Drivers Ed Module 8

Once the issue of lowering the minimum legal drinking age arose, many individual states began to review their drinking laws. Some chose to lower the legal age to eighteen, while others remained at twenty-one. Between 1970 and 1976, 29 states had changed their legal drinking age to eighteen (Main 35). What this caused was teenagers travelling from one state to another where they were allowed to drink at the age of eighteen. This travelling led to an increase in highway accidents due to drunk driving (Main 35). This was quickly brought to the federal government’s attention. In the article, “Turning 21 and the Associated Changes in Drinking and Driving After Drinking Among College Students” by Kim Fromme, Reagan R. Wetherill, and Dan J. Neal, the problem with alcohol related highway accidents was addressed. The states realized that the differences between legal drinking ages was causing a problem and by 1988, each state had set their legal drinking age back to twenty-one (Fromme, Neal, and Wetherill 22). Now, the question is whether or not this change has had a positive or negative effect on drinking habits amongst teenagers.

Drug cartels have arisen as a major crisis for the future in the Americas. Individuals indulge themselves on drugs for many reasons such as tradition, attempting to escape poverty, and generating revenue for rebellious activities. Drug trafficking has proven to be ludacris, with the increasing involvement of corrupt government officials in their distribution. The UN has stated the approximate estimation of profits of drug trade is roughly around $150 billion alone in the Americas, which accounts slightly less than 5% GDP. Currently the most common way of drug transport is land through Central American countries like Mexico, and it eventually crosses over the border to the United States.

Underage drinking is becoming a very problematic issue. Teens are at risk for many health issues,when it comes to their irresponsible drinking. Teenagers today believe drinking is cool and the best way to enjoy a night. Nonetheless do teens know the problems that alcohol can cause. Alcohol consumption for girls leads to unwanted, unplanned, and unprotected sex and pregnancy. In general underage drinking could either ruin a teens life or cause life threatening injuries.

drinking laws) target sales of alcohol to minors and public possession of alcohol by minors.

The United States agency of drugs have discovered that for all of the illegal drugs consumed in the nation has been transported by the Mexican cartels. “U.S. federal officials say that the mexican cartels operate in dozens of U.S. cities and analysts say they are moving to consolidate their control of the entire supply chain of illegals drugs”(Schwartz, 1). The government of the United States have been conducting the investigation to now if the cartels are north. Many big cities today have a piece of the cartel organization working there and also producing drugs to distribute within the city. According to the investigation done by the DEA and U.N officials “Mexican cartels have established command - and - control centers to orchestrate cocaine shipments by sea and air along the still wild caribbean coast with the help of local authorities”(Booth, 2). All though that the cartel are moving to the United States they are still leaving command center in mexico to conduct shipments by ground or any other shipments overseas. The cartel is able to transport such quantities of drugs with help of the local authorities and other corrupt government officials.

Based on information taken from NIH (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) by the age of fifteen around half of teens have had at least one drink and seventy percent by that age of 18 have had a drink. It seems harmless for youth to experiment with alcohol but there are serious risks that come with underage drinking such as injury, sexual assault, and even death. In 2008 there were more than one hundred ninety thousand underage people to visit the emergency room for alcohol related injuries. Drinking can impair decisions on sexual activity and can lead to sexually assaulting someone, or if in a crowd of drinkers the chance of being sexually assaulted is increased and even more so when it comes to youth. Alcohol in youth can even lead to death, around five thousand death are reported annually for alcohol related underage deaths. To help prevent underage drinking you can learn to look for signs in your youth. Look for problems in school, lack of concentration, bad memory, less regard for appearance, signs of alcohol use like smell and containers. If you are underage and thinking about drinking, don’t, wait tell you’re the appropriate age and then only drink in moderation and responsibly, also avoid youth that would pressure you into drinking, what may be cool isn’t the way to success.

Cartels have developed complex trade routes and methods of drug smuggling. They use objects such as cars, drones, and they also hide drugs in balloons, or other small rubber packages. This allows them to swallow the drugs and later retrieving, lubricant is used to swallow these packages and later take laxatives to retrieve them. In some cases, they will also sew these packages under the skins of animals.

