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Taking Stock Of The Global Illegal Drug Trade
How’s the global “war on drugs” progressing, you ask?
Not so good, according to the UN Office of Drugs and Crime’s most recent World Drugs report, which tracks overall trends as well as more granular data on the trafficking and use of specific illicit substances.
Specifically, one out of every 20 people the world over used illegal drugs in 2013, for a total of 246 million but, as the UN cheerfully notes, “because of the increase in the global population, illicit drug use has in fact remained stable.” Here’s more:
According to the most recent data available, there has been little change in the overall global situation regarding the production, use and health consequences of illicit drugs.
Furthermore, the increase in global opium poppy cultivation and opium production to record levels has yet to have major repercussions on the global market for opiates. This raises concerns about the size of the challenge to law enforcement posed by increasingly sophisticated and versatile organized criminal groups.
First, a look at the big picture, which shows that not only has nothing changed, but if anything, the number of drug users and prevalance of drug use has risen over the last decade.
Meanwhile, 2014 was the second 'best' year for opium production since "the late 1930s", and as you can see from the chart below, "this was mainly attributable to the fact that opium poppy cultivation reached historically high levels in the main country in which opium poppy is cultivated, Afghanistan," which means that the trend we highlighted last August (namely that poppy cultivation has risen sharply since the beginning of the US occupation) has continued unabated.
And as a morbid reminder:
Finally, here's a look at trafficking flows for opiates, coke, and meth:
Time to legalize it?
* * *
Bonus chart: Is this what happens when you replace all the carbon based traders on Wall Street with machines?
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Prescription meds like Oxy have finally done their job and everyone is converting over to Heroin. All the cool kids are doing it around these parts.
"Luckily, the amount of heroin I use is harmless, I inject about once a month on a purely recreational basis. Fine. But what about other people less stable, less educated, less middle-class than me? Builders or blacks for example. If you're one of those, my advice is leave well alone. Good luck."
-Christopher Morris
http://www.examiner.com/article/china-announces-they-will-be-setting-new...
I would guess everyone, including fetuses, uses illegal drugs.
Your body makes some of them.
kosovo
rumor has it , the genetic manipulators
have designed a new and tweaked out yeast
that creates an opiate type substance
as part of it's fermentation process...
home brewed heroin , anyone...
These maps are 100% proof that a cashless world society is impossible to implement. That is assuming that those substances aren't legalized...
Surely a 'coincidence' that Opium production in Afghanistan was at a low when the Taliban were fully in charge. After a dozen years of Amerians there, we're hitting record levels......
A new 'heroin epidemic' occurring at the same time the feds are cracking down on Oxy prescriptions......no relationship there.... but a guaranteed way to increase heroin consumption.
Meanwhile look at all the Opiates going into the Balkans on the map above - with no routes shown coming out...... What about all the rumors of Opium being flown into Kosovo and refined there - and flown out..... NOTHING at all to do with CIA or US planes..... just like NOTHING was happening in Vietnam and Laos with heroin during the Vietnam War or wit Cocaine during the whole CONTRA episode......
All those Yalies involved with the Opium trade to China..... and all those Yalies that went to work for the OSS - and its successor...... purely a coincidence...... great fortunes made from the vices and sins of others......
You can't help but wonder at the genius of having people pay for their own SOMA - and having it be illegal. It's a win-win-win all around..... sedating the increasing numbers of unemployed workers (thanks to 'free trade') and keeping them from rioting........providing huge profits to the approved suppliers at the wholesale level.....while feeding the prison-industrial complex with the small fish (an ever growing pool of 'criminals' using those illegal drugs).... while providing justification and funding for the never ending 'War on Drugs' .........while also justifying increased police powers and decreased citizen rights.
Where do I get my blue pill?
You can't un-take the red one!
Holy crap, you mean it's coming in through that southern border they refuse to close? Go figure.
Except for the cops, who are confiscating and using as many drugs as they can seize.
http://tbo.com/health/defense-ex-state-college-cop-stole-drugs-to-feed-a...
