Ohio's Heroin Epidemic: Are Drug Cartels to Blame?
Mr. Nunez’s 11th grade economics class has been aiding Ms. Durkee’s 11th grade government class’s legislation plan for the heroin epidemic project by exploring drug cartel’s supply and demand. Being a STEM School, DRSS has been given a task to come up with a plan to combat Ohio’s heroin epidemic, by the Ohio STEM Learning Network. To solve this problem, the government students have been writing legislation with help from the anatomy and physiology students. Once this project is complete the final product will be presented to the Ohio STEM Learning Network in the spring.
For the economics portion of the project, students have been exploring how heroin impacts a person’s life through the budgeting project by planning out all expenditures after college and seeing how heroin impacts the salary people receive. Now, they are learning about how drugs are being made and transported throughout the United States and Mexico. To study supply and demand, the amount of a product producers and consumers want at a set price, the students have done research on how the various cartels operate. The most powerful drug cartels that were studied were Sinaloa, Jalisco, Knights Templar, Los Zetas, Juarez, and the Beltran-Levya.
To incorporate the economic aspect into the project, the groups researched the organization’s history, specifically the origins, founders, and how they rose to power. Many drug cartels use brutal practices to initiate their members, punish them for betrayal, and treat the native people. For example, the Knights Templar cartel would have people eat human hearts as an initiation ritual to see who would be truly committed. Furthermore the students researched the land the cartels controlled in Mexico, the presence in the United States, and the numbers and armament. The fourth of six aspects that were included was the cartel’s relationship with the Mexican government, law enforcements, and other drug cartels. The Jalisco cartel pays law enforcement officers to allow them to do their business. Along with the cartel’s relationships, the sources of income, such as main drug products, other business ventures, and amount of income, annually and total worth were included. Finally, the last component that was explored was production costs: input costs, labor roles and costs, and supply chain information.
After completing this project, students found that drug cartels were one of the main sources for Ohio’s heroin epidemic. Are drug cartels really to blame; or are the big pharmaceutical companies the ones who are really in charge? These questions will quickly be evaluated to come up with opinions for the legislation.
