AMERICAN FIRST DRUG EPIDEMIC
1850-1914

When Chinese immigrants came to California in the 1850s to work in gold mines and then on the railroads, they brought opium smoking with them. It would be another twenty years before the "sporting" classes--gamblers, prostitutes, actors--began to join them.

As more and more Americans patronized opium dens and became addicted, communities responded with alarm and concern, especially when women and young people were among the curious. Cities and then states began passing anti-drug laws. Opium use spread steadily east, until by the 1890s, opium dens were commonplace in American life.

At a time when medicine was relatively primitive, doctors and patients gratefully embraced the array of opiates like morphine, laudanum (alcohol suffused with opium), paregoric (alcohol, opium, and camphor), and codeine. These drugs were easily obtained, and there was great enthusiasm and casual use. The widespread adoption of the hypodermic syringe made for faster,

more potent delivery of morphine. As one turn-of-the-century morphine addict bemoaned, "At first, habit only binds us with silken threads, but alas! these threads finally change to links of strongest steel."

RISE OF MODERN DRUG CULTURE
1960 - 1970

By the 1960s, the great majority of Americans had forgotten the lessons of the first drug epidemic. Moreover, the new Bohemians, Beat literary types, were sending a very different and powerful cultural message: drugs and altered states were part of being hip, social rebels. By encouraging a whole generation to see drug use as "normal," these cultural icons consigned millions to re-learn the painful consequences of rampant drug use--even as the drug menu was expanding to include amphetamines and psychedelics. When many of the 76 million baby boomers embraced not just drugs, but also dealing and trafficking, the drug culture exploded.

The U.S. Government responded with new laws and new anti-drug units, culminating in the creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1973.

THE DEA TODAY
 

Society and government responded to the whirlwind of cocaine and crack--with its incredible violence and social destruction--by passing two new omnibus drug bills that promised an infusion of resources into all aspects of the drug problem. The sheer magnitude of new addicts and street-level dealing, along with the extraordinary wealth and power of the Colombia and Mexico-based drug mafias posed a gigantic national challenge. In the decade since, America has slowly but steadily developed new anti-drug strategies and tactics, whether through demand reduction programs, workplace drug testing, emphasis on money laundering and conspiracy cases, or an increase in law enforcement’s ranks.
Today, drug gangs from Mexico dominate many aspects of the American drug trade. In the late 1980's, the cocaine mafias turned to long-established drug traffickers along the 2,000-mile Southwest border to help smuggle cocaine across to America. For decades, small-time Mexico-based mafias had trafficked in marijuana and black tar heroin. In the 1980's, thanks to Colombia-based traffickers, they expanded into cocaine and became far more powerful. Paid at first in cash, by the late 1980's, the Mexico-based gangs were being paid in cocaine. And so, they began to carve out their own distribution systems. In the mid-1990s, traffickers from Mexico further expanded into met amphetamine, a market they quickly came to dominate. Starting on the West Coast, they have been rapidly expanding, saturating region after region with this highly addictive drug. Like other traffickers who preceded them, the traffickers from Mexico depend on high levels of violence and corruption.

Hashish and heroin use soar in 2006

A PICTURE OF DEATH

IT IS NOW WHAT WILL WE DO ABOUT IT?

We can use part of the military upon their return from Iraq to intercept drugs arriving at our borders. Lengthy prison sentences for anyone caught dealing with drugs and severe lifetime sentences for three-time offenders. Education in our school system starting in the sixth or seventh grade levels or possibly earlier to teach and show the results of drug use.

Large amounts of illegal drugs were seized throughout the country in 2006; say security sources, which spoke on the condition of anonymity. While a variety of drugs were seized, the bulk of the shipments were of hashish and heroin.  “The security forces seized in 2006 more than 2,100 kilograms of drugs, mostly hashish and heroin, from the various govern orate in Yemen. In addition, it seized 41,000 prescription pills of various sizes and uses.”

The government has recently stepped up its efforts to combat drugs, which resulted last year in one of the largest drug busts in recent memory. In one incident last July, security authorities in Aden destroyed 1,052 kilograms of hashish and other drugs, including heroin, the value of which was estimated at YR 526 million. “Such quantities of drugs were seized thanks to efforts by policemen in the government who fight the phenomenon of trafficking drugs between Yemen and the neighboring countries,” said Chief of Aden Security Department, Colonel Abdullah Qairan.

“In cooperation with security authorities, many outlets, which had been used for transporting these harmful substances, have been controlled by the concerned bodies in the government and civil community organizations,” he added The security forces added that 221 suspects are on trial, and awaiting their verdict on drug selling. Most of the suspects imprisoned are Yemeni, while four are from other Arab countries, and 14 are from other foreign countries.

Ten of this last group was Pakistani. They were caught in Mahra government, in a bust that apprehended 25 suspects, who allegedly imported drugs from foreign counties across the vast Yemeni coastline. According to the authorities, a large proportion of the drugs that enter Yemen come through Pakistan. Dr. Wadee Azazi, a specialized professor in economics says that the reason that drug use is not as widespread in Yemen as it is in other countries in the region is because qat is seen as a light and cheaper replacement for other drugs.

Also, due to poor economic situations in the country, the majority of citizens don’t consider drugs an option. “If it wasn’t for the wide spread of qat in Yemen, we would have seen the use of drugs at least ten times more than what it is today. In neighboring countries, it has become a phenomenon to their economies and fatal to their lives.” According to a study conducted by the Yemen Polling center, over 21 percent of Yemenis don’t have enough money to buy food for their families. 

Even though Yemeni people do not tend to be heavy users of any other drugs other than qat, Yemen is still a major route in taking drugs to different countries in the region. “The coast line of the country is very long, which makes it an easy route for many drug dealers to enter the substance in the country. Even though security forces re guarding the coastline, dealers still find ways to enter drugs in the country one way or another,” said Azazi. Considering the strategic location of Yemen, drugs are usually shipped from Southeast Asia through the Gulf of Aden and other coasts around the country. From there, they can be shipped to numerous gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and other countries in the region. 

Most of the country’s drugs naturally pass through the cities nearest to the sea. Hodeidah and Aden and Sana’a are among the major places in the country where drugs can be found.  Aden is also considered to have the highest number of drug users in the country, according to local observers. Drugs are often sold in clubs, certain hotels, or occasionally, you will notice prostitutes themselves selling drugs, therefore attracting more customers, and being in a position to influence the use of drugs among local who contact them.

These customers by time ask for more as time goes on. Hashish is 30 to 50 times more expensive than qat.  Cocaine on the other hand, has fewer users yet; the number is increasing dramatically, especially among the wealthy of the society.  “It spreads quicker and quicker by the day. One would not believe the dangers of its spread until it reaches his own beloved ones,” said Ali Saleh al-Salami, a father who caught his son using hashish, three years ago while chewing qat. He never believed that his own family would be affected by the spread of drugs.”

I realized that the money that I used to give him, was the cause to try drugs in the beginning and than use them on a regular basis,” he adds. The drugs in Yemen are sold at the same price as in other countries in the region, even though the economic situation in the country is poorer.  According to drug experts in Yemen, the amount spent on drugs in Yemen on a monthly basis exceeds YR180, 000, or $800, twice the yearly domestic income for an average Yemeni citizen.

Over the last four years, the government has started awareness programs against drugs, in an effort to crack down on their spread around the country. Workshops have been conducted, and booklets have been passed out in schools. Officials hope that soon, these efforts will bear fruit, and fewer people ever before will try drugs.