September 26, 2013

McKelvy Discussion 9/29 – War on Drugs

Hi Everyone!

The topic for this week’s discussion will be the many aspects of the War on Drugs, from the numerous facets of the international drug trade to the United States government’s handling of drug trafficking, including drug interdiction methods and sentencing issues. The first four links serve as good primers to the world of drug trafficking, with the fourth one (the NY Times article) being an especially detailed and exceptionally well written expose on the Mexican drug cartels. Subsequently, two links are listed which are, respectively, a report and article analyzing how the War on Drugs adversely, and disproportionately, affects members of certain races and low-income communities. The following two links are an essay and news report displaying the economic side of the War on Drugs, indicating the expenditure of the United States government on drug interdiction, among other drug related things. Finally, I have two links which indicate the new direction the federal government seems to be going in its drug policy.

Drug Trade/War on Drugs Overview:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Drugs

http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/drug-trafficking/

http://www.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/paradox/htele.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/magazine/how-a-mexican-drug-cartel-makes-its-billions.html?_r=2&smid=FB-nytimes&WT.mc_id=MG-E-FB-SM-LIN-CIN-061912-NYT-NA&WT.mc_ev=click&

Impact of War on Drugs:

http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/dp_raceanddrugs.pdf

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/perspectives/the-drug-war-on-the-poor-america-doesnt-have-a-drug-problem-it-has-a-poverty-problem-279246/

Economics of War on Drugs:

http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2013/Powelldrugs.html

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/06/opinion/branson-end-war-on-drugs/index.html

U.S. Drug Policy Going Forward: