Cocaine in California Cocaine Production Research Paper

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African-American street gang members, primarily affiliates of Bloods and Crips, distribute crack cocaine and marijuana in the HIDTA region. Asian street gangs dominate distribution of MDMA and high-potency marijuana at the retail level.[footnoteRef:10] Members of the OMGs, most notably Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC), are the ones that are really known to distribute powder cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana at the midlevel and retail level. [9: Vega, W.A., Alderete, E., Kolody, B., & Aguilar-Gaxiola, S. "Illicit drug use among mexicans and mexican-Americans in california: The effects of gender and acculturation." Addiction 12.9 (2009): 12-54.] [10: "The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics." Davenport-Hines, Richard. New York City W.W. Norton & Company; First edition, 2002. 1-576.]

Distribution

The Central Valley HIDTA region is considered to be a regional and regional-level distribution center for ice methamphetamine and cocaine created in the region as well as ice cocaine, marijuana, and heroin trafficked all the way from Mexico into the United States.[footnoteRef:11] Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations are the main wholesale distributors of these types of drugs in the region, naturally utilizing stash sites which are located in residences that are private, warehouses, and storage facilities in towns and cities all over the region. Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations utilize the region as a base of operations for illegal drug distribution to marketplaces all over the United States. For instance, Central Valley HIDTA administrators guess that about 85% of the cocaine shaped in the region is carried from the Central Valley to other states, particularly to major distribution regions for instance places like Atlanta, Georgia, and Chicago, Illinois (van Gorp). Prison gangs, and Street gangs, and OMGs that are known to operate in the HIDTA area are the ones that issue illicit drugs to their equals in cities located all over the country to take advantage of on the higher incomes that can be made in those cities. Numerous traffickers in the area, as well as Asian Drug Trafficking Organization, Caucasian criminal groups, and independent dealers, are the ones out there distributing cocaine which is created in the Central Valley and Canadian high-potency marijuana to other parts of the nation so as to meet request for the drug. [11: ibid]

History of Cocaine

Cocaine in its numerous forms is comes from the coca plant which is considered to be a native to the high mountain assortments of South America. Research shows that the coca leaves were utilized by the natives of this region and then they acted upon the operator as an intoxicant. The motivating effects of the drug increase breathing which upturns oxygen consumption. This afforded natural laborers of the region the determinations to achieve their obligations in the thin air at high elevations. In harmony, science had figure out how to exploit the strength and effect of the drug that is confined in the coca leaves.

By means of chemically manufacturing the coca leaves, the white crystal powder people have come to recognize as cocaine was then produced. However, as time went on there were much newer ways to star magnifying the euphoric influences of the drug which was perceived which has led us to the most strong and addictive type of the drug, which is the crack cocaine.

Crack cocaine is considered to be the most commonly utilized form of cocaine today.[footnoteRef:12] However, smoking cocaine rocks started sometime during the late 1970's. Things like rocking-up cocaine powder and smoking it was formerly the method established so suppliers of cocaine could test the cleanliness of the drug right before it was bought from those that had produced the drug. Research shows that cocaine has demolished millions of lives ever since it was first accessible to the streets of America. Cocaine is an abstemiously new drug on the scene compared to other drugs such as opium or heroin then again; it has been part of our culture and history culture for about 150 years.[footnoteRef:13] [12: Vega, W.A., Alderete, E., Kolody, B., & Aguilar-Gaxiola, S. "Illicit drug use among mexicans and mexican-Americans in california: The effects of gender and acculturation." Addiction 12.9 (2009): 12-54.] [13: ibid]

The research shows that Cocaine epidemics have been going on a lot in American history. The first sustained incident of cocaine use and addiction started all the way back in the 1880s and then went on to last all the way into the 1920s. however, the second wave started somewhere about 1970 and then started to peaked sometime in the late 1980s.

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[footnoteRef:14] Together the two epidemics exemplify a basic belief of drug history: what we think about and how we control 'consuming habits' are dependent a lot upon the characteristics of those who ingest them. The first documented expert and supporter for this drug was world well-known psychologist, Sigmund Freud. Early on in his vocation, Freud mostly endorsed cocaine as a drug that was safe and a useful tonic that had the power to cure sexual impotence and depression. Cocaine then got an additional improvement in appropriateness when in 1886 John Pemberton encompassed cocaine as the key element in his new soft drink, which was called Coca Cola.[footnoteRef:15] It was looked at as being cocaine's euphoric and invigorating effects on the consumer that was typically accountable for increasing Coca Cola into its place as the most prevalent soft drink in all of history. [14: ibid] [15: ibid]

In the same way as other narcotics like opium and heroin during this time, cocaine also began to be used as an active ingredient in a variety of "cure all" tonics and beverages. In many of the tonics that drug companies were producing at this time, cocaine would be mixed with opiates and administered freely to old and young alike. It wasn't until some years later that the dangers of these drugs became apparent.

In fact, it was the negative side effects of habitual cocaine use that was responsible for coining the phrase, "dope fiend." This terminology came about because of the behavior of a person abusing cocaine for prolonged periods of time. Because cocaine is such a powerful stimulant, prolonged daily use of the drug creates severe sleep deprivation and loss of appetite. A person might go days or sometimes weeks without sleeping or eating properly. The user often experiences psychotic behavior. Cocaine addicts hallucinate and become delusional. Coming down from the drug causes a severe state of depression for the person in withdrawal. This person can then become so desperate for more of the drug that they will do just about anything to get more of it, including murder. If the drug is not readily available, the depression one experiences in withdrawal can become so great the user will sometimes become suicidal. It is because of this heinous effect on the user that the word "fiend" became associated with cocaine addiction.

Transportation

The research shows that the Central Valley HIDTA region's closeness to illegal drug sources and its complicated transportation infrastructure has been enabling traffickers in order to transport important amounts of illegal drugs into the region and all over the nation. Important Major highways that are in the region, for instance Interstate 5, allow the traffickers with direct admission to drug source regions areas in places such as Mexico, California, and Canada.[footnoteRef:16] Cocaine and marijuana which has been produced inside of the HIDTA are looked at as frequently delivered from the region in commercial and private vehicles, chiefly on I-80, to drug marketplaces all the way through the United States. [16: van Gorp, W.,G., Wilkins, J.N., Hinkin, C.H., Moore, L. "Declarative and procedural memory functioning in abstinent cocaine abusers." Archives of General Psychiatry 56.1 (2009): 85-9.]

Prohibition of cocaine in the United States

Calls for prohibition had started long before the Harrison Act had been passed by Congress in the early part of 1914 -- a law which required narcotics and cocaine to be distributed simply with a doctor's order.[footnoteRef:17] However, before this, several factors and groups were able to act on chiefly a state level persuading a move in the direction of prohibition and away from a laissez-faire insolence. [footnoteRef:18] [17: ibid] [18: Forster, G. "Quotas in the drug war." Policy Review 29.9 (2004): 21-28.]

However, by the time it had reached 1903 cocaine consumption was something that had been growing to about five times that of 1890.[footnoteRef:19] Those that were Non-medical users were the ones that accounted for almost the whole growth as cocaine-users started to protract the outside the middle-aged, professional class and white. Cocaine turned out to be related with youths, laborers, the urban underworld and blacks.[footnoteRef:20] [19: ibid] [20: Forster, G. "Quotas in the drug war." Policy Review 29.9 (2004): 21-28.]

The research shows that the popularization of cocaine first started with laborers who were able to utilize cocaine as some kind of stimulant to increase output. (Forster) Cocaine was habitually delivered by those that are the companies (Callaghan). Cocaine was.....

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