1. Unemployment, shift-work, poverty, lack of education, selling drugs to supplement low paying jobs, single family households, and social instability are all variables that contribute to the drug epidemic in the United States. The majority of illegal drugs in the U.S. are produced in Mexico and transported to the U.S. Mexico’s extreme poverty and violence create the optimal atmosphere for drug cartels to recruit young influential males mired in poverty. The Mexican government’s campaign against violence has pulled resources to address crop cultivation. Thus, supply and demand are steadfast in the United States. The addictive nature of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamine along with the vast amounts of wealth generated from manufacturing
