1.1.4 Shipping

Certain strains of Cannabis that are unique to a particular area, such as Maui-wowie , hula-bud , Thai-stick s, northern lights, yellow cab , or Alaskan thunderfuck may be shipped great distances due to popularity and demand.

There exists on the United States' west coast a Cannabis "super highway" of sorts 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 WashingtonWashington is a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. It should not be confused with Washington, DC, the nation's capital. To avoid confusion, the state is often called Washington state . Although the state capital is Olympia, the largest c, 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 CaliforniaCalifornia is a state located in the western United States, bordering the Pacific Ocean. The most populous and third largest state in the U. California is both physically and demographically diverse. The state's official nickname is "The Golden State", wh and OregonOregon is a state located in the western United States bordering the Pacific Ocean, California, Washington, Idaho, and Nevada. Its northern border lies along the Columbia River and the east along the Snake River. Two north-south mountain ranges the Coasta. 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" helps 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 LALA La or la may stand for: la the feminine form of the in French, Spanish, Italian, and other languages lanthanum La , the symbol for the chemical element Laos ( ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code) Latin language ( ISO 639 alpha-2) Los Angeles, California Lo offer the lowest prices for the greatest quantities of Cannabis, whilst Tacoma, San Francisco, and LA 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.

1.1.5 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 .

1.2 Shroom trade

To be written

1.2.1 Harvesting

To be written

1.2.2 Distributing

To be written

1.3 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.

2 Artificial, or "hard" drugs

Artificial drugs in the form of liquids, powders, and pills, are as a general rule far, 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.

Here, "artificial" refers to drugs that must be processed (such as cocaine), extracted in small amounts from enormous quantities of plant material in order to get a potent product (such as opium), or simply do not occur in nature (such as LSD).

2.1 Acid trade

To be written

2.1.1 Production

To be written

2.1.2 Selling/distributing

To be written

2.2 Cocaine trade

Because of the extensive processing it undergoes during preperation, cocaine is generally treated as an artificial drug (all artificial subtances are derived from one or more natural sources anyway). Unprocessed cocaine, such as cocaine leaves may be bought and sold, and are thus treated as a natural "drug", but this is exceedingly rare. Therefore, powdered cocaine (its usual form) is what is being described here.

2.2.1 Harvesting & processing

To be written

2.2.2 Wholesaing

To be written

2.2.3 Cutting & distributing

To be written

2.3 Crack trade

To be written

2.3.1 Processing

To be written

2.3.2 Street selling

To be written

2.4 Heroin trade

To be written

2.4.1 Cutting & distributing

To be written

2.5 Methamphetamine trade

To be written

2.5.1 Manufacturing & wholesaling

To be written

2.5.2 Cutting & distributing

To be written

2.5.3 Crytal meth vs. lith

To be written

2.6 Opium trade

Opium is often thought by those unfamiliar with the drug to be natural, however in its potent form it is a "rock" drug not unlike crack, angel dust, or meth. Its natural form, the Asian poppy , is of such little potency that no human being could ever consume enough to achieve a high. Thus, like cocaine, the salable product is very much an artificial drug. More to be written

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.

3 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

• Colombia and other Latin American countries for mainly cocaine
• the Asian Golden Triangle of border areas of Thailand, Burma and Laos.
• The United States for Methamphetamine
• Afghanistan and border areas of Pakistan

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

4 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 accomplashed 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

5 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.

6 See also

• recreational drug use
• drug paraphernalia
• War on Drugs
• money laundering
• List of famous drug smugglers

7 External links

• Centres for Disease Control statistics on U.S. drug use
• U.S. Government guide to drug street terms
• U.S. Government guide to spending on illegal drugs
• U.S. DOJ history of illegal drug trade (rather self-serving and biased, represents DEA as triumphant over drugs)
• UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances from 1988, see http://www.incb.org/e/conv/1988/index.htm
• [1] The CIA and the CONTRAS

Pharmacologic agents

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