Cocaine is a global business. From coca farmers in Columbia, to trafficking cartels in Mexico, to crack slingers in Miami, to cocaine dealers in London, the supply chain of cocaine stretches around our world. For some cocaine is a way of life. Producers, traffickers, dealers, users, scientists, and cops are all part of this 300 billion dollar global industry.
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| Crack Powder |
Cocaine, a powerful stimulant that produces feelings of intense pleasure and wellbeing, is used in two main forms. Cocaine powder, snorted predominantly by middle class and up. Many of whom would believe that it's non-addictive and can enhance both work and play. Crack cocaine is sold in rock crystal form that can be heated and inhaled or smoked.
It is called 'crack' in reference to the cracking sound it makes when it is heated. It appeals to a lower class cohort due to it's price and availability and it delivers an intense high. However, smoking crack follows the laws of diminishing returns, the euphoria delivered by the first hit from a crack pipe is always the greatest. Users continue to smoke in an attempt to recapture the impact of that first hit.
The United Nations World Drug Report declares that there are up to 20 million cocaine users worldwide, with the majority snorting cocaine. Crack cocaine first emerged in 1984. Up until then, cocaine costing $100 per gram was seen as a drug that was the preserve of the rich. Crack revolutionised the cocaine business by offering a cheap, yet intensely powerful high for as little as $5. It soon swept through America's inner cities. Within a year, 5.5 million people had succumbed to this new addiction.
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Cocaine has long been seen as
synonymous with a glamorous lifestyle |
On the other side of the Atlantic in the U.K., crack cocaine has never really become as popular. The British population lean towards powdered form and use more than any other nation in Europe (EU Drug Agency Report). In the 1990's the appetite for cocaine in the U.K. exploded. Seen as a glamorous drug that enabled users to work and play harder and longer, cocaine became the drug of choice for Britain's middle class. Today, an estimated 38 tonnes of cocaine is being consumed in the U.K. each year.
Around the world there are an estimated two million people working as cocaine dealers. Selling cocaine in crack form can provide a good living but few make a fortune. The big fish are the traffickers who supply the dealers with the 900 tonnes of cocaine produced each year. They earn millions smuggling large shipments across international borders.
Cocaine dealt on the streets of London comes from the other side of the globe. From Columbia, cartels ship their product to depots they've built in Guinea Bissau, West Africa. The cocaine is then trucked to Morocco and into Spain, where it is sold to British traffickers who load it on trucks that are sent to the U.K. by ferry. Out of ten trucks, two are usually expected to be caught.
The cocaine trade wreaks havoc on countries around the world. Cash from the sale of coke has financed coups in Bolivia, fuelled guerrilla wars in Nicaragua and Columbia, and threatens the stability of the Mexican state today.
Every year 51 billion dollars worth of cocaine floods across the border into the United States. Mexican cartels purchase cocaine from Columbia where over half of the world's cocaine is produced. The cocaine produced by peasant farmers in Columbia is smuggled across the international borders by traffickers. Sold on city streets by dealers and to be snorted by the 1.9 million regular American users of cocaine. 360,000 of these are hard-core crack addicts. 25% of Americans who have used cocaine in the past year will develop a problem with it. Some will end up in prison and many will seek help for addiction.
Since 9/11, the U.S. department of homeland security reinforced it's border with Mexico by building hundreds of miles of fences and installing license plate readers at all points of entry. It's also increased border patrol units on land, sea, and air.
By the turn of the century, a wave of violence had spread through northern Mexico. The drug cartels fought each other for cocaine trafficking routes into the United States. In 2006 Felipe Calderon was elected president of Mexico. He pledged to take on and defeat the cartels responsible for plunging Mexico's northern cities into anarchy.
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| Felipe Calderon |
Calderon dispatched state police and troops to crack down on the operations of the cartels. When Eduardo Arellano Felix (Tijuana Cartel) was arrested, the leadership vacuum sparked a war for control of the cartels and their drug smuggling routes into the U.S. With many looking to be 'top dog', the war is brutal. In the 3 years following Calderon's election, another 15,000 people are gunned down.
However, the deaths don't deter people from entering into the illegal and violent drug trafficking business. There were hundreds eager to step into Eduardo's shoes and take over his trafficking routes by undermining his position. Up to 2013, the Mexican drug war has cost the lives of 60,000 people, with other reports putting it as high as 100,000 due to missing persons.
For the best part of the last 25 years, governments around the world have been fighting a war against cocaine. In Columbia, the American government has financed an eradication operation to reduce cocaine production in the country by 50%. Since 2000, the U.S government has poured five billion dollars into these eradication missions of cocaine superlabs, all to little effect. The amount of cocaine manufactured in Columbia remains the same today as at the beginning of the century.
No matter how many dealers are arrested, there will always be somebody else eager to take their place. Where there is demand, there will be a supply. Today, more cocaine enters the U.S. than ever before, with an army of dealers selling it to America's 7 million users and addicts. The war is relentless and the vast profits made from cocaine will undoubtedly continue to finance this global drugs business for the foreseeable future.
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''Cocaine is God's way of saying you're making too much money''.
~ Robin Williams
Dr. Ben Sessa (pictured), consultant Psychiatrist at Bristol University, wants to pick up where Sandison left off. Dr Sessa argues that ''the role of LSD can speed up the process of breaking down the client's defences''.
