Mr. President,

This year alone, an estimated $10 billion worth of drugs have been smuggled into the US through the Mexican border. This devastating amount of drugs supplies people across the country with illegal drugs. In a document released in 2015 by the Drug Enforcement Administration, they claim that Mexico’s criminal organizations pose the greatest threat to the US out of all the criminal drug groups. Drugs including heroin, cocaine, and marijuana are taken, illegally, on a regular basis from Mexico into the United States. They are smuggled through border checkpoints, in underground tunnels, and some through maritime and airplane methods. These drug smugglers bring illegal drugs and on top of that, violence associated with drugs. I can’t even begin to explain how important it is to stop the drugs from entering our country. Drug smugglers need to be stopped before this threat becomes too large to overcome.

The whole entire nation is affected by these drugs that are smuggled, as they make their way through the country. However, places near the Mexico-US border have higher amounts of drug related violence and easy access to drugs. I live in Southern California. Drug deals are common, and violence associated with it is also fairly common as well. Seeing a society that is so dependent on drugs makes me not only feel scared for what the future will be like, but ashamed of how many people continue to abuse drugs. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics: Drug and Crime Facts, in 2004, about 18% of federal inmates committed their offence to obtain money for drugs. This shows how many major crimes can be committed just because of drugs and money for drugs. With a large amount of drugs circulating in my city, the crime rate here is resultingly also high. The article, “Huge US-Mexico drug tunnel found in San Diego” informs us about a tunnel that was recently found connecting San Diego to Mexico. It was 800 meters long and used to transport multi-ton quantities of marijuana and cocaine. This proves that drugs are being smuggled into the US and that San Diego is specifically affected. I don’t want to live in a city where there are people willing to do anything to protect the drugs they are transporting and their money, which most drug smugglers are.

Judicial Watch claims, “The impact of Mexican drug cartels has been well documented for some time in a number of government audits, even as the Obama administration insists the southern border is secure.” This is basically saying that although the drugs in the United States have been confirmed to be from Mexico, President Obama still refused to admit it. This is important because you can’t solve an issue without first admitting that it is there. So Mr. President, your first step to solving this issue is simply understanding that these drugs are coming into our country, whether you like it or not. These drugs will continue to come into our country as long as there is a demand for them. The larger the demand, the more drugs smuggled into our country. With the demand in the United States for drugs so high, the supply is forced to become larger.

One thing that you can work on achieving in order to have a decline in drug smuggling is increasing border patrol, and ensuring that each person passing through the border is thoroughly checked out before allowing to pass. However, as I mentioned, as long as there is a demand, the suppliers will find a way to deliver the drugs. So another approach would be decreasing the demand. I think that you should further educate kids, specifically of middle school and high school ages, of the effect of these drugs. A common approach to school education on drugs is “Say No”. However, being an 8th grader, I know from experience that being told to say no to something makes you want to do it more. The same way that being told not to read something or look at something gives you the urge to do exactly that. This is why showing possible drug abusers what it is really doing to them and a possible glimpse at their future may discourage drugs much more than telling them to say no to drugs. Setting up an education system that will stop teens from being persuaded to do drugs may be the difference between whether our country revolves around drugs or not in the future.

So, it’s up to you Mr. President. Do you want to continue to ignore this issue and deny the fact that it is taking place in our country? Do you want people to continue to die from drug related violence and drug abuse? Or do you want to admit to what's going on at our border and stop it, saving tens of thousands of lives?