Drugs in the Global Community

Drugs & The Global Community

Dr. A. Dukuzumurenyi

Chemical Commodities
• Drugs are called Chemical
Commodities because:
– 1. They originally came from
plants or are derived from plant
substances.
– 2. They are bought and sold in
the marketplace and are subject
to the Law of Supply & Demand.

Chemical Commodities

• In the world today drugs fall
under two categories:
–1. Legal Drugs
–2. Illegal or Illicit Drugs

Legal Drugs

• Examples of Legal Drugs:
–1. Prescription Medication
–2. Over-the-Counter Medicine
–3. Alcohol
–4. Tobacco

Illegal Drugs

• Examples of Illegal Drugs:
–1. Marijuana
–2. Heroin
–3. Khat
–4. GHB

Illegal Drugs

–5. Methamphetamine
–6. Hashish
–7. LSD
–8. PCP

Illegal Drugs

–9. Anabolic Steroids
–10. Cocaine
–11. Ecstasy

International Sources of Drugs
• Marijuana-Producing
Countries:
–1. United States
–2. Guatemala
–3. Paraguay
–4. Ghana


–5. Nigeria
–6. South Africa
–7. Jamaica
–8. Haiti
–9. Kenya

• Cocaine/Heroin-Producing
Countries:
–1. Mexico
–2. Nicaragua
–3. Panama
–4. Colombia


–5. Ecuador
–6. Peru
–7. Bolivia
–8. Brazil
–9. Venezuela


–6. Morocco
–7. Syria
–8. Iran
–9. Afghanistan
–10. Pakistan


–11. India
–12. Nepal
–13. Bhutan
–14. Myanmar
–15. Burma


–16. Thailand
–17. Laos

Drugs: Global Connections

• There are no accurate statistics
on the production and sales of
illegal drugs.


• However, the U.S. Government
has estimates on the amount of
heroin, cocaine and marijuana
produced in other countries and
shipped into the United States.

• Almost all of the heroin sold in
the United States now comes
from three areas of the world.
–1. Southwest Asia
–2. Mexico
–3. Southeast Asia

• Southwest Asian opium is
processed into heroin primarily
in Afghanistan, Pakistan and
Iran.
• Until the mid-1980s this region
probably produced just under
50% of the U.S. heroin supply.

• Since 1985 the fraction of
heroin coming from Southwest
Asia has declined and may have
fallen below the production of
Mexico.


• In 1985 Illegal opium fields and
heroin labs in Mexico
accounted for a little over 33%
or 1/3 of U.S. heroin supplies
and increased in the 1990s to
40%


• From the Golden Triangle area
of Southeast Asia (Burma, Laos
and Thailand) comes most of
the rest of the heroin.


• In 1985 15% of the heroin in
the United States came from the
Golden Triangle. In the mid
1990s this number had grown to
nearly 40%.


• In 2000, 40% of the United
States heroin supply came from
Southwest Asia, 40% from
Mexico, 20% from Southeast
Asia and 20% from South
America.

• Almost 33% or 1/3 of the
available marijuana in the
United States comes from
Mexico, where it is grown on
both small and very large farms
controlled by large trafficking
organizations.


• Nearly 33% of the U.S.
marijuana supply is imported
from Colombia with smaller
amounts coming from Jamaica,
Belize and other countries.

• Both the quantity and quality of
“home-grown” U.S. marijuana
production has been increasing,
and the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA)
estimates that as of 1987, 19%
of the available marijuana was
grown in the U.S.


• From the late 1970s to the early
1980s, cocaine use increased
dramatically in the United
States.


• At present over 22 million
Americans have used cocaine,
and over a million more are at
risk for continuing or increasing
their use of cocaine.


• The cocaine industry in the
United States may be worth
well over $100 billion a year.


• Miami has become the symbol
of commerce in cocaine, and
stories of intercepted
shipments, huge profits and
gangland violence are well
known throughout America.


• Houston and Los Angeles are
also major sites for importation
and sales, but every major
American city has become the
scene of frequent cocaine
dealing.

• In 1986 the news media began
to focus on a new form of
cocaine, called crack or rock.
Compared to the snow-like
crystals of cocaine
hydrochloride, this solid form is
more easily transported,
divided, and sold on the streets.


• Widespread plantings of coca
fields in Peru and Bolivia in the
mid-1980s pushed their
production of cocaine ahead of
the traditional source country,
Colombia.


• By 1987 the DEA estimated
that Peru produced about
100,000 tons of coca leaf,
Bolivia about 50,000 tons, and
Colombia about 20,000 tons.

• The coca leaves are processed
into cocaine hydrochloride in
illegal laboratories located
either in Colombia, in the
country of origin (Peru, Bolivia,
Ecuador), or Brazil or
Argentina.


• Supplies of cocaine have
increased and the wholesale
prices have actually declined in
spite of major eradication
efforts.


• The business has come
increasingly under control of
larger organizations, the biggest
of which are Colombian.

Value of Illegal Drugs

• A lot is said about the street
value of illegal drugs. These
values are based on the
estimated final sale price, not
on the actual value of the
amount seized.

• If 100 pounds of marijuana is
said to have a street value of
$160,000 for example, you
have to assume that the
marijuana is separated into
individual doses, rolled into
“joints” and each joint sold at


• This is like calculating the
value of a ton of iron ore in
terms of the value of the
Cadillacs that could be made
from it. The realities of the
marketplace are quite different.


• There aren’t that many buyers
for 100 pounds of marijuana,
and they’re taking a big risk
just handling that amount of
contraband.


• The fewer buyers a dealer
works with, the less risk, so the
large dealer might, for example,
sell 10 packages of 10 pounds
each.


• If that pattern continued, the
next level would involve 100
people buying 1 pound each,
and finally 1600 people each
buying 1 ounce.

• Some end-users might then roll
up an ounce into individual
joints, smoke some and sell
some. In reality, the final
selling price for 100 pounds
would almost always total less
than $160,000.


• A common theme found in
stories about the illicit drug
trade relates to the high profits
and how easy it is to get rich
quick by becoming a drug
dealer.

• The profits are spread out over
a fairly large number of people
at several levels. The small
dealers at the local level often
make almost nothing, especially
if you subtract the amounts they
themselves use.


• The per sale profit is, of course,
larger for the people who deal
in larger amounts. But one does
not simply walk around with
100 pounds of marijuana in
one’s back pocket.


• To deal in these larger amounts
requires help in transporting,
protecting, and arranging deals,
handling the cash, and so on,
and more mouths to feed.


• There is no doubt that a few
people do indeed make fat
profits and live very well
( especially considering they
pay no income taxes on this
cash business).


• But it is a myth that anyone can
get rich in a hurry just by
deciding to take the chance and
sell illegal drugs.


• Efforts at regulating the illicit
drug market has resulted in
better organized gangs of
traffickers rather than in
reducing the size of the market.

• The size of the market is not
reduced because as drug
suppliers are arrested they are
replaced by other individuals.
As supplies of drugs are seized
they are replaced by new
supplies.


• A major factor in regulating the
size of the illicit drug market is
the size of the demand. To
properly regulate the drug trade,
the reason for the high demand
for the drugs most be
addressed.

Critical Thinking Questions
• 1. Why are illegal drugs in
such a high demand among the
rich and poor alike?
• 2. What can be done to
decrease the high demand for
illegal drugs?

Drugs in the Global Community

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