| The economic downfall has negatively affected local communities, neighborhoods, and businesses throughout the United States as a consequence of high unemployment rates, collapse of the housing market and financial cutbacks. The distribution of methamphetamine by drug traffickers has been a continual problem and an economic crisis may be used as a tool by drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) to thwart law enforcement. The focus of this phenomenological study was limited to law enforcement personnel who work in the Greater Houston, Texas metropolitan area. Twelve federal, state and local law enforcement supervisors and field workers participated in the study. Qualitative phenomenological data was used to explore the participant's proximal knowledge of methamphetamine trafficking. The timeframe chosen to be studied was 2005-2008, as compared to 2009-2010. In 2005, signs of an unstable economy surfaced and by mid-2008 the onset of the crisis peaked. The economic downturn continued until 2009 when it ended and since 2010, the economy overall has tried to remain stable and not endure further economic instability. The study collected data through face-to-face interviews which were transcribed and coded using Nvivo 8 qualitative analysis software. Five themes emerged from the participant's insight of this phenomenon which are (a) methamphetamine trafficking is more dependent on importing in 2009-2010, than it was in 2005-2008, (b) due to the increase of Mexican cartel involvement, drug-related violence has increased in 2009-2010, in comparison to 2005-2008, (c) legislation reduced the number of domestic producers of methamphetamine in 2005-2008, as compared to 2009-2010, (d) drug prevention programs are neither prevalent nor effective, and (e) rehabilitation programs are not successful due to methamphetamine's addictive qualities and irreversible effects. The findings revealed that participants believed methamphetamine trafficking has increased since 2005-2008, as compared to 2009-2010. The findings further indicated the changing economic climate has had little to no dynamic effect on methamphetamine drug trafficking patterns. While the study purpose was achieved, future investigation focused on expanding qualitative studies similar in design to multiple geographical regions of the country, and conducting a quantitative study to obtain a different perspective of the phenomenon from a larger populace for a comparative analysis. |
