 These lollipops, above, were found to contain heroin when inspected by the DEA. In jurisdictions where certain drugs are illegal, they are generally supplied on the black market by criminal drug dealers in response to consumer demand. Drug dealers are stereotypically associated with organized crime syndicates, though they often work freelance in reality and bear no connection to organized criminal groups. The motivations for participation in the drug trade vary greatly depending on the specific drug. Dealers of "soft" drugs with relatively low profit margins such as marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms often cite the philanthropic desire to allow people to use such drugs in spite of their illegality as their motivation, with profit as a secondary factor, and tend to view drug prohibition laws as immoral restraints of personal civil liberties by the state. In contrast, dealers of "hard" drugs such as heroin and cocaine with more severe trafficking penalties, and consequently much higher profit margins, are more often motivated by greed.
Soft drugs
"Soft" drugs are generally drugs that can be harvested and consumed in a potent form with little or no processing, and which are perceived to have less potential for causing physical or mental health damage to the user than "hard" drugs. Marijuana is the most commonly cited soft drug; psychedelic mushrooms also fall under this category. Opium is usually not characterized as a soft drug; its high potential for addiction relegates it to the hard drug category. Many jurisdictions, particularly Canada and many European states, have chosen to place a low law enforcement priority on the prosecution of cases involving personal-use quantities of soft drugs, rendering them quasi-legal (though still technically proscribed). They are sometimes also allowed for medical purposes with a doctor's prescription (see medical marijuana). In other jurisdictions, notably in most of the United States, soft drugs remain strictly illegal, and a black market has developed to supply them.
Cannabis trade
Cannabis trade is often motivated by the principles of philanthropy, although simple recreational drug use and the profit motive also play enormous roles. In jurisdictions where cannabis is quasi-legal (e.g. most of western Europe, Canada, and the Pacific coast of the United States), black market prices for the drug are low and profits from its sale are modest; hence, more dealers in these places are motivated by a philanthropic desire to help others get high. By contrast, in areas where marijuana is still strictly proscribed (such as the eastern United States), black market prices are much higher, and profit motivation plays a much higher role.
Wholesaling
The wholesale market for cannabis exists on a variety of levels. Typically a "wholesale" purchase would consist of anything more than quarter of a pound, although legal definitions of "possession with intent to distribute" vary considerably between jurisdictions, and in some places, much smaller quantities of marijuana — or simply having marijuana in more than one container — may constitute legal intent to distribute, with concominantly increased legal penalties.
Due to different strains and different degrees of potency, along with different degrees of legal investigation and enforcement of anti-drug laws in different jurisdictions, the wholesale price of marijuana varies widely. For example, it is not unheard for low-potency Mexican "schwag" to be purchased by in multi-ton quantities. These type of purchases are executed by large poly-drug criminal organizations that work with other national and internaional crime cartels. The importers of these drugs also tend to be very violent and import other drugs such as cocaine, derived from South America, and heroin. In the United States the Mexico-US border is usually the source for these large wholesale transactions.
Higher grade marijuana tends to trade on a much smaller scale due to the nature of the product — higher potency means that less must be smoked to achieve the desired effects. Where a pound of schwag can go for $500 wholesale, a pound of high grade marijuana can fetch up to $4,400 a pound wholesale. High grade marijuana typically originates in small scale domestic indoor and outdoor growing operations. Imported high grade marijuana is also imported into the United States on a small scale from Canada or in some rare instances from the tropics and Mexico. Of course, some zealous traffickers will bring multi-ton shipments of this product as well. Many of these large traffickers are also associated with other much harder drugs, violence, and gangs. The typical indoor grower usually tends to be an otherwise law-abiding citizen who would not even consider violence or strong arm tactics in marijuana dealing.
In the majority of cases, a local grower will give cannabis to "distributers", each getting somewhere between a quarter ounce and one pound, who then divide it up and sell it to street-sellers. Because it costs very little to grow cannabis, and because the distributers are generally personal friends of the grower, any money made from this is almost 100% profit. Distributers can afford to distribute to sellers for as little as a dollar a gram, but typically charge half street value. The grower takes the most sizeable cut of the money, but the particulars and percentages vary depending on local market conditions, the individuals involved, and whatever agreement they come to. It is not unheard of for the grower to keep all the monetary profit and pay his distributers in cannabis (although in this case the assumption often exists that the distributers are keeping a small amount of the money for themselves without the grower's direct knowledge).
Law enforcement attention to these "lesser" wholesaling transactions is typically reduced; most law enforcement concern is over large-scale wholesaling and cartels.
