Cops in Dayton, Ohio this week took down a reputed major Sinaloan trafficker, along with a bunch of cash and a million dollars worth of dope.
What this bust shows is that the larger Mexican cartels, which for a long time ignored heroin as a revenue generator, have in the last few years figured out the new market that exists in the U.S., created by the overprescribing of narcotic pain pills nationwide, and shifted priorities.
Through the 1990s and into the last decade, these cartels didn’t dabble too much in heroin. Other drugs were more popular and profitable. Plus, in Mexico heroin is viewed as about as scuzzy a thing as it in the United States.
That’s changed in the last few years. Mexican cartels, which already dominated on the western side of the U.S., have recognized the widespread opiate addiction among Americans and moved to take control of the markets on the eastern half of the U.S. that once were served mostly by Colombian heroin traffickers back to the 1980s — the same way Mexican cartels wrested the cocaine market from the Colombians in the 1990s.
Pills to heroin to Mexican drug cartels in areas that never had much of any – all in the space of 15+ years.
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“…new market that exists in the U.S., created by the overprescribing of narcotic pain pills nationwide…”
As a 30-year intractable pain patient, I’ve lived through the drug war, and I don’t agree with you. I believe the heroin market was created by the under-treatment of pain, and doctors abandoning pain patients and those who suffer from addiction, forcing them into to the unregulated, underground drug market. And you can see that the problems have only gotten worse since the DEA began jailing and convicting doctors and patients in the opioid war.
Oxy is an easy drug to blame, isn’t it? But doctors aren’t stupid. They knew that Oxy was an opioid and that opioids can be addictive. But even with all this alleged increase in drug abuse, the percentage of people who suffer from addiction has stayed about the same. No, Oxy isn’t to blame, and neither are opioids, pain patients, or doctors. Drugs don’t cause addiction — I think you know that. If one drug becomes unavailable, those who suffer from addiction will just try another. And because of the increasing restrictions on opioids, at the current time, many are choosing heroin.
The fact is that the opioid war is what has caused a drug overdose epidemic in the rich, white population, which is why it’s getting so much media attention. Tell me, do any poor, disabled people buy your book?
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I’ve been watching the industry since 2006 and adaptation is a constant. The cartels have shifted their border operations from Tijuana to El Paso to Arizona since I’ve been watching. And now it looks like the Caribbean is back in play again. Of course, they’ve had to mutate as the legal marijuana industry mutates in the US. I’m sure you saw the Washington Post article a while back about cartels pulling up marijuana and planting opium poppies. Now, they just grow pot in the U.S.: http://www.justice.gov/usao-co/pr/confronting-wave-illicit-marijuana-cultivation-federal-state-and-local-authorities.