Paradise Lost

Hawaii, behind this picture perfect paradise, lies an altered reality, where drugs are destroying peoples lives. Tourists flock to Hawaii's pristine beaches looking for a taste of paradise, but it's also one of the top 10 states for illegal drug use. For many years weed, cocaine, and heroin were the drugs of choice especially on the surf scene, but since the early 90's, crystal methamphetamine or 'Ice' has flooded this Pacific chain of eight islands.

The majority of Hawaii's 1.4 million residents live on Oahu and the Big Island. Oahu is home to the state capital Honolulu. 'The 50th state' has the highest rate of crystal meth use in the entire nation. Unlike the mainland U.S., here people from all walks of life use meth. Meth is not confined to the ghetto. Hawaiian slang for meth is 'Batu' which means 'Ice'. It's a powerful synthetic stimulant produced from ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, a drug that can be found in cold and allergy medicines. It has a pretty much instant effect. Meth users experience an intense rush which can keep them up for days and frequently leads to paranoia and psychosis. The meth increases energy and users often exhibit repetitive obsessive behaviour.

 

In the late 80's, Asian gangs used Hawaii as a testing ground for meth and the drug quickly became popular. Crystal meth abuse costs the Hawaiian economy $500,000,000. In Hawaii, the U.S. DEA leads the fight against the drug. Ice consumes more law enforcement resources than all the other drugs combined. 51% of cases here are directly related to methamphetamine. A conviction for trafficking crystal meth can carry a 20 year prison sentence and a 20 million dollar fine! But with huge profits at stake, many are willing to risk life behind bars.

 

The Hawaiian islands are experiencing a meth epidemic. In recent years, the state has seen a shift in the drug supply chain from Asia to Mexico. In the early 1990's, it was coming over from Asia, but in the mid 90's it started to transform and the Mexican drug cartels started to take over. Simply because it's easier to traffic Ice across the U.S. - Mexican border than to smuggle it from Asia. Mexican drug gangs now control over 70% of the U.S meth market.

In 2011, drugs worth $531,285,893 were seized. The majority of drugs are imported, but the mainland is nearly 2,500 miles away, so dealers demand sky high prices. Honolulu international airport being the main gateway for drugs into the Hawaiian islands, approximately 90% of meth seized on Oahu arrives here. One of the other ways traffickers like to bring narcotics in, is through cargo. The Hawaiian islands import 85% of everything they need so drugs are easy to hide. Between 2007 and 2010, seizures of Ice increased by 89% and wholesale prices dropped, reflecting an increased availability of the drug.

 

Hawaii's Pacific Ocean location is 2,500 miles to the nearest drug production hub. Shipping narcotics to the island chain, Mexican cartels can make huge profits. In the state capital Honolulu, dealers sell at vastly inflated prices.

With drugs infused into Hawaiian society, and not everyone able to afford rehab, one of Hawaii's leading judges is transforming the judicial system; Judge Steven Alm, 'Hope' probation creator,

''Of the U.S., Hawaii is always one of the lower states for violent crime, usually in the bottom 10, but Hawaii is almost always in the top 5 for property crimes, such as thefts, burglaries, and stealing from tourists cars, and we are convinced that is because of our large drug problem. I would estimate between 80 to 85% of the cases in court involve drugs or alcohol''.

At the original sentencing, the judge has the choice of either sending somebody to prison for a number of years or putting them on probation - supervision in the community. The problem is that on regular probation, when people have tested positive for drugs there are no real consequences. 58.8% of men arrested in Honolulu tested positive for meth in 2011.

 

Judge Alm is changing the probation system so that there are direct and immediate consequences for drug use. If you test positive on probation for drugs on the 'Hope' probation scheme, you will go to jail that day (for a few days). Currently there are about 2000 felony probationers in 'Hope'.

''We had top quality research done on the programme, people in 'Hope' who are on the drug test hotline (random checks for those on probation) tested positive 72% less often than the people on regular probation; they got arrested for new crimes 55% less often than those on regular probation; and they got their probation revoked and were sent to prison 53% less often''.