Street selling
Selling can be somewhat profitable. For example, in the Northwestern USA (where cannabis is fairly common and therefore generally inexpensive when compared to other regions) an ounce of cannabis costs about $250. That ounce might be broken up into quarter ounces which usually sell for $80 each, eighths which might be sold for $40 each, or $20 bags which might contain 1.8 to 2.0 grams. Such a sale might yield as much as $70 in profit. Often, mainly for philanthropic reasons, a person might maintain low profits in order to facilitate wide-spread use of the plant. (Note also that these prices are for cannabis buds, or simply, "bud". "Shake" (leaves) is usually available in much greater quantities for much lower prices, but isn't nearly as potent.)
Dealers motivated more by profit may:
- Charge as much as $50 for an "eighth"
- Put only 1.0 to 1.5 grams in a "twenty bag"
- Sell an ounce for as much as $300
"Mark-ups" generally only work in high availability areas on those who are inexperienced at purchasing cannabis. More "seasoned" buyers in these areas would never, for instance, pay $20 for a single gram of cannabis. Local market conditions vary significantly with local supply and demand, and with the degree of local law enforecment attention to cannabis trafficking.
Shipping
Certain strains of cannabis that are unique to a particular area, such as Maui-wowie, hula-bud, Thai-sticks, northern lights, yellow cab, or Alaskan thunderfuck may be shipped great distances due to popularity and demand.
On the United States' Pacific coast, a cannabis "super highway" of sorts exists, along which most exotic strains are traded, anti-cannabis laws are relatively relaxed or aren't as actively enforced, and large numbers of growers reside.
At the northernmost end of this "highway" is Alaska, where northern lights and Alaskan thunderfuck are produced. Further south is British Columbia, home of the famous BC bud, which comes in a wide array of qualities and forms, the most desired of which is the hydrochronic, or hydroponically grown chronic. South of British Columbia is Washington, which is home of the annual Hempfest, has an extremely high number of local growers, and imports massive quantities of hydrochronic from British Columbia, Maui-wowie and hula-bud from Hawaii, Thai-sticks from Thailand, yellow cab from Idaho, northern lights and thunderfuck from Alaska via British Columbia, and red-hair bud from southern Mexico via California and Oregon. Washington is also famous for its chemo-bud grown at the University of Washington, including the elusive (and possibly non-existent) G-13. South of Washington is California, where consumption of Cannabis is likely as high (per-capita) as in Washington, and is thus a major player in cannabis trade. At the southernmost end is Mexico, which, although known mainly for its low-quality "dirt weed", facilitates the trade of highly potent strains from southern Mexico and Central America into the United States.
Along this "super highway", major cities such as Vancouver, BC, Tacoma, San Francisco, and Los Angeles offer the lowest prices for the greatest quantities of cannabis, whilst Tacoma, San Francisco, and L.A. offer the greatest variety of exotic strains. These exotic strains become increasingly rare and expensive when one moves into the smaller surrounding towns. Away from the west coast as a whole, the cost of even low-quality or "schwag" cannabis may be double what one would pay for good-quality cannabis in, for instance, Washington.
High-demand strains
Some greatly sought-after (and often more expensive) strains of Cannabis include Alaskan thunderfuck, BC bud, chemo-bud, G-13, hula-bud, hydrochronic, Maui-wowie, mystic creeper, northern lights, popcorn bud, purple kush, Thai-sticks, white rhino, and yellow cab.
Trade jargon
- The Death Weed refers to extremely potent Cannabis.
- The Kill also refers to highly potent Cannabis, though not necessarily as potent as "The Death Weed".
- The Chronic refers to Cannabis which is highly potent but not unusually so. In other words, the highest quality one can find on a semi-regular basis for roughly the same cost as mid-grade Cannabis.
- Bud simply refers to the buds of the Cannabis plant. Bud may be high or low quality depending on several factors, not the least of which is sex (female buds are far, far more potent than the weaker and less tasty male buds).
- Shake refers to the leaves of the Cannabis plant, which are impotent. "Shake" also refers to small pieces of cannabis that have flaked off of buds ("bud shake" is just as potent as buds, contrary to popular belief).
- The Schwag refers to low-quality bud. Often dry and brownish in color rather than lush and green (however, looks can be deceiving).
- Dirt Weed often refers to brown, withered looking buds which are usually impotent, although potent "dirt weed" is not completely unheardof. This term is seldom used synonymously with "outdoor" (see below).
