Drug users have increased both nationally and internationally. Drugs/illicit drugs are substances that have both positive and negative impacts on the human body. Tye indicates the seven types of drugs include the following; stimulants, depressant, hallucinogens, dissociatives, opioids and lastly cannabis the worst of all. Each year millions of people die using illicit drugs. Drugs come in many shapes and forms, from illegal drugs to synthetic drugs which are easily accessed from the counter. Throughout this report, there will be some important points that will be covered. Such as; Vietnamese citizens are highly involved in drug consumption. The government and other higher-ranked officials have low power to control the issue or that they are being manipulated by the leaders of drug dealers and other associates. There the issue of supply and demand within the society making the prohibition and eradication of illicit drugs uncontrollable. Lastly, the poorer regions people addicted to drugs are perceived as lowly and treatment is scarce to some extent. Leading to no stoppage of drug users. Drugs are targeted by varying people in the country. It is encompassed by the youngsters, people are wealthy, individuals residing in urbanised regions. Although there are numerous penalties and consequences are in place for any criminal offence in terms of drugs, but the cases of drug smuggling and drug addicts are increasing in large numbers. Therefore, the governments must implement restriction and legislations that there is, at most fewer drug crimes and consumers.
The acquisition and utilization of drugs have become a great deal around the world and especially those countries that have the most in hands and are trading them to the vulnerable or reach countries. As it is known most of the drugs are taken in by the wealthy nations and produced and manufactured in the poor. Since the nation is exploited and they hold weak legal systems, the people have little to no choice but to join the agricultural poppy fields and survive their lives with the income. Vietnam is included as one of the developing nations, not fully developed yet. The country has a huge number of people all over the regions for its size and some people live in the worst conditions, who are the deprived and unfortunates. Therefore, big gangs and other drug thugs, like the Italian “mafia” usually the wealthy and exploiters within the drug community has large control over drugs. Vietnam produces and uses drugs. Most of the educated people have released the predictable conditions and harms the drugs would aggravate the human body, many the most important parts of the body, such as; lungs, heart and essentially the brain, which does most of the job. Illicit drugs are all illegal around the globe and have consequences and penalties implemented if the person is caught using any type. Similarly, it applies to Vietnam. Nonetheless, this condition had been in a place few decades ago and the country has dug deeper for policing the drug issue recently with appointing proper forces.
Drugs have widely been used in every nation from the beginning. With no proper legal accounts in place, it has been uneasy to track the drug suppliers and users. It then comes to Vietnam being one of the countries who has had every sort of drug founded and consumed. Drug availability and consumption has been observed in the Vietnam war, starting from 1955 and lasting for at least 20 years period. The veterans involved were Americans soldiers, who had been immensely using drugs and other highly addictive substance, this was to get allow them to have enough energy to bravely fight off the war. As much as there are huge amounts of drugs used in the society, the country is embedded with criminal offenders and activities. There is a great deal of supply and demand issue revolving drug cases. This provides adequate knowledge on the drugs being present and consumed from the start, perhaps even earlier than the war. The border of Vietnam is close to the countries that heavily cultivate opium poppy in their farms since the 1950s and 1990s. The countries which neighbour each other are known as the golden triangle. It includes the following countries; Laos, Thailand and Burma. These are the nations that have been largely involved in the production, trafficking and utilization of the drug. Chouvy asserts that trading has been happening since the beginning of opium poppy cultivation. Since these nations are bordered closely, it is much easier for them to trade the products or drugs in any form of transportation. Avoiding the eyes of the police and criminal agents throughout their operation as much as possible. Nonetheless, the Vietnamese government is powerful in making the right decision for the country and its citizens. It has taken cautions with drug issues. Many illegal acts measures and checkpoints have added in many regions where the smugglers enter and have access to. Hence, counting penalties and punishments are established at the prosecution process.
Many other cases could lead to war on drugs failing in Vietnam and any other Asian nations. Most likely, the issues are linked with each other. The consumption the highly intoxicated and the demand levels are extremely skyrocketing. The number of illicit drug users varies yearly, in 2013, according to Windle (2016, p.3-4) the number of addicts was reported around 181, 396 people, this was a rough calculation made, since the information taken was weak and there might have been even more people involved in the drug usage. Heroin tops its position in the consumption case. The best method of transferring the drug is through injections, which is also popular among every drug addict. Windle argues, the consumption of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) and new psychoactive substances (NPS) are skyrocketing yearly. The younger generation is prone to this matter significant and these addicts are young individuals who live independently in the urban areas. In the end, the people have the urgency and greed for using drugs, are ATS is highly addictive and tough to release oneself from it. This has resulted in the enlargement of drug smugglers and trafficker in the society. From the American perspective, it is clear that the war on drug seems to be hard in the western nations. Making the changes, such as closing borders on drug suppliers and raising the rate of the drugs, would create a huge conflict within the drug addict community. Actions such as the rise of the black market and the violence would heighten, and this would expand the smuggling of drugs making the eradication problematic.