I just started 6 weeks ago and I've gotten 2 check for a total of $2,200...this is the best decision I made in a long time! "Thank you for giving me this extraordinary opportunity to make extra money from home. This extra cash has changed my life in so many ways, thank you!" www.earnmore9.com
Sure, let's legalize krokodil.
It's Darwinian.
Or just decriminalize everything... It's Jeffersonian ;-)
What percentage of CIA black ops are funded by drug profits?
What percentage of Drug Cartel profits pour into congressmen pockets to ensure that marijuana is kept illegal?
What percentage of black mail money pours out of SCOTUS pockets to the NSA/ Congress?
What percentage of that is paid by gladius17?
Not a fucking cent.
How much taxes does gladius17 pay on his illegally grown weed?
Not a God damn dime.
How many fucks does gladius17 have to give?
Zero.
What percentage of bank profits come from laundering CIA/drug money?
The Deep State has one hell of a pension program..... (on top of the official government pension)
HSBC would be the guys to ask - Born of the Opium Wars - dealing drugs & laundering the proceeds for themselves and others ever since.
Some analysts recon that it was only drug money prevented the collapse of the banking system in 2008.
HSBC: estimated $ .5 to $1 trillion in money drug laundering biz.
Wachovia (owned by Wells Faro): estimated $378 billion in drug money laundering biz.
And only Satan knows the amount done by JPMorgan CHASE!
An article a couple years ago had it at so many billions that without them the banks would die. (HSBC the highest)
And banking co-operation is essential due to the amounts.
Let us assume for a moment MrBoompi is being serious [if not, please ignore all the following] --- then he/she is the ideal example of the indoctrinated "Tom Clancy" no-brain indoctrinated moron so typical in America today [again assuming she/he/it is an American].
The fanciful notion that "black ops" (oooooohhhhh, that term sounds sooooo kewl) has to be funded by covert means, when trillions have routinely gone missing from the DoD and pretty much all other gov't agencies, beggars belief in the consummate Ameritard ignorance!
In the world of 8-year-old level fiction, those poor, patriotic spies must concoct clever means to protect the sheeple of Amerika against their enemies, or enemas, whatever the mindless case may be.
I simply can't believe anyone seriously believes this shit today!
Smoking a plant that grows naturally or eating mushrooms that grow in the wild is only illegal if you believe that your Government has authority to rule over you.
So true! Gave you two upvotes. How? Glitch in the matrix.
Right , the US nazi SCOTUS says you can now marry the ass you stick it in and you must buy healthcare insurance from Obama, who by the way will marry the dick that sticks in his queer ass. But you go to prision for plants. Fucked up.
Do what you want, but be aware of the consequences.
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/02/25/282631913/marijuana-...
The idea that smoking pot has no ramifications for some of the population (perhaps 20%) does not hold up to scrutiny. The numbers are similar to alcohol. Also, pot is a gateway drug for many.
For many it is no big deal, but for a significant minority pot is bad news.
sschu
It's not about what it does to you. It's about having the choice. It's not the Government's job to be the harbinger of morals. No doubt weed can cause harm however it is up to the individual to decide whether to spark up or not.
Tried it once - for 40 years!
it is up to the individual to decide whether to spark up or not.
Some people are not capable of making good decisions on these issues and require help. Alcohol is so destructive, it seems making it more accessible so those who are unable to handle it so they can "decide" is a formula for disaster. We have that now and pot is heading that way.
Romans 14 - weaker brother. Unfortunately for a LOT of folks we are going the wrong way on these issues.
Take a real look, prohibition was actually a rousing success … unless your livelihood was based upon selling to drunks.
schu
"Some people are not capable of making good decisions on these issues and require help."
Die slowly in a fire.
Some people are not capable of making good decisions
Wow! thats just what Larry King said about Healthcare, and why we need Obamacare
Last time I listened to Larry King was back in 1978, when he, and some moronic fellow NY Jew were trashing American military and American military vets.
