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Illegal drug trade

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These lollipops were found to contain heroin when inspected by the US DEA

The drug trade is a worldwide black market consisting of production, distribution, packaging and sale of illegal psychoactive substances. The illegality of the black markets purveying the drug trade is relative to geographic location, and the producing countries of the drug markets (many South American, Far East, and Middle East countries) are not as inclined to have "zero-tolerance" policies, as the consuming countries of the drug trade (mostly United States and Europe) are. The economic reality of the massive profiteering inherent to the drug trade serves to extend its reach despite the best efforts of enforcement agencies worldwide. In the wake of the economic reality, the social consequences (crime, violence, imprisonment, social unrest) of the drug trade are undeniably problematic.

Origins

In jurisdictions where legislation restricts or prohibits the sale of certain popular drugs, it is common for an (illegal) drug trade to develop. For example, the United States Congress has identified a number of controlled substances with corresponding drug trades.

Most nations consider drug trafficking a very serious problem. In 1989, the United States intervened in Panama with the goal of disrupting the drug trade coming from Panama. The Indian government has several covert operations in the Middle East and Indian subcontinent to keep a track of various drug dealers. Some estimates placed the value of the global trade in illegal drugs at around US$400 billion in the year 2000; that, added to the global trade value of legal drugs at the same time, totals to an amount higher than the amount of money spent for food in the same period of time. In the 2005 United Nations World Drug Report, the value of the global illicit drug market for the year 2003 was estimated at US$13 billion at the production level, at US$94 billion at the wholesale level, and at US$322 billion based on retail prices and taking seizures and other losses into account.

Major consumer countries include the United States and European nations, although consumption is world-wide. Major producer countries include Afghanistan (opium) and Bolivia and Colombia (primarily cocaine declining in the past years; see below for further details).

History

The First Opium War was an attempt to force China to accept illegal drug trade from British drug dealing merchants to the general population of China. Although illegal by imperial decree, smoking opium was normal in the 1800s and was believed to cure many health problems.

Legal drugs like tobacco can be the subject of smuggling and illegal trading if the price difference between the origin and the destination are high enough to make it profitable. With taxes on tobacco much higher in the United Kingdom than on mainland Europe this is a considerable problem in the UK [1] Also, it is illegal to sell/give tobacco or alcohol to minors, which is considered smuggling throughout most M.E.D.C countries.

Prescription drugs

Some prescription drugs are also available by illegal means, eliminating the need to manufacture and process the drugs. (Prescription opioids for example, are sometimes much stronger than heroin found on the street, example: the group of the fentanyl analogs.) They are sold either via stolen or partly divided prescriptions sold by medical practices and occasionally from Internet sale. However, it is much easier to control traffic in prescription drugs than in illegal drugs because the source is usually an originally legal enterprise and thus can often be readily found and neutralized.

Internet and controlled substances

"No Prescription Websites" (NPWs) offer to sell controlled substances without a valid prescription. NPWs were first recognized by the U.S. Justice Department in 1999, indicating that such sites had been operating at least through the late 1990s. NPWs enable dealers and users to complete transactions without direct contact. While many NPWs accept credit cards, others only accept cash thereby further reducing any paper trail. Many NPWs are hosted in countries in which specific categories of controlled substances are locally legal (e.g. prescription opioids in Mexico), but because of the global nature of the internet, NPWs are able to do (mostly illegal) business with customers around the globe. In addition to prescription opioids, stimulants, and sedatives, steroids are often widely distributed. To date, no websites have been found offering directly to sell illegal drugs like heroin, illegal amphetamine or methamphetamine derivatives, or cocaine, however the police have uncovered several instances of dealers/drug rings using Craigslist personal ads to solicit drug business using code words and phrases. All other categories of drugs are readily available online.

2004 saw the conclusion of Operation Web Tryp, focusing on companies selling so-called research chemicals, legal psychedelic phenethylamines and tryptamines on the Internet.

Violent resolutions

Because disputes cannot be resolved through legal means, participants at every level of the illegal drug industry are inclined to compete with one another through violence. In the late 1990s in the United States, the FBI estimates that 5% of murders were drug-related.[2]

Many have argued that the arbitrariness of drug prohibition laws from the medical point of view, especially the theory of harm reduction, worsens the problems around these substances.

