The

U.S. Federal Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fed ...

is an opponent of the

illegal drug trade The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs throug ...

; however, state laws vary greatly and in some cases contradict federal laws. The Organization of American States estimated that the revenue for cocaine sales in the U.S. was $34 billion in 2013. The Office of National Drug Control Policy estimates that $100 billion worth of illegal drugs were sold in the U.S. in 2013.

War on Drugs

The "War on Drugs" is a term commonly applied to a campaign of prohibition and foreign military aid and military intervention undertaken by the United States government, with the assistance of participating countries, and the stated aim to define and reduce the illegal drug trade. This initiative includes a set of drug policies of the United States that are intended to discourage the production, distribution, and consumption of illegal psychoactive drugs. The term was first used by

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

, and was later popularized by the media.

Minors

The U.S. government's most recent 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reported that nationwide over 800,000 adolescents ages 12–17 sold illegal drugs during the twelve months preceding the survey. The 2005 Youth Risk Behavior Survey by the U.S.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...

(CDC) reported that nationwide 25.4% of students had been offered, sold, or given an illegal drug by someone on school property. The prevalence of having been offered, sold, or given an illegal drug on school property ranged from 15.5% to 38.8% across state CDC surveys (median: 26.1%) and from 20.3% to 40.0% across local surveys (median: 29.4%). Despite over US$7 billion spent annually towards arresting and prosecuting nearly 800,000 people across the country for marijuana offenses in 2005 (FBI Uniform Crime Reports), the federally funded Monitoring the Future Survey reports about 85% of high school seniors find marijuana “easy to obtain.” That figure has remained virtually unchanged since 1975, never dropping below 82.7% in three decades of national surveys. In 2009, the Justice Department identified more than 200 U.S. cities in which Mexican

drug cartel A drug cartel is any criminal organization with the intention of supplying drug trafficking operations. They range from loosely managed agreements among various drug traffickers to formalized commercial enterprises. The term was applied when th ...

s "maintain drug distribution networks or supply drugs to distributors"- up from 100 three years earlier.

Women

Women are often involved in the illegal drug trade in the United States, typically in marginal, low-level roles.

Controversies

Monitoring

Environmental monitoring Environmental monitoring describes the processes and activities that need to take place to characterize and monitor the quality of the environment. Environmental monitoring is used in the preparation of environmental impact assessments, as well a ...

can be used to map trafficking. Trafficking of a substance tends to incidentally, disproportionately increase its nearby usage, and thus

excretion Excretion is a process in which metabolic waste is eliminated from an organism. In vertebrates this is primarily carried out by the lungs, kidneys, and skin. This is in contrast with secretion, where the substance may have specific tasks after ...

. This has been used to quantify trafficking into this country, and has also highlighted routes of smuggling through nearby countries which feed this country's large market for example,

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in ...

. {{ Unbulleted list citebundle , {{* {{ Cite journal , language = English , year = 2014 , publisher = Elsevier B.V. , volume = 490 , journal =

Science of the Total Environment ''Science of the Total Environment'' is a weekly international peer-reviewed scientific journal covering environmental science. It was established in 1972 and is published by Elsevier. The editors-in-chief are Damià Barceló ( Consejo Superior ...

, first5 = Levi , first3 = Pascaline , last5 = Yves , last4 = Sara , last3 = Helene , last2 = Thomas , first1 = Devault , first4 = Karolak , first2 = Nefau , last1 = Damien , issn = 0048-9697 , pages = 970–978 , title = First evaluation of illicit and licit drug consumption based on wastewater analysis in Fort de France urban area (Martinique, Caribbean), a transit area for drug smuggling , s2cid = 5477664 , pmid = 24914526 , doi = 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.05.090 , bibcode = 2014ScTEn.490..970D , This is cited by the following review: , {{* {{ Cite journal , language = English , year = 2018 , publisher = Wiley Periodicals, Inc. , department = Review Article , last = Hernandez , first = Felix , volume = 37 , journal =

Mass Spectrometry Reviews ''Mass Spectrometry Reviews'' (usually abbreviated as ''Mass Spectrom. Rev.''), is a peer-reviewed scientific journal, published since 1982 by John Wiley & Sons. It publishes reviews in selected topics of mass spectrometry and associated scien ...

, eissn = 1098-2787 , pages = 258–280 , title = Mass spectrometric strategies for the investigation of biomarkers of illicit drug use in wastewater , issue = 3 , doi = 10.1002/mas.21525 , s2cid = 206232532 , pmid = 27750373 , pmc = 6191649 , bibcode = 2018MSRv...37..258H

References

{{Reflist

External links

Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) {{Americas topic, Illegal drug trade in

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...