Summary: The southwest border region is the most significant national level storage, transportation and transshipment area for illicit drug shipments that are designed for markets throughout the US. The south west region is the biggest drug smuggling zone in the US. More illegal drugs are seized in this area than in any other arrival zone. Mexican cartels have developed expensive drug transportation networks extending from the Southwest border to all regions of the US. Drugs gets smuggled between ports of entry along the southwest border and are stored all throughout the US. The threat posted to the nation by the Mexican cartels that operate in Mexico and the southwest border region extends well beyond drug trafficking to other criminal activities including border

Northeast drug markets receive wholesale quantities of heroin supplied by Columbian TCO’s. Columbian traffickers will also utilize both the Mexican and Dominican organizations for further transportation and distribution of heroin to target cities along the east coast. Columbia and Mexico together account for more than 90% of the heroin supplied to the United States.

By the mid-1980’s Colombian drug cartels controlled most of the cocaine smuggled into the United States. More than 15 tons of cocaine smuggled in each day, netting the cartel as much as $420 million a week. The cartels involved saw it as an opportunity to gain status and defeat the American government. What each person in a cartel was most afraid of was being extradited to the United States.

Given its geographic location, Mexico has long been used as a staging and transshipment point for narcotics and contraband between Latin America and U.S. markets. Mexican bootleggers supplied alcohol to the United States gangsters throughout the duration of the Prohibition in the United States,[94] and the onset of illegal drug trade with the U.S. began when the prohibition came to an end in 1933.[94]

Drug trafficking has been an ongoing epidemic in the United States, as well us other countries for an unimaginable amount of time. Illegal drugs varying from heroin and cocaine are primarily the main drugs that get smuggled in the United States from South America. Even marijuana and methamphetamine have been popular in the drug smuggling “industry”. These gangs go to a variety of different extents to get the job done. Drug trafficking increases the violence levels These drugs have been smuggled through the Southwest Border since the 1970s and are attempting to expand the distribution of those drugs into eastern U.S. markets. The countries of drug production have been seen as the worst affected by prohibition. In many countries worldwide, the illegal drug trafficking can be directly linked to high violent crimes. This is especially true in third world countries, but has still been seen as an issue for many developed countries all over the world. Drug trafficking increases the risk of violence and crime due rise of addiction along with an increase of death. It also effects the along with correctional system effects.to its high costs, Nearly all of the heroin produced in Mexico is destined for distribution in the United States. Organized crime groups operating from Mexico produce, smuggle, and distribute various illegal drugs after trafficking them across the US border. Trafficking groups that operate from Mexico tend to avoid penalties by their stealthy methods of smuggling

According to surveys, 10 million young kids under the age of 21 drank alcohol in the past month. Every year, there are more than 200,000 emergency room visits by kids under age 21 for injuries and other conditions linked to alcohol. More than 5,000 of those kids die as a result of alcohol drinking.

In 2009 alone, the United States Customs and Border Protection seized 135,943 pounds of cocaine, 2,015 pounds of heroin, 4,330,475 pounds of marijuana and 6,135 pounds of methamphetamines. That is all the drugs that were intercepted; there are much more that get through the borders into the United States. Although the amount of marijuana is large, the United States is the largest consumer of cocaine which is illegally transported from Colombia through Mexico and the Caribbean. The illegal trafficking of drugs into the United States has causes many problems such as turf wars, gun wars, police conflict and civilian retaliation. In Florida, twenty-six people were indicted during a gang turf war and illicit drug dealing that resulted in the death

Drug trafficking is an illegal drug trading system in which drugs are brought from other countries to the United States. According to the the article, “Crime and Drug Control Policies in the United States” written by Thomas Mieczkowski, illegal drug trafficking from Mexico and Colombia have been hurting the American society for many years. Drugs have been coming into the U.S. in many different forms and routes especially through the border of the United States and Mexico (Mieczkowski 2008). The large amounts of drugs brought into America is for the intend to sell and make immense amounts of profit. Most of the drugs coming in from Mexico and other South American countries are all easily grown or produced from where it comes from. After these drugs enter the U.S. they are given to distributors who supply portions to many different drug dealers and these drug dealers sell the drugs to the citizens of America. In most cases the buyer of the drugs are drug addicts, or someone that 's just trying sell what they got for more profit (Mieczkowski 2008). All these different drugs are causing thousands of American teens to become addicts, which leads them to lose control and do absurd things or die due to overdose on those drugs (The History of Drug Abuse). The DEA and the American government do many things to prevent drugs coming in from Mexico and confiscate anything they find, but the amount confiscated is nowhere near the amount actually entering the U.S.