Illegal Drug Use, Illegal Prostitution and Money Laundering (Research Paper Sample)

Illegal Drug Use, Illegal Prostitution and Money Laundering
Name:
Institution
Abstract
Illegal drug use is harming about 120 million people in the world according to statistics and this is perceived to be increasing economic and health burden on the global GDP. Cannabis cocaine and opioids are ostensibly the most used illegal drugs in the world. Illegal prostitution on the other hand is seemingly inextricably linked to human trafficking and curbing the latter will remedy the former. Illegality in prostitution is especially invoked when it involves child prostitutes who are mostly trafficked from poor countries. Money laundering is another of the major vice that is fought internationally by bodies like Interpol especially due to apprehension that its monies could fund terrorism activities. Regulations requiring declaration of monies in financial institutions is stipulated by FATA to curb the vice that deprives the global economy of billions of dollars.
Illegal Drug Use, Illegal Prostitution and Money Laundering
Among the grand vices that still linger in the society and are incessantly disparaged and campaigned against by world leaders are illegal drug use, illegal prostitution and money laundering. The following essay explicates on the three frailties.
Illegal drug use
Drugs are normally devised to remedy a particular ailment or impairment under prescription of a professional, however, the tendency to ignore these prescriptions has become common nowadays. It is especially blamed on the music and media industries during the middle centuries that depicted the arbitrary use of drugs as ecstatic. The abuse of drugs has evolved from the misuse of medicine and its spectrum broadened to more hard drugs types that have now been categorized as illegal drugs. Currently the impulsive use of these drugs has become a societal culture with estimates of about 208 million persons around the globe being illegal drug users (Lowinson et al., 2010).
In America alone, which is labeled as the highest illegal drugs consumer in the entire world, has approximately 19.9 million users according to a health survey. Governments have put legislation that illegalizes particular drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, options, methaqualone and amphetamines. However some states in the US have legalized the use of marijuana after research proved the drug for medicinal properties especially for cancer patients (Lowinson et al., 2010).
A survey in Europe indicated that youth between the ages of 15-19 are using marijuana with an approximate 40% of the age set population. Czech Republic is the European country with the highest population of the aforementioned group who take marijuana with 44% followed by UK, Ireland and France at 38% (Williams, 2008). The use of cocaine and opioids is increasingly being used. They are apparently used due to the stimulant, analgesic, sedative and anxiolytic effects they impart on their users. However, their use is attributed to lead to modified behaviors such as anti-social, violence, suicides and criminal.
Addiction to these substances according to psychological experts is that the addicts’ bodies become tolerant to the substances and they no longer feel intoxicated by the normal dosage intake. They, therefore, increase their uptake amounts to induce the desired effects (Lowinson et al., 2010). Withdrawal causes the body’s feedback mechanism to crave for at least the normal dosage so as to function properly. A survey in the United States indicated that about 48.2% of the entire their 12th graders’ population has used illicit drugs in a point in their lives. Worldwide there are approximately 120 million addicted illegal drug users especially of cannabis and cocaine.
The mortlaity rate accredited to the consumption of illegitimate drugs in a study by UN Program done in conjunction to UNAIDS, conducted for ages between 15 and 54 were 200,000-300,000 deaths annually (Williams, 2008). Mortality was due to HIV prevalence from sharing of drug-injecting needles, overdose and other health effects. When summed up with the morbidity rate, the burden accrues to 0.8% of the world population with disability as a result of drug-related DALYs (Disability Adjusted Life Years). An increase in the growth of opium plant in Afghanistan is expected to protract these statistics for a few decades. This will occur if action to curb the drug’s use is not taken, as it has been the case since 2009 (Williams, 2008).
