Bloomberg: The Golden Age of Cocaine Is Happening Right Now

[China]

The Golden Age of Cocaine Is Happening Right Now

 

The biggest cocaine boom in history has its origins outside towns like La Dorada, Colombia. Here, a few miles down a rutted track through the Amazon, cattle ranches and fish farms give way to endless fields of coca, the pale green shrub used for making the drug.

 

Apart from a few schoolteachers and occasional raids by the armed forces, the Colombian state barely exists beyond this point. To travel here, outsiders need permission from a much-feared drug cartel known as the Comandos de la Frontera, whose henchmen in military green T-shirts patrol the lanes in trucks and on motorbikes.

 

This region, Putumayo province, is a key supplier of the unprecedented surge in cocaine production. While fans of the hit Netflix series Narcos may have the impression that the era of Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel in the 1980s and 1990s was the heyday of the cocaine trade, in fact, a much bigger boom is going on right now.

 

“We’re living in the golden age of cocaine,” said Toby Muse, the author of the 2020 book Kilo: Inside the Deadliest Cocaine Cartels, who has been reporting on the Colombian drug trade for more than two decades. “Cocaine is reaching corners of the planet that have never seen it before, because there is so much of the drug.”

 

Underlying that boom is a massive growth in acreage, as well as higher productivity on coca farms — trends driven by shifting political dynamics in the region as well as rising demand. The illicit industry now produces about 2,000 tons of cocaine per year, almost double the amount being made a decade ago, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. Satellite photos show that the amount of Colombian land planted with coca rose to a record of more than 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres) last year, more than five times what it was when Escobar was gunned down in 1993.

 

All that supply is flooding markets around the world, bringing violence, corruption and huge profits with it. Some 10,000 miles from those farms in the Andes, arrests for cocaine possession in Australia have quadrupled since 2010. US overdoses involving cocaine have quintupled over the past decade as dealers took to mixing the drugs with synthetic opioids. Ecuador imposed states of emergency on its largest port, Guayaquil, this year as warring cocaine traffickers spread terror with car bombs and contract killings.

 

While cocaine is still reaching traditional markets in the US, it is deluging Europe, where seizures have tripled in just five years, according to EU figures. In Africa, cocaine seizures increased 10-fold from 2015 to 2019, while the amount captured in Asia increased almost 15-fold over the same period, according to data collected by the UN. Greater volumes of the drug are being seized at ports in Turkey and Eastern Europe as traffickers open new routes. It is also advancing into places where it wasn’t as common just a few years ago, such as Argentina and Croatia.

 

And the average purity of cocaine on the streets of Europe has risen to more than 60%, from 37% in 2010, while residue from the drug in major cities’ wastewater has doubled over the past decade.

 

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[TradeTheBeal!]

[Captain Wiggles]

Gonna be a White Christmas for everyone after all. 

 

[Cooked Crack]

Also the golden age of dying from cocaine cut with fentanyl.

[The Evil Genius]

Selfies in 10 years...

 

[LadySkinsFan]

I already lived through a couple of these: pre-birth of daughter in 72-77, after weaning of daughter 79-early 80s, late 90s-early 00s. Not participating now, no money because it's expensive. 

Edited December 20, 2022 by LadySkinsFan

[LD0506]

44 minutes ago, LadySkinsFan said:

I already lived through a couple of these: pre-birth of daughter in 72-77, after weaning of daughter 79-early 80s, late 90s-early 00s. Not participating now, no money because it's expensive. 

 

Gonna keep an eye out for after-Xmas sales

[Riggo-toni]

On the plus side, according to our federal government, at least it's less dangerous than marijuana.

[Sacks 'n' Stuff]

For whatever reason, I have never encountered cocaine. definitely would try it but have never had the opportunity.

[PokerPacker]

So we've got that going for us, which is nice.

[TradeTheBeal!]

11 minutes ago, PokerPacker said:

So we've got that going for us, which is nice.

 

[Renegade7]

Another victory in the War on Drugs...😒

 

Bet even the DARE Lion is somewhere snorting coke off a stripper's ass somewhere...

[Destino]

You’re never going to stop the drug favored by the rich and powerful.  

[CousinsCowgirl84]

I can’t believe people do drugs that hype them up, I want something that is going to mellow me out.

[BatteredFanSyndrome]

5 hours ago, Cooked Crack said:

Also the golden age of dying from cocaine cut with fentanyl.

I know this is legit, just not sure why.  Isn’t fentanyl a downer, which is why they cut it into opiates?  What is the purpose of cutting it into Coke, an upper?

 

 

[mistertim]

2 hours ago, LD0506 said:

 

Gonna keep an eye out for after-Xmas sales

 

"White Friday Sale"

 

28 minutes ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

I can’t believe people do drugs that hype them up, I want something that is going to mellow me out.

 

I'm the exact same way. I hate uppers, always have.

 

16 minutes ago, BatteredFanSyndrome said:

I know this is legit, just not sure why.  Isn’t fentanyl a downer, which is why they cut it into opiates?  What is the purpose of cutting it into Coke, an upper?

 

 

I assume it's like speedball, which is usually a combo of cocaine and heroin.

Edited December 21, 2022 by mistertim

[dunfer]

 

[JCB]

[TheGreatBuzz]

Adding another reason I'm so happy to be retired.

[tshile]

16 hours ago, mistertim said:

I assume it's like speedball, which is usually a combo of cocaine and heroin.

Yeah any hard core upper/downer

 

had people die in high school doing it. 
 

although that’s when intentionally doing it. The original comment that was quoted was about things being cut, I believe. Which isn’t intentional, it’s dealers trying to make their unique, more addictive, or cheaper. 

[Bang]

Eh, been there.

My experience is that coke has two primary effects

1. Talking. Oh you have so much to say. About everything. Talk. And talk. and talk. and talk and talkandtalkandtalkandtalkandtalkandtalkandtalkandtalkandtalkandtalkandtalk

2. It makes you want more... presumably so you can continue to talkandtalkandtalkandtalkandtalkandtalkandtalk

 

And that was pretty much it.

 

~Bang

Edited December 21, 2022 by Bang

[balki1867]

I'm actually surprised given the number of people dying because of Fentanyl-laced cocaine at the moment.

[LadySkinsFan]

33 minutes ago, Bang said:

Eh, been there.

My experience is that coke has two primary effects

1. Talking. Oh you have so much to say. About everything. Talk. And talk. and talk. and talk and talkandtalkandtalkandtalkandtalkandtalkandtalkandtalkandtalkandtalkandtalk

2. It makes you want more... presumably so you can continue to talkandtalkandtalkandtalkandtalkandtalkandtalk

 

And that was pretty much it.

 

~Bang

 

Lots of creative sex going on too.

[TheGreatBuzz]

4 hours ago, LadySkinsFan said:

 

Lots of creative sex going on too.

 

Used to be popular to do some coke, ecstasy, and a viagra (the women obviously skipped the viagra).  

 

And it was popular for a reason.

[PokerPacker]

6 hours ago, balki1867 said:

I'm actually surprised given the number of people dying because of Fentanyl-laced cocaine at the moment.

I don't recall who it was that said this, but he was saying that when someone would OD and die, junkies' first question would be who the deceased got their drugs from.  Not so they could avoid that dealer, but so they could get the stuff so strong it killed somebody.

Edited December 22, 2022 by PokerPacker