The drug dealers or the gangs are clever on getting rid of being caught. These drug lords and criminals are rooted within the country and greatly influenced from the outer region, such as the neighbouring nations; Laos, China, Thailand and Cambodia to expand their markets, as well as polluting the nation. Even though they have recently eradicated this drug issue. But the drug has flourished through the help of the traffickers. Despite the rampant numbers of drug presence and consumption levels are decreasing within Vietnam with the government’s assistance. There is/are those individuals or groups of people such as gangs and so forth who are utterly trying their best to have the supply of drugs available in somehow in the community. Regardless of the country, the Vietnam government have encountered many of the drug dealers brutally. It has yet caused greater chaos with the expansion and growth of ATS and the NPS in the Vietnamese community reported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in early 2019. The whole concept of methamphetamine’s presence was brought by the golden triangle nations, who are incredibly famous for their various drug productions methods. Luong (2019) declares that the reach of illicit drugs stretches from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) nations to the oceanic countries, such as Australia. Although the drugs are made available in the country, Vietnam has knowingly become a type of route to the smugglers. The drug dealers who have been forced to stop their actions. They have taken other ways to make their way out and around in re relation to running their drug businesses worldwide. The traffickers and drug lords are embedded within the nation, covered from the eyes of Vietnamese officials and governments agencies. In a case, some of these drugs smugglers had been caught residing in regions with fake names and identities or living in disguise. The members were from Vietnam, China and Laos attempting to transport the drugs to other places. With all their efforts they were eventually arrested by the drug enforcement agencies.
Drug traffickers are dealt with severely if caught on the spot or smuggling. Since the Vietnamese government took serious steps on eliminating the supply and demand of drugs. They have created changes to the law, sentencing and death penalties are seen in the Vietnamese cells and prisons, filled with drug traffickers and dealers. Xinhua (2019) declared in the recent years' many cases, one when a person in his early 40s and his cronies had been found to have smuggled huge quantities of heroin the country and they were prosecuted and sentenced to death, this was by the Vietnam News Agency. Another case in which the criminals numbering around 13 individuals had been punished differently with the offences they had perpetrated. The Vietnamese court punished the five members are the seniors of the group, receiving execution, the four members have been prisoned for life and the last four acquired 20 years of jail service. There are other similar and ranging cases reported in different parts of the region, and the police and law keepers are cracking down rings of criminals as hard as possible.
The drug trade has been and is in the present day a widespread issue around the globe. According to ‘We Are the Drug Policy Alliance’, (2020) there has been countless encounters and battles against to stop it from spreading, still, it has the power to expand to many other non-drug-familiar regions. Vietnam on the other hand, although there are laws and legislation enforced within the country to decrease the number of illicit drugs entering and being consumed. The issues of synthetic drugs and narcotics come through additionally. Drugs are widely transferred to countries in various forms. With the trading of these drugs come millions of loss and benefits, those successful, receive the benefit through the spread of the drugs to citizens and addicts. Unless caught would come across significant life consequences, along with the loss of millions of dollars. Ketamine, a poisonous narcotic substance had been available as a form of pharmaceutical need in the country. Nonetheless, it has been made clear for anyone not to use the substance, for unpleasant physical and mental harm reasons. Synthetic drugs have been are similarly traded among the nations. A man in his mid-30s was caught by a police officer in the local area, he took away an amount close to 30,000 pills, created in the lab. The smuggler was prosecuted and detained for his crime. This incident was conventionally delineated by the online paper of Vietnam Plus. The capital of the country is enriched with the smugglers and drug traffickers, from illegal to synthetic drugs being made available in this city and others surrounding it. Many of the drug lords are based in the capital and have their production sites established in the different part of the city. Sen (2019) talks about a case in which, many of the illegal workers had been caught on the spot through major tracing and crackdowns by the drug investigators. In the scene, some Chinese men were captured during their production period of massive quantities of unlawful liquid formulas as synthetic drugs. Some Vietnamese subjects had been taken down too in the event.
In short from the early decades until recent years. The number of drugs users, traffickers, smugglers have been fluctuating. Every year accounts for ranging drug ratio in terms of consumption and existence. The war on drugs in many nations around the globe seem to be unwinnable because of several certain reasons. Such as demand and supply. The addicts are becoming more addict. The government of the countries with weak and ambiguous laws in place are unable to handle the issues of drugs. Many other causes lead to the decrease in the drug trafficking rate and increase in the consumption levels. Nonetheless, the Vietnamese nation is being strict with their drug laws. They are enforcing various regulations along with the implementations of rules and penalties applied on the perpetrators and precursors. They are ensuring minimal Physical and mental harm that is generated with the injection of the drug. Providing medical treatments to vulnerable or heavily addicted individuals. The country’s government and officials are attempting to lower the rate of drug crime in the following future.