Supply Sources for Illicit Cocaine and Illicit Methamphetamine
Most drugs have sources outside and within the US borders. Cocaine and methamphetamine constitute the most abused drugs in the United States (Ciccarone, p.41). A network of traffickers operates prohibited drugs business. Despite its extensive use, each drug has a distinct source and follow unique routes before reaching its destined market.
The methamphetamine present in the US market comes from Mexico, where traffickers use large scale laboratories backed by ample supply of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine entering their nation from China. The Mexican non-citizens constitute the majority of the suppliers of methamphetamine (Hunt, Sarah, and Linda, p.23). The purity of meth has significantly recently reduced due to the unavailability of precursor chemicals as well as replacement with methylsulfonylmethane during production. Methamphetamine is also produced in the United States with a large scale lab production based in California. These labs can produce up to ten pounds under the watch of Mexican outlawed groups (Hunt et al., p.31).
On the other hand, cocaine comes from Colombia. The drug follows a series of networks controlled by Colombian traffickers. First, Colombian cocaine traffickers transport the drug by sea Colombia to Central America and enter the US market by land usually done by the Mexican traffickers (“World Drug Report 2010,” p. 74). Well, known state for cocaine is Texas and, to some extent Arizona. The pacific constitutes the significant cocaine channel from Colombia followed by the Atlantic, and lastly, the Caribbean and the Bolivian Republic of Venezuela. Transportation from the Bolivian Republic of Venezuela is done by air.
The two drugs, cocaine, and methamphetamine, have continued to dominate the US markets despite prohibition by the authorities. While methamphetamine comes directly from the Mexican labs and those based in California, Cocaine follows a well-organized route all the way from Colombia, making a stop in Central America before finally entering the US.