Never liked idiots. . . .
By your logic you would have to ban everything that could possibly hurt anyone. This is so wrong.
You can just write a guide for those people incapable of thinking for themselves. (Thats also how and why they made the bible)
You DO NOT have to criminalize literally everyone else who actually is capable of choosing their own fate, it makes no sense whatsoever. It's all for profit and control, not to help anyone. Free country my ass.
Why anglosaxons crave for drugs especially opium ? Earlier Brit were controlling opium Trade from Asia now US doing the same stuff in Central america and Afghanistan ( was deliberately attacked only for opium poppies production ) . Maybe western banker cahoots love snorting fine drugs .
Methinks you don't know what the Old Nordic term "berserkers" means.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2dtwlx_ancient-black-ops-s01e05-viking...
methinks you are right i didn't .
Illegal drugs is good business. It is not as if the authorities are going to bust their bankster buddies. Here is an example of a Canadian bank getting in on the deal, close and personal, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-10-20/scotiabank-to-buy-cont...
“The more we looked at Colombia, the more excited we got about the economic potential,” Brian Porter, Scotiabank’s group head of international banking, said today in a telephone interview. “This is not the Colombia of old, it’s a very, very different country.”
That would be the Dunedin study http://dunedinstudy.otago.ac.nz/
There is a better correlation between early lead poisoning (from paint and then leaded gas) and reduced IQ/antisocial behavior (smoking pot is considered antisocial).
It may be that the youths taking up smoking pot are in fact unknowingly self-medicating to mitigate the effects of lead poisoning.
Lead damages the myelin sheath in the developing brain, sufferers of MS also display myelin sheath damage, sufferers of MS find relief in smoking pot.
Whilst correlation is not proof of causation, it seems a bit too coincidental and would normally be subject to investigative research except you can't research that cuz pot is illegal.
I only consumed domestic drugs. Buy american!
Where would the world be
without the
'war on drugs, terror, and extremism'?
Stoned, dead and emulating Asmodeus.
not sure whether to downvote you for implying the wars on drugs and terror actually work, or upvote you for "Asmodeus"...
It was about curtailing your freedom, not drug use. Mission accomplished, bitchez.....
How to traffic drug money through the Clinton Foundation under overseas political cause donations 101.
Well, with the antics of SCOTUS, TPP, TPA, destruction of Southern culture, and general fuckery, this article is the best news I've seen this week.
Skeptics don't have much wiggle room between the facts about Afghanistan post-US invasion and the skyrocketing drug trade in that region and the conspiracy theory that US intelligence is involved in the drug trade.
no infographics for cannabis?
The last chart is classic!
Should check Ramstein Airbase in Germany and Incirlik Air base in Turkey . both USAF bases that are places where Afghanistan heroin comes thru.
Should check Ramstein Airbase in Germany and Incirlik Air base in Turkey . both USAF bases that are places where Afghanistan heroin comes thru.
I worked for a company that made toilets and sinks. They are owned by a company out of Columbia, South America which, supposedly, also makes toilets and sinks. The company that I worked for had a 500k s.f. warehouse. They had made a deal with US Customs that if they maintained some minimum level of security, Customs would allow them to ship goods from Columbia to America and vice versa without inspections. I heard that shortly prior to my employment there, someone found a backpack full of marijuana in the warehouse. They decided to play it in the open by notifyng the local smalltown sheriff. He had his 15 minutes of fame doing an investigation. Found nothing. The tie between the CIA and the Columbian drug trade is pretty well established. American "assets" have even been used to guarantee that the right "gang" dominates the trade and some have lost their lives doing so.
Now, while this company did make lots of toilets and sinks, their Columbian owners were unwilling to invest much into our plant. As I learned more about the deals with Customs, I realized what a perfect vessel toilets would be for sealing large quantities of "powder" inside for shipment to the US. And, no border inspections. I'm sure there were a lot of palms being greased along the way. I believe that the toilet factory was just a cost of doing business.
