Social Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

Social Change - Essay Example Supply and demand for dangerous drugs is international and global. An important source of world opium, for example, is Afghanistan and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime is anticipating that cultivation of opium in the Northern and North-Eastern regions of Afghanistan will likely increase â€Å"strongly† this 2011. For Cocaine, an important source is Columbia and the cocaine goes through several routes by various means of transportation and through several countries before going to Europe and, of course, the United States. Some of the transnational routes for cocaine are shown in Figure 1. Drug use is not only a problem of law enforcement. Several studies confirm that it is a social problem. Several studies of the US National Institute on Drug Abuse in 1980, for example, pointed out that the drug problem arose because of social factors. On the other hand, a 1995 study of the United Nations International Drug Program indicated that the drug problem will have social consequences. Addressing the use of illegal drugs and narcotics require more than a cloak-and-dagger and police work approaches as it is a social problem in the first place. There is a need to work on both the supply and demand sides of the social problem. On the supply side, there is a need for at least five initiatives. First, there is a need to strengthen international cooperation and sharing of intelligence towards exposing and destroying the international networks engaged in illegal drugs and narcotics. This means that current efforts on the sharing intelligence must be supported. Most likely, the world has the technological capability to identify the plantations that are likely being used as the raw materials for producing drugs. This is one important piece of intelligence that must be shared worldwide. Volumes of drug transports require large ships, planes, and the like for international transport. In some of the