Detecting Killers


    While we justifiably spend a lot of recourses at airports trying to stop an invisible threat, a more observable killer continues to thrive. The killer we can normally observe and terrified to smell or touch, drugs. If we've learned anything about terrorism, it's the unfortunate truth that terrorists come in all shapes and sizes making them extremely difficult to stop. Likewise, as we've learned lately so can the drugs. As we continue trying to detect all killers at airports, a major observable societal problem continues to reveal itself and increasingly spread around the country. 





    We're asking a lot from TSA considering an airport is filled with so many people from all over the world. Given the nature of what an airport is and the state of the world, I'm honestly surprised to see airports operating at all. After visiting many of our streets in America, I can't find the words to express my disgust of this seemingly ignored tragedy. 



    

    Dogs have played a huge part in helping TSA with drug detection but a lot more can be done about the root problem. It's definitely no surprise to me that people want to keep their firearms while traveling but given the state of the country, I'm not so shocked by a lucrative poison either. What do we do? How do we fix this? First of all, we'll never be perfect and it's more about the effort than anything. For example, we don't have scanners to detect how someone feels on a given day yet we've deployed behavioral experts to the scene.





  While technology and TSA continue to improve airports, it's clear there's a major problem outside the airport. I feel the main driver behind the drug problems are due to a systematic failure causing mental health issues. We can increase security by using more dogs and maybe create an interview process but until we address the root problem, airports will become more and more unpleasant for everyone. It's overdue time to start detecting killers and helping people before the tickets are even purchased. By help, I mean actual help instead of expanding the criminal empire. There's no one way to help the many different people and situations, but we have the resources to do this. Having each case evaluated thoroughly with specialized therapy instead of throwing them in jail or rehab would be a great start. 



References

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/tsa-cocaine-in-raw-meat/index.html


https://www.tsa.gov/about/employee-stories/sniffing-out-danger


https://www.sfchronicle.com/us-world/article/sf-overdose-deaths-tracker-18207169.php

   


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