Week 6 EOC: Illicit

I found the documentary to be extremely eye-opening. I had no idea that it was such a huge problem to simply buy a knock-off handbag. In doing this, they referred to it as "touching the tip of the iceberg." While all narcotics are illegal to sell on the streets, by purchasing the seemingly harmless fake D&G sunglasses many women often buy, this could enable shipment of the drugs. The shipping orders filled with merchandise that is illicit, can often also include smuggled narcotics. Sadly, it appears that because this situation has become so huge, we cannot control it without taking down the legitimate economy as well. That is, if it can be controlled at all. So many people are involved in illicit merchandise sales. As many as 25 million people word in this industry, and that's in China alone. The documentary suggested that it has become intertwined with our legal economy. That makes it probably impossible to diminish. It's expanded into government, and nations worldwide. We probably have no for sure way of knowing what products are real and which are illicit, because somewhere in the production cycle, there's a possibility that one of the workers is involved in this trade. And, it's not even just drugs. The illegal trading of body parts, people, medicines, air plane parts and money is currently taking place! I fear the thought of no way to know what’s legitimate and what is not. When it comes to medications, this could be a matter of life or death. We need to be assured that our medications are valid; and if we could not be, there would sadly always be a possibility that we are consuming things that could be harmful, or at the very least, not helpful. What the hell could illicit trade mean for us in the future?