One of my stories was about a Colombian veterinarian who smuggled liquid bags of heroin into puppies back in 2005, he was a fugitive until very recently and now is doing his time in jail. He tried to smuggle the puppies into the United States and they were found in New York City. However you have to think about this, this man was a trained veterinarian. In practice they can make a huge paycheck, obviously I have no idea how Columbian veterinary practices go but I can imagine it is still a big amount of money, So is this a question about making money, or just smuggling drugs out of a gang perhaps. Because to even get that much heroin you would need serious connections. So is he doing it for the money out of necessity or out of force? Because it’s troubling to think someone would willingly abuse animals just because they can. It makes me think about the war against drugs and how people in Colombia are still being heavily affected and almost controlled by drug cartels. Obviously no where near as much as before however it is still prevalent. So it leaves me thinking about the lengths people go to smuggle drugs, because even though it’s illegal it is a huge business world wide and the United States is one of the biggest consumers of these drugs. Recently Spain, or portugal maybe, have come out with not fully banning these drugs all the way, but setting up better rehabilitation centers and laws for those facing addiction. Frankly this is much better than sending people directly to jail because there is no help that way, people can’t learn from their mistakes if that is how they are punished. However it must also be considered that this is one of Colombia’s main exports and a big reason as to why people would grow poppy over other plants. Not always because they want to but they know it will make money to survive. So it’s a big question about how can people learn to be independent from growing, using, and selling.
