Drug Wars and Coffee Houses Paper - 1197 Words

INTL 4997: The Mexican Drug trade | Reading Response #3 | | | Audrey Robert | 10/31/2012 | | David Mares gives us insight into the political economy of drug trafficking in his book Drug Wars and Coffee Houses. To help us understand how psychoactive substances are organized and distributed, he uses the concept of a commodity chain. A commodity chain is the system that links consumption of psychoactive substances to everything that makes it possible, and proves that if something affects one phase of the system, the other phases are affected as well. Consumers and producers in this system depend on each other, and â€Å"neither one could exist without the other† (Mares, p.13). The whole system consists of various pieces that†¦show more content†¦These strategies include demand reduction, supply reduction, crime reduction, harm reduction, and civil rights protection. He states that while most countries want to pay attention to all of these, they may give priority to one in particular. There is demand reduction, which is basically attempting to reduce the demand for psychoactive substances and therefore set a chain reaction to where producers don’t make profit and so they turn to other means of making money. Mares states, â€Å"the ultimate expression of such a demand reduction strategy would be a population in which ‘just say no’ actually happens,† and he gives the example of fundamentalist Muslim countries in which people actually choose on their own or they are socially convinced not to drink or smoke. We can compare this strategy to supply reduction, where a country focuses on reducing the supply of drugs to consumers, which Mares explains as being both economically and politically attractive to policy makers. They assume that if the supply decreases, prices of these drugs will rise, and the demand will decrease. The focus is not so much on finding and punishing the people who use drugs but the people who produce them and â€Å"push† them on these â€Å"victim† drug-users (Mares p. 30). Supposedly this strategy could potentially focus on all the phases of the commodity chain leading up to the consumer; this includes money laundering, producing, andShow MoreRelated Legalization of Marijuana Essay1712 Words   |  7 Pagessame plant. Hemp is a form of cannabis, cannabis sativa L, which contains less than one percent THC; it is used to make clothing, paper, and building materials. Tobacco is smoked just like marijuana is smoked, rolled in paper or in a pipe. The only d ifference is that tobacco is legal and marijuana is illegal. The government spends billions each year on the war on drugs, yet it is still around. For people under the age of 21 it is much easier to get marijuana than it is to get alcohol. Although manyRead MoreWhat Are Three Men From Different Cultures1220 Words   |  5 PagesMidterm Paper Katelin Gephart Bellarmine University In this image are three men from various cultures. One appears to be from the Middle East, the other from China and the final from some American country. The American is in warrior regalia and is wearing a crown of feathers. Also with him is a bow and a bowl-like cup. He is not fully dressed and is standing up. By his feet is a large cauldron type device. The Middle Easterner and the Chinese guy are sitting down and are completely clothed in robesRead MoreJesus Made Today By Stephen J. Nicholas1359 Words   |  6 Pagesfor Christian gospel music was during the hippie era in the 1960s. During that time, gospel, youth, and music had merged together into songs that preached about Christ and love. Many people became Christians during that time to protest the ongoing war in Vietnam so it would make sense that they would start to make that a main topic in the music of that time. Hippies usually referred to themselves as the Jesus People (named by Duane Pederson who was one of the leaders in Los Angeles) which led toRead MoreEssay on George Washington Carver1242 Words   |  5 PagesMoses Carver plantation in Diamond Grove, Missouri. He spent the first year of his life, the brutal days of border war, between Missouri and neighboring Kansas. George was a very sickly child with a whooping cough, which later lead to his speech impediment, and he was tiny and puny. Georges father, James Carver, died in a wood hauling accident when he was bringing wood to his masters house one day. George was sick a great deal during his early years. In 1861, when George was one year old, raiders kidnappedRead MoreThe Music during the Hippie Movement1133 Words   |  4 Pagesduring the Hippie Movement Background The hippie movements of the sixties were driven by a plethora of factors. There were many new technologies that were being introduced in this period, a war against Communism around the globe, internal struggles against several types of injustices, a growing drug culture, and several other important developments. To say the least, it was a volatile period in American history and many sub-cultures were actively seeking to carve out new paths that were starklyRead MoreLegalizing Weed Essay2923 Words   |  12 Pagessystem of controlled distribution (â€Å"Still Crazy†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). Marijuana is really not as harmful as it has been made out to be. Oftentimes, brain damage or other severe harm is caused not by marijuana, but by impure samples (Thompson Interview). Some drug dealers pass off many other substances as marijuana, often with adverse consequences. Samples of marijuana have been found containing rat poison or household cleaners This is often the cause of many emergency room cases and deaths (PetersRead MoreCoffee And Its Effects On The World s Most Widely Consumed Beverages And One Of The Globe2735 Words   |  11 PagesCoffee is one of the world’s most widely consumed beverages and one of the globe’s most internationally traded commodities, prized highly as much for its pharmacological effects such as a useful source of caffeine as well as for it sociological role amongst consumers (Topik, 2009: 81). And yet historically coffee consumption never really grasped a strong role within Asian geographies, a region of the world highly dominated by tea as the go-to-beverage historically and socially. Thus it makes theRead MoreWhy Should The Federal Government Legalize Marijuana?1969 Words   |  8 Pagesgovernment legalize marijuana? For many years, there has been a war against society and the federal government on whether or not marijuana should be legal in the U.S., for medicinal and recreational purposes. There are so many positive aspects as to why it would be a highly viable asset to communities all over the U.S. Though there are some aspects to be looked at and taken into consideration when it comes to legalizing this drug, it still stands as an important fact that marijuana should be inRead MoreComprehensive Health Assessment Paper1716 Words   |  7 PagesCOMPREHENSIVE HEALTH ASSESSMENT OF M. H. 1 A Comprehensive Health Assessment of M. H. Nicole M. Henneberg Empire State College A COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH ASSESSMENT OF M. H. 2 The purpose of this paper is to discuss the results of a comprehensive health assessment on a patient of my choosing. This comprehensive assessment included the patient s complete health history and a head-to-toe physical examination. The complete health history informationRead MoreThe Island Of Jamaica, Jamaica1464 Words   |  6 Pagesinhabitants of Jamaica were the Arawaks who were from South America. Later on, in 1494, Christopher Columbus was the first European to explore the island. In 1510, decedents from Spain began to settle in. After the Europeans began to settle, they brought war and disease to the island and this greatly affected the Arawaks and eventually they died off. The British arrived in 1655 and took Jamaica from Spain. Then, in 1670 Britain took full formal control of Jamaica. Near the 1930s, Jamaica began to gain its