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CHAMPAGNE OF DRUGS: the horrible truth on why cocaine is expensive

By:

Jackey Rufo

Marianigh Ley Tambis

Winky Legal

Emelly Grace Francisco

Krisha Lianne Sabido

An estimated half a trillion dollars are exchanged annually in the illicit drug trade worldwide. And in the public's mind, cocaine is the narcotic most closely associated with fortune. However, where does the cash go? Who generates it and who spends it? Extreme violence is generated by the coke industry throughout the whole production and distribution process. But why? Why does this one product appear to have such a particular connection with violence? Why is cocaine so expensive, and how does the industry function in reality?

The three nations that produce the most cocaine are Bolivia, Peru, and Columbia. The field where the coca plants were grown would be the starting point for the procedure. To make cocaine paste, the leaves are taken further into the forest and combined with additional ingredients. After that, the paste is taken to another lab and combined with even more chemicals to create pure final cocaine. As of right now, nothing particularly shouts "billion dollar industry". The typical coca picker supports their family with backbreaking labor every day, earning up to $50 a week. However, these farmers face many more concerns besides poverty and unfavorable working conditions (Vice Media LLC, 2015).

The moment the product passes from producer to distributers, something unbelievable happens. The value of pure coke in South American jungles grows about 22.22 times once it arrives in the US, and that is just wholesale. When the product is is Divided into single grams to sell, it can fetch around $150,000 (Vice Media, 2020), which is 166.66 times the value of it's original price. The major jump of price lies on transporting it from fields of South America to users around the world. Because the government issued war on drugs in the countries who mass produce cocaine, production was hindered, bombs were planted in the fields to eradicate farms, cartels that sells or smuggles them from inside and outside the countries were busted by military forces, production sites were busted and destroyed, and dealers were arrested and killed.

Distributing the drug became a difficult challenge for the distributors. With the government against the business, the business became more risky and dangerous. In Mexico, there were 34,000 murders in 2019. In the first half of 2020, there have already been over 17,000. That's roughly one person being murdered in every 15 minutes, and one of the root causes of this violence is when drugs are illegal, gang will fight to control their supply.

In an interview of Vice media, Neil Woods, the chairman of Leap Europe and ex- undercover cop, said that what governments have done by prohibiting drugs is they have created a perpetually growing, violent market, where police remove one dealer at any level, street level, cartel level, wherever in the world there almost always violence to compete for that market share (Vice media, 2020). But despite all the violence and killings, cocaine still remains as one of the most imported drugs internationally, meaning people still buy cocaine in grams, kilos, and even cartels for business.

The tactic of trying to stop the flow of drugs by sending military forces to eradicate crops was, at its heart, an economic idea. People sometimes make jokes about there being no such thing as ethical cocaine or fair trade cocaine, and they are basically right, the coke business is violent and exploitive, and it's those on the bottom that suffers. It was the war on drugs that created the price jump, but unfortunately for the farmers in Columbia, Peru, and Bolivia, it is exactly that economic reality which means destroying their crops to stop the production is completely useless.

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