Trade of specific drugs

The price per gram of heroin is typically 8 to 10 times that of cocaine on US streets.[1] Generally in Europe (except the transit countries Portugal and the Netherlands), a purported gram of street Heroin, which is usually actually between 0.7 and 0.8 grams light to dark brown powder consisting of 5-10%, less commonly up to 20%, heroin base, is between 30 and 70 euros, which makes for an effective price of pure heroin per gram of between 300 and 2000 euros.

The purity of street cocaine in Europe is usually in the same range as it is for heroin, the price being between 50 and 100 euros per between 0.7 and 1.0 grams. This totals to a cocaine price range between 500 and 2000 euros.

Anabolic steroids

Main article: Anabolic steroids

According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, drug smugglers have an easier time smuggling them into the United States. When they have arrived in the United States, they are often sold at gyms and competitions as well as through mail operations.

Cannabis

A box of Cannabis
Main article: Cannabis (drug)

When cannabis is not grown in either large-scale 'grow ops' in warehouses and other large establishments, or grown for limited distribution in small-scale, possibly domestic operations, it is usually imported from Canada, Mexico or farther south. Most of the cannabis sold commercially in the U.S. is grown in hidden grow operations nationally with the majority grown in the Midwest or in the California area, which has some of the world's best soil for growing crops. Much of the cannabis in the United States is imported from Mexico, however this cannabis is usually low quality. The packaging methods used are crude often resulting in compressed or "bricked" weed. The cannabis imported from British Columbia in Canada known as BC bud is usually of higher quality than most of the cannabis grown in the US and is highly sought after. Around 40% of America's marijuana is grown inside of the country.

Psilocybin mushrooms

Psilocybe mushrooms grow naturally in most climates, thus this drug market is financially less lucrative, even though there is no doubt a certain kind of commercial growing of the Psilocybe mushrooms, half-legally in the Netherlands and illegally from different stages of maturity/manufacture of chewable dried mushroom tissue. Psychonauts will often grow these mushrooms or pick them for themselves as they are common to find in many places of the world.

Alcohol

Main article: Alcoholic beverage

In some areas of the world, particularly in and around the Arabian peninsula, the trade of alcohol is strictly prohibited. For example, Pakistan bans the trade because of its large Muslim population. Similarly, Saudi Arabia forbids the importation of alcohol into its kingdom, however, alcohol is smuggled in very high quantities. In other areas it is considered like any other beverage, and is legal, such as the USA.

Tobacco

Main article: Tobacco

The illegal trade of tobacco is motivated primarily by increasingly heavy taxation. When tobacco products such as name-brand cigarettes are traded illegally, the cost is as little as one third that of retail price due to the lack of taxes being applied as the product is sold from manufacturer to buyer to retailer. It has been reported that smuggling one truckload of cigarettes within the United States leads to a profit of 2 million U.S. dollars.[2]

The source of the illegally-traded tobacco is often the proceeds from other crimes, such as store and transportation robberies.

Sometimes, the illegal trade of tobacco is motivated by differences in taxes in two jurisdictions, including smuggling across international borders. Smuggling of tobacco from the US into Canada has been problematic, and sometimes political where trans-national native communities are involved in the illegal trade.

The kingdom of Bhutan made the sale of tobacco illegal in December 2004,[3] and since this time a flourishing black market in tobacco products has sprung up. In 2006, tobacco and betel nut were the most commonly seized illicit drugs in Bhutan. [4]

Opium

File:Afghan-Tajik border.jpg
Russian Border Guards seize smuggled heroin on the Afghan-Tajik border, circa 2004
Main article: Opium

International illicit trade in opium is relatively rare. Major smuggling organizations prefer to further refine opium into heroin before shipping to the consumer countries, since a given quantity of heroin is worth much more than an equivalent amount of opium. As such, heroin is more profitable, and much stronger, because heroin is made of the main naturally-occurring psychoactive substance in opium - morphine.

