Cocaine still Colombia drug gangs' top export despite fentanyl's ascendancy
Cocaine still Colombia drug gangs' top export despite fentanyl's ascendancy
Rising use, low production costs and logistical advantages could eventually lead drug producers to focus on fentanyl instead of cocaine, a high-ranking Colombian police official said, but for now cocaine remains that country's top drug export.
I can’t wait until I can walk into a drug store and buy some ethically sourced small batch organic cocaine made by a family that’s been making it for generations.
That’s going to be the real and only way to end this bullshit war on drugs.
16Made with love by a man in the woods with two teeth and a lot of gasoline.
5
I'm surprised they are competing with each other, being very different substances with very different effects, and I wouldn't think their user bases overlap much.
15The supply chain is already in place. That's how Pablo got started in cocaine. He already had smuggling routes in place.
The illegal gold mining industry in Colombia is more dangerous than the cocaine industry.
5At that level buyers & sellers are likely drug agnostic. They buy whatever sells & sell whatever is being bought. Profit margins are likely what's driving the transition. However, & somewhat to your point, why not both?
4More and more people are becoming addicted to more than one substance. Sometimes a high is a high, whatever you can get
2
its so versatile!
1This is the best summary I could come up with:
Rocketing consumption of synthetic drug fentanyl in the U.S. has led some - including Colombia's President Gustavo Petro - to forecast declines in cocaine production in the Andean country, the world's leading producer.
Cocaine finances left-wing guerrillas and criminal gangs, fueling the country's internal armed conflict of almost six decades, which has left more than 450,000 dead.
"We're very committed to the work we're doing with seizures, targeting production, because the illegal drug industry certainly continues to be seen as an attractive criminal income," said General Nicolas Zapata, deputy director of Colombia's national police.
Petro recently said that higher fentanyl consumption in the U.S. and its expansion to other geographies including Europe, could discourage cocaine production and open a window of opportunity for peace as the country's illegal armed groups abandon the industry.
Ecuador's incoming president, Daniel Noboa, who takes office this month, has promised to confront rising crime in the country, where violence linked to drug trafficking has increased sharply.
Colombia hopes to destroy 200 square kilometers of coca crops by the end of the year and seize a record 834 tons of cocaine.
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