The IMF expects Columbian growth in the range of 4-5%. If Customs gives this kind of deal numerous times around the US, that growth should be guaranteed. Buy growth shares in the CIA.
You should infiltrate the company and snatch up a few of those special toilets for yourself.
Drigs are great. When we were kids we could hitch-hike to anywhere across the US and fit right in with other kids that did drugs. Now we can travel anywhere across the US and meetup with those same kids in AA.
College students today are very straight compared to prior generations.
LOL! Yeah, my old lady's kids think we're crazy. Love the comment about AA.
Check out that opium chart (Taliban rule ended in 2001) - opium must flow...
I wonder how TTP, TTIP and TISA will boost the flow of these substances...
Might I recommend a couple of Prof. Alfred W. McCoy's books:
"The Politics of Heroin / CIA complicity in the global drug trade"
'War on Drugs / Studies on the failure of U.S. narcotics policy"
I do laugh, even when I'm shaking my head, when some economist or a banker calls for doing away with cash. They must be clueless how important the underground money is to their system. Heck, what about the GDP adjustments for illegal drugs and prostitution? I'm sure a lot use credit cards but a majority is probably cash. What about CIA bag money?
The map "Global trafficking fkows of opiates" is deliberately mislading.
They carefully show Afghanistan is the main source, but the real destination - Kosovo - is skipped over. The arrowhead ends up in Switzerland!
I love illegal drugs! The weaklings in our society can use them and die of an overdose :-)
Hope the CIA or who ever else imports more of this toxic shit :-) Darwin needs a little help in his nanny state.
Grew up in an alcoholic family and still angry ..........
up north on the tundra
grows a dwarf poppie
they make good tea
you do catch a buzz
To echo some of the comments posted above, an overdose of the Matrix movies' metaphorical "red pills" will enable one to perceive that governments are the biggest forms of organized crime, controlled by the best organized gangs of criminals, and therefore, the "War on Drugs" was fantastically successful in doing what it was deliberately designed to do, which was enable organized crime to flourish.
The biggest banks skim the profits from the illegal drug trade, as well as benefited from having had more excuses to build the fascist police state, that the banksters' fascist plutocracy needs to protect itself and advance its agenda. Of course, these days the War on Terror is taking over from the War on Drugs, as the latest phase of the series of the basic systems of DEBT SLAVERY BACKED BY WARS BASED ON DECEITS. The banksters were able to skim the cream of the profits from making drugs illegal, by laundering illegal drug money. (Systems supposed to prevent drug money laundering tend to only be used against the smaller players, while the biggest players are enabled to do so without being caught, or without significant penalties when detected.)
To switch over to intravenous injections of the "red pill" substance, one may consider how and why the human murder systems are the supreme systems, and must necessarily be so. Therefore, turning some drugs into illegal commodities made those become worth orders of magnitude more money than if those were legal, which then results in causing orders of magnitude more murders, within the overall combined money/murder systems.
A sufficient overdose of the "red pill" substance will eventually result in recognizing that the only solutions to the series of wars based upon deceits would be to develop better death control systems. However, despite all of the progress in physical science enabling the development of weapons of mass destruction, et alia, there has not yet been even remotely possible corresponding progress in political science.
These days, it has become almost a mainstream opinion that the "War on Drugs" has been a "failure." However, that is a ridiculously superficial view adopted by people who have failed to understand how and why governments are necessarily the biggest form of organized crime, controlled by the best organized criminals, which made and maintained the "War on Drugs" in order to accomplish what it actually did accomplish, which is drive the social pyramid systems to get bigger and steeper, by enabling every different level of organized crime to flourish, and especially by having the money from illegal drugs end up in banks, which would be better protected by an increasingly militarized police force, which was developed by the "War on Drugs."
