User:Dmillar23/sandbox

I. Need for revision & Topic Overview After reading through several Wikipedia articles, we observed that there were very few articles over the illegal drug trade in Latin America. The one article we found over the topic has very limited information and does not expand over the history of the drug trade in Latin America. The main focus of that article is the different types of drugs that are currently on the black market. Though there is sufficient information over certain drug cartels, our group would like to focus on the trade itself and then as a subtopic, evaluate the cartels that have made the trade what it is today. Therefore, we have decided to write our own article instead of editing the existing one because we’d like to address the drug cartels influence on the drug trade in general. This would allow us to address not only how the drug cartels operate but also their effects on the trade itself. If we chose to edit this pre-existing article, the majority of it would have to be overwritten (particularly the background information) and this would completely change its focus. In addition, the article’s purpose of informing the public of the different types of drugs on the market would be lost. Our plan on tackling this article would consist of examining the different patterns of the drug trade and analyzing the effect that the drug trade has effect on our current global society. For comparison reasons, we would focus on patterns of drug trade in the Americas (North, Central, and Latin America) over the course of different decades ( particularly the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s). Through this, we would be able to compare and contrast the different patterns of drug cartels.

II. Relevance What prompted us to analyze these different patterns of drug trade was the illegal drug trade’s contribution to a significant percentage of global trade. The information obtained from studying these patterns would then allow us to provide a basic understanding of the illegal drug trade’s effect on today’s global society. The illegal drug trade has had a strong influence on global politics today. Drug cartels have shifted the political scene in the last half of the 20th century and the early part of the 21st century. These organizations have spread violence throughout South and Central America, which has caused the mass immigration of Hispanic groups to the United States.

III. Planning In the process of creating a new article, there would be several key sections addressed. A background section would be necessary in linking the origins of the drug trade with its worldwide operation today. This background section would include the prohibition of the most common drugs today and the subsequent effect of this prohibition. A large part, something that the prior article lacks, is substantial information over the drugs themselves. The science behind these drugs is vital in understanding their demand in today’s society as well as understanding their effects, both physiological and psychological. The information given would not be entirely extensive due to links to main articles being provided. The article would also cover the role of various countries in the initial stages of the drug trade as well as the effect of these nations involvement in the trade when addressing current social, economic, and political issues. This background would provide an initial overview of our topic before delving into the complexities that would arise when addressing the subtopics.

IV. Subtopics The subtopics of this article are what will truly provide insight into our topic. Since there are a range of subtopics (they can be arranged in the main categories of culture, economics, and politics) it will be important for us to stage these subtopics in such a way that the reader will not become lost in our data, but also will be able to look at our topic from a greater view.

V. Culture Our group found that those subtopics that surround culture are especially important. We find this important because drugs, like any other product, have a specific target consumer population. Understanding the consumer culture behind these drugs will allow the reader to understand not only the demand for these drugs but also the great importance they’ve taken in today’s society. In this section there would be an inclusion of information on health as this would factor into explaining the demand. Under the large topic of cultural influence, consumers would not be our only focus. The culture of the producers (including farmers, middlemen, etc.) would also be explored as well as this tie with the Hispanic culture. This may form some difficulties. When trying to tie a matter of economics with a culture it is difficult to bring insight into something that could be very opinionated. This would bring our group to focus instead not on exploring Hispanic culture itself but instead on the recent events that have influenced it the role it played in the drug trade itself. An example of such would be exploring the political instability of Latin American countries, the influence it had on the Hispanic culture, and thus how this instability has been one of the driving forces behind the drug trade itself. By exploring the roles of drug culture from farmer to user, this will allow us to not just state the obvious facts but instead take into account the trade as a whole, particularly from the Latin American perspective.

