TOW #19 - Why Trump's Wall Won't Keep Out Heroin

On February 16th of 2017, the New York Times published an article by Sam Quinones, a writer that focuses on criminal justice and the US-opiate epidemic, that tells of the reason that Donald Trump’s proposed border wall will not be able to keep drugs like heroin from entering the country. Quinones is an expert on the many ways that drugs like heroin are able to enter the US and spread sporadically, having written many works on the subject including a book titled, Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic. In the article, Quinones is able to prove the ineffectiveness of “the wall” through the employment of personal anecdotes as well as powerful factual and statistical evidence.

Quinones opens his article by talking of an interaction that he had with a farmer living in Sinaloa, Mexico. During an interview with the farmer, he had told Quinones that “he was caught smuggling black-tar heroin in his shoes at the Tijuana-San Diego border crossing.” (Quinones). This is hugely significant as the US Mexico border is already patrolled day and night by border officers and drug enforcement officers. Despite the great amount of protection that already exists at the border, these substances are able to pass through. The plan to construct a wall at the border will not do anything to keep these drugs out. If those that smuggle them have found ways to transport them with the current level of protection, there is nothing to stop them from doing the same again.

Furthering this point, Quinones later discusses the incentives that these smugglers have to continue to their operations. In the case of the farmer that he was interviewing, “he put a little more than a pound and a half of heroin in his shoes, clearing as much as $12,000 in a single trip to the States.” (Quinones). Since people just like this farmer have the ability to make a massive amount of money without very much product, there is clearly great incentive for these people to continue their operations. A simple farmer, many of whom are poor, can gain great money from smuggling. With such an easy job at present with such a large return, the people who have been smuggling drugs across the US-Mexico border for as long as it has existed, will continue to do so and will continue to find new ways to do so, despite what Donald Trump does.

Overall, I do believe that Quinones does effectively prove that there is no way that a simple wall is going to be enough to quell the opiate drug epidemic that is growing within the United States. Afterall, it will only temporarily slow the transportation.