 

With fewer people going to prison, the program is saving the state a hundred million dollars and helping to transform the lives of people who may otherwise have been homeless, in jail, or dead. While the demand exists and big profits can be made, there will however always be people willing to risk jail to supply 'Drugs Inc. Hawaii'.

Crystal Blue Persuasion

Illicit use of Methamphetamine began in the United States in the 1960’s. During that time clandestine labs began the production of speed, commonly known then as ''crank,'' and distribution began to spread throughout the United States via motorcycle gangs. Bikers who made their own meth used to call it crank because they hid the drug in the crank cases of their motorcycle engines.

Clandestine Chemistry 

In the 1980's, common cold medicines such as pseudoephedrine (hydrochloride), and Sudafed (the common nasal decongestant), were becoming increasingly popular on the shelves in pharmacies. The medication dried up sinuses and provided a jolt of energy. Before long, drug dealers found a way to transform the medicine into meth.

Crank isn't as clean or pure. This powdered meth is often cut with something else making it much less pure and thus less effective. The user has to ingest much more for the same effect crystal methamphetamine would give them. 

 

By the late 1990's it seemed that meth was being cooked up everywhere and in two years 35,000 meth labs were busted in the United States. Today, medicines such as ephedrine tablets now require prescriptions. While homemade productions in the U.S. have significantly dropped, the supply has not.

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Cocaine: Wealth to a few, Misery to millions.

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.

 

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.

 



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.



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

Cocaine cues and dopamine

In 2006 at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York, a set of experiments was conducted to discover the true nature of cocaine addiction. Mexican born scientist, Prof Nora Volkow, is one of America's leading specialists on drug addiction. She's on a personal mission to understand the cause of addiction, driven by memories of her alcoholic uncle. ''He was rejected by the system...not even being accepted from the perspective of him having a medical disease''.

 

Prof. Nora Volkow

What fascinates Prof Volkow is the nature of cocaine addiction. As late as the 1980's, many scientists and politicians believed cocaine was non-addictive, and she wants to prove them wrong.

 

She took fMRI images of people under the influence of cocaine to try and identify areas of the brain, and the proteins in the brain that get disrupted by use of drugs in people that lose control of their drug intake at the expense of everything else in their life.

 

 

Her images showed that cocaine changes the brains structure. ''Repeated exposure produces changes in the way that the brain gets connected, and functions that result in pathological behaviour'', and this is why she argues in favour of it being regarded as a disease.

 

Trying to understand the nature of this disease, Prof Volkow scanned hundreds of users and ex-users. While scanning the brains of ex-users she noticed an irregularity. When subjects were discussing cocaine their dopamine levels rose. She argues that you could make a case that people become addicted to the lifestyle of cocaine use. Their brains have started to respond to the lifestyle, that is; the environment, their friends, and their situations. Her team later conducted experiments to test the theory.

 

Subjects were placed in an fMRI scanner and shown images of people preparing and snorting lines of cocaine. Viewing the images resulted in a significant increase of dopamine levels in the brains of the subjects who were current users.

 

The neurological effect of cocaine

''When we exposed them with stimulants that have been linked with drugs, what we observe is a significant increase in dopamine signalling in those areas of the brain that drive the motivation of drug behaviour''.

 

Prof Volkow's research showed that cocaine is so addictive that simply showing images of its use is enough to increase a subjects dopamine levels and lead them into a relapse.

 

Law enforcement treats cocaine users as criminals rather than people suffering from a disease. Over the past ten years, the government in the U.S. has repeatedly slashed funding for drug rehabilitation programmes and increased funding for prisons. The result: a million Americans are imprisoned on drug related charges, costing the American taxpayer 12.5 billion dollars per year.

 

Prof Volkow believes that the government's approach of criminalising and imprisoning drug use without proper treatment is misguided and statistics support her claims. Cocaine users are likely to relapse after leaving prison and end up re-incarcerated with 40% of cocaine users and 77% of crack convicts being re-offenders.
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Volkow, N.D., Wang, G.J., Telang, F., Fowler, J.S., Logan, J., Childress, A.R., Jayne, M., Ma, Y., Wong, C.J. (2006). Cocaine cues and dopamine in dorsal striatum: mechanism of craving in cocaine addiction. Journal of Neuroscience 14; 26 (24): 6583-8