VI. Economics From an economic viewpoint, discussing the drug trade might prove far simpler. In terms of data, our group will analyze the economic growth the drug trade has seen particularly in this century and the last. The data we would analyze would be rough estimates of the profits seen by major drug cartels due to the trade’s illegality, but it would be possible to still interpret how much the trade contributes to the overall GDP of certain nations. Studying the economics of the trade would also allow us to interpret who among the line of contributors of the product, truly profit from it and the costs that go into it on the part of the consumer. Aside from studying the financial perspective from the point of view of the producer and consumer, we would also analyze the money spent on combating the drug trade. This includes the countless amount of dollars spent by governments with their slew of agencies, task force, and military operations as well as the amount spent on detaining participants of the drug trade. Our group found this subgroup especially interesting because we believe it will beg the reader the question “Is the prohibition of psychoactive drugs beneficial to our society?” By writing this article, we strive to have the first part of this answered by our subgroup focusing on the cultural perspective while the second part should be answered by this subgroup.

VII. Politics The last major subgroup to be tackled would be one focusing in on the politics surrounding the drug trade. Our group would present this information by researching the governments that are majorly invested in combating the trade as well as the corruption that it has amplified in certain governments. When discussing politics we would have to focus on shifting attitudes and thus laws towards the prohibition of illicit drugs. We would also analyze how the prohibition of these drugs is carried out into law and police practices. This would include discussing the role of various agencies such as the DEA, CIA, and FBI in the war on drugs, thus the national scale of approach while also focusing on the smaller scale of the police force. Thus while having a large focus on the policies of the United States towards illicit drugs, we would also focus on countries that are large contributors to the trade and how their governments are combating illicit drugs as well. By dedicating a large portion of the article to the politics of the trade, we find that the reader will gain insight into the future status of illicit drugs in the Americas and by consequence other areas of the world.

VIII. Organization Since drug trafficking in Latin America has made a marked impact on the global economy in recent decades, we’ve decided to focus our research on its development over time. We assigned each person in our group a specific decade (80s, 90s, and 2000s) in order to holistically analyze various components of drug trade, which will allow each of us to understand how these components are interrelated. As a result, by specializing on each time period, we will have enough insight to present the information in a way that cohesively considers how each aspect (political, economic, and social/cultural) affects the other. Then, we can bring back the scope to observe to continuities and changes in drug trafficking over time and present its overall development.

IX. Anticipated Problems Potential problems that we could encounter in the development of this article would be due to the established patterns of trade from previous decades, which is not as available for the last past decade. With this section, there is a lot more room for interpretations and self-analysis since we cannot rely so heavily on sources. Another potential problem that we might face is that because the drug trade is illegal, the numbers that we research, whether they be the amount of money or the people involved in the drug business, may not be exact. The numbers that we will find in our research are not going to precise, but are going to be rough estimates that the government makes based of off information that they have acquired on the illegal drug trade. These numbers are going to be especially skewed for our most modern time period (the 2000s), since not as much intel has been gathered on the most recent drug cartels. Another problem that we might face is that we are focusing on a vast area that might prove to be overwhelming to analyze and find common patterns.

