Dimensions of Drug-Trafficking in the United States

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Dom í nguez ◽  
Rafael Velázquez Flores
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
The United States

scholarly journals Cuba, United States and fight against drug trafficking: ups and downs of a necessary cooperation

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 54-64
Author(s):  
Santiago E. Bejerano
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Modern World ◽  
American Continent ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
Alternative Scenarios ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Common Security

Given the geostrategic importance of Cuba for the entire American continent and the increasing complexity of the nature of security as such, and accordingly, of the mechanisms of ensuring it in the modern world, the problem of drug trafficking is rather high on the agenda of the U.S.-Cuban relations. The article examines the issue of combating drug trafficking in the context of bilateral relations between Cuba and the United States in order to assess the prospects for joint efforts on this track. The author presents a retrospective of mostly unilateral initiatives by U.S. presidents that did not lead to real tangible results, in particular due to the prevailing erroneous approach of militarization in the fight against drug trafficking. The new century requires new forms and a qualitatively higher level of interaction. With a noticeable warming in the dialogue with Cuba under Barack Obama the situation has changed in many respects, and quite a few initiatives of bilateral nature began to bear fruit. Nevertheless, with Donald Trump’s rise to power, there is an obvious setback in the rapprochement, in proof of which the author gives examples of specific destructive steps, although this position of the administration met if not open criticism, then proposals for alternative scenarios of the development of contacts between the states. The potential that exists in both countries for cooperation in this area can be realized provided that the interests of common security prevail over political disagreements and state channels of cooperation are strengthened, with the dynamics of this process being reflected in the situation in the region as a whole.

Narcos and Politicos: The Politics of Drug Trafficking in Honduras

1988 ◽  
Vol 30 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 143-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark B. Rosenberg
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
Foreign Exchange ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
International Economy ◽  
Almost All

Honduras Has Emerged as a cocaine transshipment point between Colombia and the United States. One informed source suggests that as much as fifty tons of cocaine have moved through the country during the last fifteen months. This paper examines the politics of drug trafficking in Honduras. Special attention is given to the relations between drug trafficking and the Honduran political environment, the emergence of a new “powder elite, ” and the manner in which US and Honduran authorities are addressing these problems.One of the hemisphere's poorest countries by almost all standards of development, Honduras has a population of about 4.5 million people and an area the size of Tennessee. Unlike neighboring Guatemala and El Salvador where a national oligarchy has enhanced its wealth through an extensive coffee industry, Honduras first emerged in the international economy through its foreign-owned banana enterprises which still are a leading source of foreign exchange.

scholarly journals Characteristics of Lawsuits against Physicians Charged with Opioid-Related Crimes in the United States, 1995-2019

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia B Berman ◽  
Guohua Li
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Money Laundering ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Annual Number ◽  
Pharmaceutical Companies ◽  
Clinical Specialty ◽  
Criminal Charges ◽  
Opioid Medications ◽  
Legal Consequences

Abstract Background: Pharmaceutical companies and drug distributors are intensely scrutinized in numerous lawsuits for their role in instigating the opioid epidemic. Many individual physicians have also been held accountable for activities related to prescribing opioid medications. The purpose of this study was to examine the epidemiologic patterns of lawsuits against physicians charged with opioid-related crimes in the United States. Methods : We searched the Nexis Uni ® database for newspaper reports on physicians who had been arrested, indicted or criminally charged for illegally prescribing opioids between January 1995 and December 2019. Data collected from the newspaper reports include defendant’s age, sex, clinical specialty, type of crime and legal consequences. Results : The annual number of lawsuits against physicians charged with opioid-related crimes reported by US newspapers increased from 0 in 1995 to 43 in 2019. Of the 384 physician defendants in these lawsuits, 90.4% were male, 28.0% were 65 years and older (mean=59.5 ± 15.8 years), and 23.4% were charged in Florida. Of the 373 physician defendants with known clinical specialty, 243 (65.1%) practiced in internal medicine, family medicine, or pain management. Of the 248 lawsuits with known outcomes, 244 (98.4%) of the defendants were convicted of criminal charges and 4 were acquitted. Drug trafficking was the most commonly convicted crime (accounting for 54.2% of all convicted crimes), followed by fraud (19.1%), money laundering (11.0%) and manslaughter (5.6%). Of the convicted physicians with known sentences, 89.5% were sentenced to jail with an average jail time of 127.3 ± 120.3 months. Conclusions : An increasing number of physicians from a wide variety of clinical specialties is prosecuted for opioid-related crimes with high conviction rates and severe penalties. The most common crime charged is drug trafficking, followed by fraud, money laundering, and manslaughter.

The Reform Commission

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 258-262
Author(s):  
Todd Haugh
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Institutional Structure ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
Reform Initiatives ◽  
Federal Sentencing ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sentencing Reform

The United States Sentencing Commission has drawn much criticism over the years. Stakeholders have impugned the institutional structure of the Commission and the operation of the Guidelines, and they’ve even attacked the Commissioners themselves. While many of the criticisms are undoubtedly due, the current Commission has advanced a series of noteworthy reform initiatives aimed at reducing sentences. The most visible is the Commission’s recent proposed amendment that would lessen drug trafficking sentences across the board, but there are others. Because of the Commission’s efforts, which have led and capitalized on the reform movement, federal sentencing is on the cusp of becoming less punitive, less costly, and much less flawed than it has been in over a generation. In this essay, I briefly catalog the Commission’s recent efforts to reduce sentences, and explain how it has used nimble strategy to advance reform consistent with the agency’s values but also in a way most likely to succeed. I then offer some insights into why the Commission is now asserting itself more strongly as to sentencing reform than it has in the past, a welcome trend that I hope continues.

Bilateral Diplomacy: Rethinking the Jamaica-US Shiprider Agreement

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzette Haughton
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Negotiation Process ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Implementation Phase ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Complex Interdependence ◽  
Interdependence Theory

AbstractThe Shiprider Agreement — an important aspect of Jamaica-US bilateral diplomacy — represents the strength of diplomatic engagements that have been used to address the cross-border drug-trafficking problem. To substantiate this claim, this article examines the Jamaica-US Shiprider Agreement on three criteria.First, examining some examples of counter-drug cooperation before the Shiprider Agreement demonstrates that the fundamental basis for the Agreement is premised on a positive Jamaica-US relationship. This relationship, along with the stipulated obligations enshrined in the 1988 Vienna Convention, impelled the United States' proposal of the Shiprider Agreement. Second, the article uses complex interdependence theory to test the negotiation process and the outcome of the Agreement. Findings demonstrate that complex interdependence mainly confirms explanations of the foreign policy outcomes and diplomatic conduct displayed in the Jamaica-US Shiprider case. Finally, the article assesses the breakdown in the negotiation process and the initial implementation phase of the Agreement, arguing that this breakdown must be seen in context given the Agreement's successful ratification and its non-controversial continuation. The article concludes that despite the instances of breakdown, the birth and provision of the judicious Jamaica-US Shiprider Agreement owed much to the success of diplomacy.

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