- Indoor is Cannabis grown indoors. Sometimes pronounced "indoe", sounding much like the Latin endo, which has a similar meaning when spoken as "indoe-weed". This term generally does not include hydroponically grown Cannabis, which is in a class of its own.
- Outdoor, sometimes pronounced "outdoe" or instead called exo (to contrast with endo), is Cannabis that has been grown outdoors.
Mushroom trade
To be written
Tobacco trade
The illegal trade of tobacco is motivated primarily by increasingly heavy taxation, and to a lesser extent by smoking bans in public places. 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 piled on as the product is sold from manufacturer to buyer to retailer. Meanwhile, the sale of tobacco, legal or not, seems motivated almost entirely by addiction, with social/recreational motives being the cause of initial consumption.
Hard drugs
Artificial drugs in the form of liquids, powders, and pills are as a general rule far more addictive and damaging than natural drugs. The trade of these hard drugs is driven mainly by the economics of greed and often by poverty, and in many cases by addiction, though there are some exceptions to this. Due to the severe penalties for the possession and sale of hard drugs, and the consequently immense profit margins possible through the sale of hard drugs, many organized criminal gangs exist to smuggle them into the United States and Europe.
Here, "artificial" refers to drugs that must be processed (such as heroin and cocaine) or simply do not occur in nature (such as LSD). A few "natural" drugs such as opium are considered "hard" drugs in spite of their minimal required chemical processing due to their highly addictive character.
LSD trade
LSD is a highly potent hallucinogen which is synthesized artificially. The availability of LSD in America dropped sharply circa 2000, when two distributors alleged by the government to have been manufacturing 95% of all LSD available in America were captured (see LSD).
Cocaine trade
Because of the extensive processing it undergoes during preparation and its highly addictive nature, cocaine is generally treated as a hard drug, with severe penalties for possession and trafficking. Demand remains high, and consequently black market cocaine is quite expensive. Unprocessed cocaine, such as coca leaves is occasionally bought and sold, but this is exceedingly rare as it is much easier and more profitable to conceal and smuggle the concentrated processed form. Therefore, powdered cocaine (its usual form) is described here.
Most of the cocaine smuggled goes out in large quantites but smaller gangs will often send out a mule, often a young woman, with kilos of coke strapped to her waist or hidden in her bags. If she gets through the gangs will make most of the money. If she gets caught they never knew her.
Colombia still produces around 75% of the world's cocaine. There is so much money in the business that whilst cocaine is illegal the trade is unlikely to ever be stopped.
Harvesting & processing
To be written
Wholesaling
Organized criminal gangs operating on a large scale dominate the cocaine trade. Most cocaine is grown and processed in South America, particularly in Colombia and Peru, and smuggled into the United States and Europe, where it is sold at huge markups.
Cutting & distributing
To be written
Crack trade
To be written
Processing
To be written
Street selling
To be written
Heroin and opium trade
Opium is the dried latex resin of the opium poppy. Much of the world's opium is grown in Afghanistan and the Golden Triangle region of southeast Asia. Its strictly natural form is of such little potency that no human being could ever consume enough to achieve a high; the resin requires minimal processing involving boiling in water, filtering, and drying. Illicit trade in opium is relatively rare, since major smuggling organizations prefer to further refine opium into heroin. A given quantity of heroin will be worth much more than an equivalent amount of opium; therefore trade in opium is comparatively rare, since heroin is much more profitable.
Heroin is manufactured through the chemical processing of opium, and smuggled into the United States and Europe.
Cutting & distributing
To be written
Methamphetamine trade
To be written
Manufacturing & wholesaling
To be written
Cutting & distributing
To be written
Crystal meth
To be written
The illegal drug trade and crime
Because of physical dependence, the high cost of illegal addictive drugs is one of the major causes of crime. Some estimates placed the value of the global trade in illegal drugs at around four hundred billion U.S. dollars in the year 2000.
Major consumer countries include the United States and European nations, although consumption is world-wide.
As with legal commerce, the illegal drug trade is multi-layered and often multi-national, with layers of manufacturers, processors, distributors, wholesalers and retailers. Financing is also important, generally involving money laundering to hide the source of the illegal profits. All of these are made more complex by their illegality, but the normal laws of economics still apply, with the efforts of law enforcement regarded by the drug trade as an extra business cost.