While the consumption in the developed countries seems steady, those in the emerging countries are rising as new markets for the illicit drugs are finding new markets. Cannabis being the most abused illegal drug is used by about 200 million worldwide users (Lowinson et al., 2010). The impact of the illegal drug use has impacted a heavy global morbidity and financial burden. It is estimated that approximately $200 billion-250billion which is about 1% of the global GDP is spent to address this burden. In terms of society’s productivity the burden is even estimated to be several folds higher. The costs associated with crime related to illegal drug use accounted to about another 1% of GDP.
Some of the long-term effects that are displayed by users of illicit drug users include; psychotic disorders and episodes, weight loss, depression, insomnia, paranoid psychosis.
While the prevalence of use of these drugs does not seem to be waning, decriminalizing some of the less harmful drugs is starting to be considered. One of these drugs is cannabis which has been decriminalized in some states in the US (Williams, 2008). By decriminalizing them, governments intend to make their use open and less dangerous while collecting taxes and imposing high taxes in their dissuasion just like any other economic goods. However whether this action will reduce the use of illicit drug is yet to be seen.
Illegal Prostitution
Illegal prostitution is another frailty that has continued to be peddled around the world which is perceived to be connected to trafficking of girls and women. Illegal prostitution has turned out to be a multi-million industry especially in instances of sexual exploitation of trafficked girls and women. Child trafficking and illegal prostitution seems to be inextricably linked. Most of the prostitutes in the illegal business are compelled to sell their services through coercion, blackmail, threats, extortion or cultural manipulation (Bruckert & Parent, 2002). Victims of illegal prostitution are largely naive, of poor descent and uneducated. Some of these girls may have been abused in their childhood and are therefore comfortable or used to abuse and exploitation. In some countries, prostitution is legal and the illegality only features when prostitutes are underage or are coerced into the trade.
Czech Republic is one of these countries where they attract foreign sex tourists with over 200 advertisement related websites. The demand outstrips the supply and the result is trafficking of child prostitutes across the Czech-German border. Whilst legalization of prostitution was intended to take out street prostitution, in other states such as the, prostitution is prohibited, pimps are used. Perpetrators of illegal prostitution are involved in organized crime that could involve politicians, prominent business men. Corruption in government is also attributed to the vice since these girls and women who are trafficked have to acquire travel documents from relevant authorities.
In countries where prostitution is illegal, corruption among the law enforcers who accept bribes from pimps in jurisdictions, where prostitution is illegalized, either the sex worker is liable for the violation, while in other states, the client is apt. Illegal prostitution is considered an infringement on the human rights and dignity of the girls and women in the trade (Bruckert & Parent, 2002). Prostitution is viewed as legal when there is not consensual sex between the sex worker and the client. The sexual desires of the male should not override those of the female or her autonomy different countries have variant laws that have perceive different forms of illegality in prostitution. Those that absolutely abolish prostitution portray it having an un-severable link to child prostitution and human trafficking such as United States, Georgia, Croatia, Iceland, and Albania.
Statistics show that even with legal prostitution, a parallel illegal prostitution is peddled along since most other sex workers would not opt to lose their anonymity by registering themselves as sex-workers. Research shows that decriminalizing prostitution only creates an insatiable demand for prostitutes. This comes with negative impacts, which to some extent affect the whole society in different ways. For instance, decriminalizing leads to trafficking in order to meet the need. Demand for child prostitutes or those below the age of 18/20 is still considerably large. In essence,they proffer a need that is exploited by the pimps who result to illegal trafficking of children and ones that cannot be legalized in any legitimate government in the league of nations. Netherlands who have legalized prostitution still prosecutes numerous cases of trafficking and cases of brothels being used as safe houses for criminal activities and are looking into rescinding the prostitution legalizing law (Bruckert & Parent, 2002).
In countries with legalized prostitution, illegality emanates when prostitution is conducted outside the premises of a licensed brothel such as in countries like Nevada.
In other countries such as India, Israel, France, prostitution is not abolished by law, however, procuring it openly in the streets or advertisements could invoke punishment by laws. Sentences too for illegal prostitution vary in their stringency and weight depending on the countries’ stern stance on prostitution. In Ch...