List of Figures
Figure 1. Primary Market Areas
Figure 2. Rates of Past
Year Use for Powdered Cocaine, 1999-2004
Figure 3.
Cocaine Flows to the United States
Figure 4. Reported Methamphetamine
Laboratory Seizures, 1999-2003
Figure 5. Rates of Past Year Use for
Marijuana
Figure 6. Principal Outdoor
Cannabis Cultivation Areas
Figure 7. Heroin Admissions to Publicly
Funded Treatment Facilities, 1992-2002
Figure 8. MDMA-Related Arrests,
Nationwide, 2000-2003
Figure 9. Recorded MDMA Seizures in
Dosage Units, 2000-2003
Figure 10. Numbers of Reported MDMA
Laboratory Seizures Nationwide, 2000 - Mid-2004
Figure 11. Emergency Department Mentions
of Narcotic Analgesics, 1995-2002
Figure 12. Emergency Department Mentions
for Benzodiazepines, 1995-2002
Figure 13. Estimated Annual Domestic Retail-Level Drug
Purchases in Billions of Dollars, 2000
List of Tables
Table 1. Andean Region Coca Cultivation, In
Hectares, and Potential Cocaine Production, in Metric Tons, (100% pure)
1999-2003
Table 2.
Cocaine Losses in Transit Toward the United States, in Metric Tons
2002-2003
Table 3. Top Five States for Marijuana Eradication, 2003
Table 4. U. S. Arrival Zone Seizures
of Marijuana in Kilograms, 2001-2003
Table 5. Potential Worldwide Heroin
Production, in Metric Tons, 1999-2003
The abuse of illicit drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana,
heroin, and MDMA as well as diverted pharmaceuticals inflicts tremendous
damage on society, particularly on the millions of families that have a
member struggling with illicit drug dependence or addiction. According to
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data, nearly 35 million
persons aged 12 or older used an illicit drug within the past year, and
approximately 3.8 million were dependent on or abusers of illicit drugs in
2003, the latest year for which such data are available. Data also show
that the number of drug treatment admissions to publicly funded treatment
facilities in 2002 reached their highest recorded level at nearly 1.1 million.
Figure 1.
Primary Market Areas
d-link
Primary Market Areas (PMAs) for cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and MDMA
are those cities that are leading consumption areas for these drugs based on analysis of
public health data. PMAs also are among the leading national-level distribution centers for wholesale
quantities of these drugs based primarily on law enforcement reporting and analysis of drug seizure data.
PMAs for marijuana are based on national-level distribution alone because rates of marijuana use are
relatively high and stable in markets throughout the country.
To Top To
Contents
- Mexican criminal groups exert more influence over drug
trafficking in the United States than any other group. Mexican criminal groups smuggle most of the
cocaine available in domestic drug markets into the country. Moreover, Mexican criminal groups
produce and subsequently smuggle into the country much of the heroin, marijuana, and
methamphetamine available in U.S. drug markets. Mexican criminal groups also produce large
amounts of marijuana and methamphetamine within the United States for domestic
distribution. Mexican criminal groups are the predominant transporters and wholesale distributors of
cocaine and methamphetamine in most regions of the country; they are the predominant
transporters and wholesale distributors of heroin in western regions of the country; and they are very
prominent transporters and wholesale distributors of marijuana throughout the country.
- Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) appear to be
gaining control of a larger percentage of the cocaine smuggled into the United States. The estimated
percentage of cocaine smuggled into the United States via the Mexico-Central America
corridor increased sharply from 72 percent in 2002 to 77 percent in 2003, and preliminary
data indicate that the percentage may be higher than 90 percent for 2004. Nearly all of the
cocaine transported through the Mexico-Central America corridor ultimately is smuggled across
the U.S.-Mexico border by Mexican criminal groups for subsequent distribution in the
United States.
- Domestic drug markets appear to be increasingly supplied
with methamphetamine produced in methamphetamine superlabs in Mexico.
- Production and distribution of ice methamphetamine--a
higher purity, more addictive form of methamphetamine--by Mexican criminal groups has increased
sharply over the past 2 years in many drug markets.
- Colombian DTOs are increasingly relying on Mexican DTOs and
criminal groups to transport South American heroin to the United States, much as they rely on
Mexican DTOs to transport cocaine.
- The threat posed to the United States by the illegal
diversion and abuse of prescription drugs has increased sharply since the mid-1990s and is now among the
leading drug threats to the country.
- Law enforcement reporting indicates that transportation of
bulk currency out of the United States--primarily overland across the U.S.-Mexico border--is
the principal form of money laundering by DTOs.
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National
Drug Intelligence Center
319 Washington Street, 5th Floor
Johnstown, PA 15901 Tel.
(814) 532-4601
FAX (814) 532-4690
E-mail NDIC.Contacts@usdoj.gov
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National
Drug Intelligence Center
8201 Greensboro Drive, Suite 1001
McLean, VA 22102-3840
Tel. (703) 556-8970
FAX (703) 556-7807
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