The war on drugs has been on the rise worldwide for a long period. The world has engaged various mechanisms to counteract the illicit trade on drugs. However, the trade has taken diverse dimensions thus presenting immense challenges to study their dynamics. Various agencies have waged superfluous war on the drug trafficking. For instance, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) has persistently engaged in the study of the distribution pattern through intensive research in order to understand the mystery of the trafficking. This paper, however, takes a wider scope on the war on drugs and misuse of substances by parents and the effect this has on the children.
The drugs misuse has gained tremendous clients capacity in the world market. It is estimated that the current levels of heroin consumption in the world stands at 430-450 tons influx into the world heroin market. At the moment, the people of Lao and Myanmar Republic, produces 50 tons of the opium while 380 tons comes exclusively from Afghanistan. However, only a negligible proportion (5%) is consumed in Afghanistan while the rest is dispatched and traded worldwide through the various trading corridors in the country. In particular, Afghanistan became the golden crescent in the production and use of the opium after the Russian incursion in 1979 due to the inability of government to control the production and use of the drug as well as the rising market demand. Furthermore, in the mid 1990, opium refinery and cultivation was banned in Pakistan. Consequently, this shifted to Afghanistan leading to the development of new trade routes through all round trafficking corridors.
Opium growth in Afghanistan has been discouraged as it has resulted in the rise of the drug abuse in the international scenes. To begin with, Born Agreement (2001) and the United Nations Security Council Resolution has posed their influence on the government’s regulation pertaining to opium production. In their statement, the government of Afghanistan is to accord due respect of the international agencies for the prevention and control of drug abuse and liaise with the international community to wage war against drugs, as well as the related crimes. In addition, the government of Afghanistan made a significant move to eliminate the drug misuse. In 2002, Hamid Karzai who was a leader in charge of the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan, banned the cultivation and trafficking of sedative drugs and launched a vigorous campaign on drug annihilation an initiative of his government( Brown, Owens 35). This marks the stepped up move to eliminate drugs and substance abuse.
In Mexico, drugs production has been on the upper scale for generations. The use and trade of drugs have steadily risen to considerable magnitude as fiscally well equipped drug cartels have emerged, making the pitched control by the government over the drugs harder day after the other. At the onset of the year 2012, government report indicated that 47,515 citizens exposed to the demise through violence resulting from drug misuse. However, considerable attempts have been made to eliminate these drug cartels. To win the war, President Felipe Calderon has set up military operations to apprehend the criminal cartels since he took office in 2006. However, homicide rate decreased considerably in the country in 2011 by 11 percent from the previous years to stand at around 12,000. However, the situation remains appalling in some settings such as the city of Guadalajara adjacent to the city of Mexico. Back in 19th century, America witnessed an upsurge in drug abuse with the influx of the opium followed by cocaine in the early and late 19th century respectively. However, aggravated awareness on drugs was heightened by the turn of the century where the psychotropic drug was identified to cause a severe level of addiction. Since then, war on drugs has been a tough engagement. The task force executing this mandate has been faced with immense challenges prosecution notwithstanding. For example, in USA, the war on the abuse of drugs has not met any substantive success (Youngers, Rosin 54).
Drug Abuse among Children and Parents. Resulting from the abuse is an escalating number of neglected children and others abandoned helplessly. In an effort to counter attack this, the US government has criminalized the activity and the legislation developed to corner the use and trade in illegitimate drugs. The government’s high expenditure on Legislations and the imposition of extremely high fine on the victims has been counterproductive. Furthermore, tremendous efforts have been launched to cut such expenditures and instead divert it to civic education on the effects of drug abuse on the abusers thus leading to enlightenment, cure and prevention of abuse.
Drugs have been used by both adults and children in the entire globe. Further, the abuse has chipped into the education settings leaving little to negotiate on the deterioration of behaviors as well as the loss of social ethics in society. This further has resulted to the upsurge of crimes and the loss of lives due to recklessness of the public person ills such as drivers causing fatal accidents. Negligence of social responsibilities has also augmented, and results in the domestic violence. Rising use of drugs has led to a shrinking economic performance and poor living standards.
As at the 30th March, 2005, millions of children in America lived with a drug sunken parental care. As the social codes dictate that children, keep off drugs as they fear their parents. Consequently, children, absorb the parents’ behaviors and incorporate it as a life style. Therefore, this led to weakened morals in the United States as children resolved to drug abuse from their parents. In particular, approximately half of the entire number of children (35.6 billion) in the United States of America live in households characterized with drug abuse of either tobacco, alcohol or other illegal drugs (Bell, Battjes 28). Of these, 37% have either of the parents or other adults in their homestead, in abuse of tobacco, approximately 24% living with heavy drinkers adults while the rest lives with adults using other illegal drugs. This translates to a vast number of children being affected passively by the influence of drugs.
Children whose parental caregivers are drug and substance abusers continuously feel the impact of the drugs. Such kids may suffer from divorce, incarceration or even demise. As a result, children turn to drug misuse while in the absence of their parents. Peer pressure among children in schools increases. School going children have engaged in drug abuse for a number of reasons. To begin with, the separation of children from their parents in their tender age gives an incentive for the children to engage in the abuse as little do they fear of their parents. This is triggered by other external forces that feed them with malicious thoughts in terms of the conducts of drug envisaged adults. For instance, at the inception of modernity, the culture of theatre and movies, injected the society. Many children in the city of Mexico adopted it as a new hobby while the parents promoted the insurgence of rival modernity through the creation of conducive avenues for the propagation of the incoming trend. Media plays a significant role in propagating the behaviors to various groups of youths in the various settings as predominantly expressed through behavioral change in line with the live broadcasts.
In conclusion, the war on drug abuse, continuously intensify in the entire globe as enlightenment on the harmful effects of the drugs amplifies. However, the war is far to the winning as the drug cartels continue gain ground due to their strong financial base and political influences. Nevertheless, despite all the challenges in this struggle, conspicuous steps has been made through widespread campaigns against drug and the upcoming legislation in support for the move to eradicate drug dependency all aimed at winning the war.