The article above was somewhat misleading because it switches gears from quoting that "one out of every 20 people the world over used illegal drugs in 2013," when the majority of that was due to marijuana. (That report estimated about 182 million cannabis consumers, out of the estimated total of 246 million of all illegal drug users.) Since the War on Marijuana is at least about 75% of the overall War on (some) Drugs, it is appropriate to recognize that hemp is the single best plant on the planet for people, for food, fiber, fun and medicine, which is the reason that it made such excellent propaganda to promote the huge lie that "marijuana is almost as bad as murder," and back those legalized lies up with legalized violence, for decade after decade.
Generally speaking, not nearly enough people take sufficient overdoses of the "red pills" to be able to comprehend how and why the so-called War on (some) Drugs fits into the overall systems of organized crime. Moreover, vanishingly small numbers of people take enough massive overdoses of the "red pills," sufficient to be able to wake up to the deeper levels of the realities regarding how and why civilizations necessarily operate according to the principles and methods of organized crime, which therefore have created combined money/murder systems, wherein money is measurement backed by murder.
The so-called War on (some) Drugs was primarily a war against marijuana. However, the mainstream "legalize marijuana" movements are now dominated by reactionary revolutionaries, attempting to lead the masses of mainstream morons backwards. Similarly, the overwhelming majority of people who advocate ending the War on Drugs tend to deliberately refuse to take enough of the "red pills" to be able to think more deeply about the human murder systems, that back up the monetary systems in general.
By and large, the overwhelming majority of people continue to stay stuck within the biggest bullies' bullshit world view regarding the "War on Drugs" as well as with respect to all of the other various phases of wars based on deceits, that backed up the debt slavery systems, inside of social pyramid systems, which were always based upon backing up lies with violence, or enforcing frauds. Ironically, we are headed towards various neoprohibitionist alternatives to the previous forms of the War on Drugs, or watching the development of Prohibition 2.0 ...
The deeper problems are that almost nobody is willing and able more fully comprehend the human murder systems. Very few people are taking enough massive overdoses of the "red pills" to be able to develop more genuine insights into the real relationships between natural selection and artificial selection. Always, one should recall that the oldest book on The Art of War starts by saying "success in war is based on deceits," and ends by saying "spies are the most important soldiers." Obviously, to anyone who has taken enough "red pills," those insights also applied to the so-called War on (some) Drugs. Furthermore, those insights also apply generally to class warfare, and thus, to the ways that the monetary and taxation systems are the result of frauds enforced, due to the best organized gangs of criminals being able to control the biggest forms of organized crime.
The same pyramidion people promoted the War on Drugs as have promoted the other phases of their advancements of the basic agenda of debt slavery backed by wars based on deceits. At the same time, they were also able to mostly control their opposition. Hence, at the present time, the most publicly significant movements against the War on Drugs which advocate ending that War on Drugs, by various ways to legalize those drugs, are almost totally controlled opposition groups, which promote superficial opinions regarding the manner in which that War on Drugs appears to them to have been a "failure," when actually it was a resounding success, from the point of view of the pyramidion people, that were able to dominate all aspects of the funding of the political processes, in order to advance their agenda by enabling more organized crime to flourish on every level.
IF one takes enough of a series of repeated massive overdoses of the "red pills," one will eventually recognize that the only genuine solutions to the problems due to the various series of wars based on deceits would be to develop better death control systems, i.e., better warfare, based on better militarism, as the supreme ideology of the murder system. There is no way to end war, only ways to perhaps wage war better, which maybe could become possible if enough people took enough "red pills" to be able to reconsider the deeper relationships between natural selection and artificial selection, or between natural laws and human laws.
Human laws are necessarily based upon being able to back up lies with violence. The so-called War on (some) Drugs was one of the phases of those processes. Much more important ways that has been happening were the ways that the monetary system more and more became systems of legalized lies, backed by legalized violence, and therefore, the whole political economy became based upon enforcing frauds, within which context the War on Drugs, and especially the War on Marijuana, were some of the most salient symbols and extreme particular examples of that.