X. Conclusion Our interest in writing a Wikipedia article centering around the topic of the illegal drug trade in Latin America was drawn from the large stance illicit drugs take up in today’s global market. Because of its position, so many issues of today’s global society can be drawn from its role in politics, economics, and our broad global culture. While we currently have a detailed view of how to address this article, with the immensity of issues that must be addressed by writing this topic, this view could quite possibly expand. Our group’s goal is not to write a broad, vague, summary of the illegal drug trade nor a complex one but instead to focus on its devastating effects on a range of issues. This should then provide the reader the chance to not only be educated about the effects of the drug trade in Latin America, but the effect on their society as well. XI. Sources Sources: [1] Epstein, R. J. (1989). Drug wars in the united states. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 299(6710), 1275-1276. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/29706058.pdf [2] Aranda, S. M. A. (2013). Stories of drug trafficking in rural mexico: Territories, drugs and cartels in michoacán.Revista Europea de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe / European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, (94), 43-66. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/23408421.pdf [3] Akyeampong, E. (2005). Diaspora and drug trafficking in west africa: A case study of ghana. African Affairs,104(416), 429-447. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3518723.pdf [4] Gootenberg, P. (2012). Cocaine's long march north, 1900–2010. Latin American Politics and Society,54(1), 159–180. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2012.00146.x/abstract [5] CAMPBELL, N., & SHAW, S. (2008). Incitements to discourse: Illicit drugs, harm reduction, and the production of ethnographic subjects. Cultural Anthropology, 23(4), 688–717. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1548-1360.2008.00023.x/abstract [6] Martinez, R., Lee, M., & Nielsen, A. (2004). Segmented assimilation, local context and determinants of drug violence in miami and san diego: Does ethnicity and immigration matter?. International Migration Review, 38(1), 131-157. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/27645360.pdf [7] Guizado, C., & Restrepo, A. L. (2003). From smugglers to warlords: Twentieth century colombian drug traffickers. Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revue canadienne des études latino-américaines et caraïbes, 28(55/56), 249-275. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/41800191.pdf [8] Morris, S. D. (n.d.). Drugs, violence, and life in mexico. Informally published manuscript, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Retrieved from http://lasa-2.univ.pitt.edu/LARR/prot/fulltext/vol47no2/47-2_216-223_morris.pdf [9] Persin, M. (2007). Valle-inclán, modernity, and "high" culture. Anales de la literatura española contemporánea, 32(3), 625-654. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/27742515.pdf [10] Wolf, S. (n.d.). Origins and transformations of central american street gangs. Manuscript submitted for publication, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico. Retrieved from http://lasa-2.univ.pitt.edu/larr/prot/fulltext/vol45no1/wolf_256-266_45-1.pdf

[11] Campbell, H. (2008). Female drug smugglers on the u-s.-mexico border: Gender, crime, and empowerment.Anthropological Quarterly, 81(1), 2008. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/30052745.pdf?acceptTC=true [12] García, V., & González, L. (2009). Labor migration, drug trafficking organizations, and drug use: Major challenges for transnational communities in mexico. Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development, 38(2), 303-344. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/40553653.pdf [13] Deibert, M. (2008). Guatemala's death rattle: Drugs vs. democracy. World Policy Journal, 25(4), 167-175. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/40210133.pdf [14] Quinones, S. (2009). State of war. Foreign Policy, 171, 76-80. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/20684853.pdf [15] Garcia, R. R. (2003). Drug trafficking and its impact on colombia: An economic overview. Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revue canadienne des études latino-américaines et caraïbes, 28(55/56), 227-304. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/41800192.pdf [16] Bartilow, H. A., & Eom, K. (2009). Free traders and drug smugglers: The effects of trade openness on states.Latin American Politics and Society, 51(2), 2009. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/20622728.pdf [17] O'Neil, S. (2009). The real war in mexico: How democracy can defeat the drug cartels. Foreign Affairs, 88(4), 63-77. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/20699622.pdf [18] Taylor, I. (1992). The international drug trade and money-laundering: Border controls and other issues.European Sociological Review, 8(2), 181-193. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/522296.pdf [19] Naím, M. (2009). Wasted: The american prohibition on thinking smart in the drug war. Foreign Policy,172, 167-168. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/20684881.pdf [20] Chabat, J. (2010). Combatting drugs in mexico under calderón: the inevitable war. 205, Retrieved from http://cide.edu/publicaciones/status/dts/DTEI 205.pdf [21] Wolf, S. (n.d.). Mara salvatrucha: The most dangerous street gang in the americas?. Informally published manuscript, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2012.00143.x/asset/j.1548-2456.2012.00143.x.pdf;jsessionid=A4B66D0F0C50780623BDE3B73CB674EC. Dmillar23 (talk) 22:48, 20 November 2013 (UTC)