Heroin/Morphine

Main article: Heroin
Main article: Morphine
File:Mideastmorphine.JPG
Morphine powder

Heroin is smuggled into the United States and Europe. Purity levels vary greatly by region with, for the most part, Northeastern cities having the most pure heroin in America (according to a recently released report by the DEA, Elizabeth and Newark, New Jersey, have the purest street grade heroin in the country). Heroin is a very easily smuggled drug because a small quarter sized vial can contain hundreds of doses. Heroin is also widely (and usually illegally) used as a powerful and addictive drug that produces intense euphoria, which often disappears with increasing tolerance. This 'rush' comes from its high lipid solubility provided by the two acetyl groups, resulting in a very rapid penetration of the blood-brain barrier after use. Once in the blood stream, heroin is rapidly converted to morphine. The morphine then binds to the opioid receptors in the brain and spinal cord, causing the subjective effects. Heroin and morphine can be taken or administered in a number of ways, including snorting and injection. They may also be smoked by inhaling the vapors produced when heated from below (known as "chasing the dragon"). Penalities for smuggling heroin and/or morphine are often harsh in most countries. Some countries will readily hand down a death sentence for the illegal smuggling of heroin or morphine, which are both, internationally, Schedule I drugs under the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. In various Asian countries, including Singapore and Malaysia, heroin and morphine are classed by themselves and penalities for their use, possession, and/or trafficking are more severe than all other drugs, including other opioids and cocaine.

Methamphetamine (Meth)

Main article: Methamphetamine

In some areas of the United States, the trade of methamphetamine is rampant. Because of the ease in production and its addiction rate, methamphetamine is a favorite amongst many drug distributors.

According to the Community Epidemiology Work Group, the numbers of clandestine methamphetamine laboratory incidents reported to the National Clandestine Laboratory Database decreased from 1999 to 2004. During this same period, methamphetamine lab incidents increased in midwestern States (Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio), and in Pennsylvania. In 2004, more lab incidents were reported in Illinois (926) than in California (673). In 2003, methamphetamine lab incidents reached new highs in Georgia (250), Minnesota (309), and Texas (677). There were only seven methamphetamine lab incidents reported in Hawaii in 2004, though nearly 59 percent of substance abuse treatment admissions (excluding alcohol) were for primary methamphetamine abuse during the first six months of 2004.

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Methamphetamine is sometimes used in an injectable form, placing users and their partners at risk for transmission of HIV and hepatitis C[citation needed].

U.S. Government involvement

The U.S. federal government is a most vocal opponent of the drug industry and it has set the de facto international standards regarding the legality and illegality of different drugs[citation needed]. State laws vary greatly and in some cases defy federal laws. Despite the US government's official position against the drug trade, US government agents and assets have been implicated in the drug trade. [5] [6] [7]

Oliver North and Barry Seal were caught and investigated during the Iran-Contra scandal, implicated in the use of the drug trade as a secret source of funding for the USA's support of the Contras. Page 41 of the December 1988 Kerry report to the US senate [8] states that "indeed senior US policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the Contra's funding problem".

Highly decorated US military Special Forces veteran, Colonel Bo Gritz (retired) has accused the USA of collaborating with and supporting Manuel Noriega in his drug trafficking operations. In his book Called To Serve, Gritz details his role as a key US Government employee tasked with protecting the USA's relationship with Noriega.

Counter to its official goals, the US has been known to attempt to suppress research on drug usage. For example, in 1995 the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) announced in a press release the publication of the results of the largest global study on cocaine use ever undertaken. However, a decision in the World Health Assembly banned the publication of the study. In the sixth meeting of the B committee the US representative threatened that "If WHO activities relating to drugs failed to reinforce proven drug control approaches, funds for the relevant programmes should be curtailed". This led to the decision to discontinue publication. A part of the study has been recuperated[3]. Available are profiles of cocaine use in 20 countries.

Fiction

Drug smuggling was the topic of:

Films

Novels

See also

References

  1. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4355145.stm
  2. ^ Office of National Drug Control Policy. 2000. http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/factsht/crime/index.html
  3. ^ WHO/UNICRI (1995). "WHO Cocaine Project".
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