However, I REPEAT, anyone taking enough of a series of massive overdoses of the "red pills" will eventually penetrate through more layers of the lies, where those lies are different at every level. The essential problem has been that there must be some human murder system, due to the basic realities that made natural selection pressures always exist. The essential paradox within that essential problem has been that the history of warfare made civilization, while the history of warfare was the application of the principles and methods of organized crime on larger and larger scales. That was how and why the war on (some) drugs enabled organized crime to flourish, making banksters richer, while simultaneously providing the vicious spiral of self-fulfilling prophesies which would enable the development of more militarized police, in the overall context of a runaway fascist police state.
Anyone who wants to develop a deeper understanding of the War on Drugs, which is primarily, the War on Marijuana, needs to go through much deeper analysis of warfare in general, because that was the foundation for our civilization, since the history of backing up deceits with destruction has morphed to become the existing political economy based upon enforcing frauds, wherein the international bankers are the best organized gangsters, the banksters, that have been effectively controlling governments, by dominating all aspects of the funding of the political processes, which incidentally included making and maintaining the War on (some) Drugs, and especially the War on Marijuana.
By and large, those now advocating that various illegal drugs, and especially marijuana, should be legalized are reactionary revolutionaries, misleading the mainstream morons to continue going backwards, because none of them are able and willing to go through the deeper levels of analysis regarding how and why governments are necessarily the biggest forms of organized crime, controlled by the best organized gangs of criminals. "Ending the War on Drugs" is another typical bullshit goal, or a bogus "solution" regarding the real problems.
After taking enough massive overdoses of the "red pills," one will eventually reach the point where one will perceive that the only genuine solutions are better forms of warfare, which are better forms of organized crime, which would primarily be better death control systems, that could then back up better debt control systems. However, the biggest bullies, such as the banksters, do not have to worry too much about that happening in the foreseeable future, because they can continue to control their opposition, such as how they are currently able to control the campaigns against the War on Drugs, which call for some neoprohibitionist ways of ending the war on drugs.
This article concluded with the throwaway question:
Such a question tends to usually be phrased inside of a ridiculously superficial view of the ways that the establish social pyramid systems are fundamentally built on top of integrated systems of legalized lies, backed by legalized violence, within which context the War on (some) Drugs was one of the many phases of wars based on deceits, advancing the overall agenda of the debt slavery systems, despite that those have driven themselves through to become debt insanities, and corresponding death insanities.
I advocate much more seriously asking that question, especially regarding marijuana, whether it is "time to legalize it?" I do so after taking enough of series of massive overdoses of the "red pills" to get to the point where I recognize that our entire civilization is based upon integrated systems of legalized lies, backed by legalized violence, and that, therefore, the only genuinely realistic resolutions to our real problems would require developing better integrated systems of legalized lies, backed by better forms of legalized violence.
Ending warfare is totally impossible, due to the ways that human beings and civilizations necessarily exist inside of the context of natural selection, as entropic pumps of energy flows. The only things which are possible are to go through sufficient paradigm shifts in the ways that we perceive those political problems, (which metaphorically corresponds to taking massive overdoses of the "red pills.") Seriously facing those reasons for how and why our entire political economy is based upon enforcing frauds, due to the history of successful warfare being based upon deceits and treacheries, results in a better overall appreciation of the real nature of the War on Drugs, and especially with respect to the War on Marijuana, which was always the major backbone of that War on Drugs.
However, since there is almost nothing now but a core of organized crime, surrounded by controlled opposition, I continue to expect that the publicly significant opposition to the War on Drugs will mostly be controlled, and therefore, will present silly and superficial views of the nature of the so-called War on Drugs, which do not address the overall context regarding how and why civilization was necessarily based upon the principles and methods of organized crime, in which context the combined money/murder systems operated, and in which context the War on (some) Drugs was prosecuted.
largest portion of global drug trade is and was and will continue to be controlled by a few very wealthy british families.