The drug trade is a very fragmented industry with the most popular product, cannabis, being grown locally by many individuals with little collaboration. Similarly, drugs like LSD with very low profit margins are sold more for philanthropic reasons than for profit. The main organized drug cartels deal with cocaine, heroin, and MDMA, and it is these that are the primary focus of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration. Largely manufactured drugs also induce the foundation of satellite organizations that supply some of the needed chemical precursors. In places where alcohol is illegal, such as Saudi Arabia, it may also be the subject of illegal trading. In the United States during Prohibition, trade in alcohol was dominated by the Cosa Nostra.
Some prescription drugs are also available by illegal means, eliminating the need to manufacture and process the drugs. Prescription opiates for example, are sometimes much stronger than heroin found on the street.
They are sold primarily via stolen or unscrupolous prescriptions sold by illegitimate medical practices and occasionally from Internet sale. However, it is much easier to control traffic in prescription drugs than in illegal drugs.
Legal drugs like tobacco can be the subject of smuggling and illegal trading if the taxes are high enough to make it profitable.
Because disputes cannot be resolved through legal means, participants at every level of the illegal drugs industry are liable to compete with one another through violence. Some of the largest and most violent drug trafficking organizations are known as drug cartels.
The most well known recent groups were the Cali Cartel and the Medellin Cartel in Colombia and the Juarez Cartel, Tijuana Cartel and Tamaulipas Cartel in Mexico.
Manufacturing and processing
Illegal drugs can be broken down into two major classes: those extracted from plants, and those synthesized from chemical precursors.
For the first class, such as marijuana and cocaine, the growing area is important, and substantial farming is needed for mass production.
For the second class, such as MDMA and methamphetamine, access to chemical precursors is most important.
Major drug farming and manufacturing countries include
Synthetic illegal drugs can either be manufactured in the country of consumption, or abroad.
For the most part, the manufacturing of botanically-based drugs consists of several layers which may be isolated or conglomerated: growing and harvesting, initial botanical processing, chemical processing, and final processing.
The initial botanical processing prepares the plant for chemical processing, by cutting, drying if applicable, separating parts with a low concentration, and etc. The chemical processing extracts the drug, and the final processing sizes it, provides assurance of quality, packages it, and may convert it to another form (such as crack from cocaine).
Of course, there is a lot of transportation that goes into it, as well. The botanical extracts must be conveyed to the...
Distribution and wholesaling
There are two primary means of distribution: a hierarchy and a hub-and-spoke layout. A hierarchial arrangement includes the manufacturer who uses his own men to smuggle, wholesale and store, and distribute the narcotics. A hub-and-spoke layout takes advantage of local gangs and other localized criminal organizations. The cartel is at the center, with satellite organizations that may provide certain services to the manufacturer, and then there is a plurality of distinct groups, each with its own chain.
Smuggling is typically accomplished via small boats and yachts, air vehicles, and by gangs paid with a chunk of the merchandise.
Wholesalers routinely accept the materials from the smugglers (often more than one and of varying types), cut it, and sell it to the distribution chain or chains. For the most part, wholesalers are not individual people. It is typically an expansional endeavor by already-established rogue enterprises, especially Mafias and, rarely, gangs. The more experienced instances may remanufacture the wares to increase (or decrease, because profit comes from cutting) the purity, mixing it (a few may fabricate amalgamated, specialty products at fleeced prices), or altering the chemical composition of the material (such as freebasing cocaine). Wholesalers may also manufacture and disseminate general contraband, including non-narcotic controlled substances (like date rape drugs), paraphernalia, and any panoptic, high-demand item that they may receive.
Distribution may traverse a selectively choosen group of cartel employees who purchase from a wholesaler and utilize a prominent population of "mules," or it may encompass a heavy chain of users who are selling to finance their own use.
- to be written -- topics include:
- smuggling
- →opium smuggling against laws of China in 19th century, w/regard to Howqua, Forbes family, Cabot, Perkins family, Russell and Company, Opium War
- security problems similar to distribution of other high-value materials
- and hence gang-on-gang crime
Retail selling
"Street" selling is the bottom of the chain and can be accomplished through purchasing from prostitutes, through cloaked retail stores or refuse houses for users in the act located in red-light districts which often also deal in paraphernalia, dealers marketing merriment at night clubs and other events, or directly from dealers who have purposefully engaged adolescents (typically). Many users sell in order to fund their own drug use. Although most are in it for the monetary outcome, some view narcotics dispensing and consumption as a means of insurrection and orchestrate it for that cacoethes. They refrain from intensive processing and abstain from umpteen 'business' practices. Although most dealers market to a changeless customer base, these mavericks may be overly advertised on hacker/phreaker/drug/etc. forums and between friends and cohorts.
See also
External links
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