivid that the practice of marijuana consumption through different means and the expansion of Mexican illegal drug distributor organizations are all playing a commendable role in the act of the marijuana trade illegal in Texas.
On the other hand, the rise of the indoors and outdoors cultivation of marijuana in North Texas is another essential as...