Drug Trafficking and Smuggling

• A major opium-producing region of Southwest Asia, includes Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, Iran, and former regions of the Soviet Union, is known as the Golden Crescent.
• Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia was a powerful drug cartel that controlled cocaine production and distribution and allied with Pablo Escobar.
• During the 1960s and 1970s, the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia was the main source of heroin for the U.S.
• Small commercial fishing vessels near the coast of eastern Caribbean islands are the most common method for smuggling cocaine into the U.S.
• Drug cartels are involved in the cultivation, manufacture, distribution, and sale of illicit drugs worldwide.
• Smuggling techniques for transferring cocaine to U.S. markets include small commercial fishing vessels, speed boats, and large commercial cargo vessels.
• Most marijuana from Mexico is smuggled by land.
• Narcoterrorism is when anti-government political groups engage in political insurgency and illicit drug trafficking. .
• A shaman is a healer who often includes the inducing of trances.
• Viking warriors known as Berserkers displayed wild behavior due to ingestion of Amanita Muscaria or fly agaric.
• The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was the first regulatory act regarding drug consumption.
• The Harrison Act of 1914 was designed to regulate drug abuse through taxation.
• The Harrison Act of 1914 led to classifying several drugs (i.e., marijuana) as narcotics, then banned from medical use.
• The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution restricted alcohol.
• After the 18th amendment was passed, Prohibition failed to produce an alcohol-free society, and many citizens continued to consume alcohol in underground nightclubs and bars known as speakeasies or by blind pigs.
• Psychoactive drugs affect behavior and experience through their effects on the functioning of the brain.
• Freud was accredited with psychoanalytic explanations of drug abuse.
• Violations of laws prohibiting the possession, use, distribution, or manufacture of illegal drugs are characterized as drug defined.
• More than 50% of all federal prison inmates are serving time for drug-defined offenses, more than for any other type of criminal offense.
• Global illicit drug trade is the international business encompassing the cultivation, manufacture, distribution, and sale of illicit drugs in practically all regions of the world.
• 2013 World Drug Report estimated that 167 to 315 million people between 15–64 years old have used an illicit drug in the past year.
• The Golden Triangle consists of Southeast Asia (Thailand, Burma, Laos, and Vietnam).
• The two most important factors that fueled the movement toward drug regulation: abuse of patent medicines and drug use with minority groups.
• The 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act required all packaged foods and drugs to list ingredients.
• The Harrison Act of 1914 regulated drug abuse through government taxation.
• The Harrison Act required anyone importing, manufacturing, selling, or dispensing cocaine and opiate drugs to register with the Treasury Department, pay a special tax, and keep records of all transactions.
• The Harrison Act didn't make the drugs illegal, but physicians stopped issuing prescriptions for the drugs covered leading to a black market and didn't reduce the drug-taking behavior.
• 1970 - Congress passed the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, which established five drug schedules classifying drugs based on their approved medical uses, potential for abuse, and potential for producing dependence.
• The four principal routes drugs enter the body: oral, injection, inhalation, and absorption through the skin or membranes.
• Dependence involves a person having a strong compulsion to continue taking a drug.
• Physical dependence refers to continued use to avoid physical withdrawal.
• Psychological dependence is when a drug abuser craves the pleasurable effects of the drug.
• The Gateway hypothesis states that marijuana leads to abusing other drugs, but it has not been proven.
• According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2013, it was found that 44% of the U.S. population over the age of 12 had used marijuana at least once in their lives.
• Peak levels in the blood occur about 10 minutes after taking the drug THC.
• The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 made possession of it illegal in all of the U.S. states.
• Marijuana is a Schedule 1 drug.
• The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 imposed a tax on marijuana use.
• When smoking marijuana absorption is fast and excretion is slow.
• THC can be detected in the blood for several days after using marijuana due to slow excretion of the THC from fatty tissue.
• THC concentration depends on the level in marijuana, how deeply inhaled, and how long held in the lungs before exhaled.
• Experienced smokers get intoxicated quicker and with greater extent than inexperienced smokers.
• Regular marijuana smokers might have residual amounts of THC produce a quicker high or enhanced effects.

Effects on Sexual Functioning & Reproduction for Men:

• Reduced testosterone
• Reduced sperm count
• Increased abnormal sperm

Effects on Sexual Functioning & Reproduction for Women:

• Reduction of luteinizing hormone, necessary for egg fertilization
• No increase in birth defects
• Low birth weight
• Shorter length
• Reduction in milk
• The potency of Marijuana previously was 2%-6% THC and currently is 6%-30% THC.
• Decriminalization is making possession of a small amount of a drug a civil offense punishable by a fine.
• As of 2017, 60% of American adults favored legalizing marijuana in general.
• Drug dependence occurs when an individual feels a compulsive need to continue taking a drug where it assumes an increasingly central role in the individual's life.
• Toxicity is the physical or psychological harm that a drug might present to the user.
• Dose is the quantity of drug that is taken into the body.
• Effective dose is the minimal dose of a drug necessary to produce the intended effect in a given percentage of the population.
• Lethal dose is the minimal dose of a drug capable of producing death in a given percentage of the population.
• The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) is a federal program where metropolitan hospitals report the incidence of drug-related emergencies.
• DAWN tracks the number of times a person enters the emergency department for drug use and the number of related deaths.
• Chronic toxicity is the physical or psychological harm a drug might cause over a long period of use.
• Global illicit drug trade encompasses the cultivation, manufacture, distribution, and sale of illicit drugs in practically all regions of the world.

This lesson covers the global drug trade, including major production regions like the Golden Crescent and Golden Triangle. It also discusses the operations of drug cartels, such as Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, and common smuggling methods used to transport drugs to the U.S.