By Craig Stevens

Illegal drugs and their transport are constantly evolving. Cocaine and weed shipments have been entering the United States from Central and South America via a range of methods, with seagoing craft being one of the most popular. First there were fishing boats, then “go-fasts” (speedboats mounted with multiple engines). Once these started succumbing to improved detection, drug cartels developed the semi-submersible “narco sub”—which is now making way for the full-scale submarine.

In 2010, authorities in Ecuador announced that they had seized an actual submarine designed for smuggling drugs. “It is the first fully functional, completely submersible submarine for transoceanic voyages that we have ever found,” said Jay Bergman, the Andean regional director for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, speaking to the Associated Press.

According to reports, the captured sub was 33 meters long, could accommodate a crew of five or six, and was equipped with twin-screw diesel-electric propulsion, periscopes and even air conditioning. The DEA said the vessel could have carried up to 10 tons of coke.

The sub was found at a secret “shipyard” facility on a jungle river in Ecuador not far from the Colombian border. The shipyard boasted accommodations for more than 50 people, yet only one person was arrested by Ecuadoran soldiers and police, who were acting on intelligence provided by the DEA.

These days, cartels and drug runners are reportedly shelling out millions of dollars to build these types of complex vessels, recruiting highly skilled engineers who are usually ex-military. Still, the hefty price tag and lengthy construction time remain a drawback—so while the relentless ingenuity and innovation of the drug cartels suggest that full-scale submarines are already in use (or will be soon), the good old semi-submersible still dominates the trade. Costing less than half the price of a real sub, these vessels can be abandoned or sunk with ease if caught.

In use since the late 1990s, the firstgeneration narco sub is simply a semisubmersible boat with an all-enclosing cap on top. Fitted with ordinary marine engines, it is able to avoid radar detection because only a small part of the boat’s structure rides above the surface. Air intakes and a periscope fitted with simple cameras for below-deck navigation are the only parts of these vessels exposed above the waterline. As a result, aerial surveillance is generally the sole means to detect them.

Assorted DEA reports claim that Colombian drug cartels have at least 40 of these custom-built subs, while Mexican cartels have even more. Usually made of fiberglass and powered by a 300to 350-horsepower diesel engine, these narco subs are manned by a crew of three or four and can transport thousands of pounds of cargo; indeed, it’s been estimated that the average 60-foot (18-meter) sub can carry several tons of cocaine.

Smugglers’ Blues

The idea that there are cocaine smugglers out there operating radar-eluding submarines full of contraband might lead one to believe that the drug trade has entered a new era of James Bondlike technological proficiency, but there is nothing romantic (or even high-tech) about the job. In fact, the poor souls manning these vessels are often little more than virtual slaves who have been sent on a suicide mission by the crime syndicate in question in order to work off a debt or some other grievance. The crew members also have to deal with the risk of malfunctioning machinery, toxic fumes and the possibility of sinking, in addition to the obvious danger of being caught by the authorities.

On the upside, should their journey be successful, crew members can settle their beef with the crime gang and make as much as $1,500 for two days’ work. That may seem like a paltry amount considering the dangers involved, but for the average Central American with few prospects and an average wage of $10 a day (at the high end), it’s a princely sum.

These subs have a range of approximately 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers), but a typical voyage takes around 20 to 30 hours due to the relatively slow speed of the craft (11 miles or 18 km per hour). Further delays are common due to frequent stops to let the engines cool and the diesel fumes dissipate, and also to evade pursuit. The average sub has a tiny internal area, and the conditions inside are poor. Since they’re generally little more than enclosed cigarette boats, the crew members must remain seated throughout the trip, crawling from one end of the sub to the other to check the engines or use the toilet. They usually strip down to their underwear to endure the heat inside these vessels, which can exceed 100°F. The overpowering smell of diesel fuel and overflowing bucket toilets are also a constant presence.

Perched on the ramshackle floor of the sub, the captain usually has no view of the seas he’s navigating apart from the crude periscope that utilizes store-bought video cameras and plastic piping, with the resulting images visible on screens inside the sub. As a result, the captain and crew communicate constantly by radio or satellite phone with their guides on land, and must remain vigilant throughout the entire nerve-wracking journey to avoid the kinds of mistakes that can lead to being detected.

If Not for the Courage of the Fearless Crew…

So what’s it like to risk one’s life as the crew member of a narco sub? High Times interviewed three such individuals working for a Colombia-based gang that sends subs to various points in Central America on a weekly basis. (Their names have been changed to protect these persons and their families.)

A crew captain with nearly a dozen runs under his belt, Jean Paul, 42, a French-born former naval officer, is a rare veteran of the narco-sub trade. He left the military more than six years ago and entered into several real-estate developments in Costa Rica. When his multimillion-dollar investments tanked due to the recession, some acquaintances hooked him up with the sub operators, giving him a way to dig himself out from a mountain of debt by applying his nautical experience.

Jean Paul says he is now debt-free and actually considering further property investments after just two years in the business. He says that nowadays he’s more valuable to his employers recruiting crew members and engineers than he is piloting the vessels, which means he can avoid the most serious risks.

“It’s a very dangerous game and generally the domain of the desperate,” Jean Paul relates. “I was on two runs where we had to jettison the craft and sink it. One occasion saw the vessel taking on water, and another was put down after the Coast Guard began closing in.”

Sinking a sub involves opening a number of portholes to let the water in. “Then it’s a matter of offloading as many bales of cargo as possible and getting out.” On this particular occasion, Jean Paul and his two crewmates managed to swim ashore on the Guatemalan coast without further incident. They had started the journey in Colombia.

Needless to say, getting murdered by your employer is often the reward for losing a load or bungling a trip. Jean Paul says he’s witnessed at least 10 people being killed, usually crew members or cartel employees who were shot due to incompetence or betrayal. “Funny, I’ve never seen anyone drown,” he adds. “It’s always man-on-man stuff.”

Despite this, Jean Paul says he’s more concerned by the other unpleasant aspects of the job. “Diesel fumes can kill you too, and the stench of another guy’s shit for two days isn’t nice either. Both are usually worse than the prospect of a boat sinking.”

Another person I spoke with is 33-year-old José, who was introduced via a mutual friend in El Salvador. A fisherman by trade, José was born in Guatemala and started his narco career after several bad fishing seasons forced him to find work as a runner for a cartel. His first job was collecting bales of weed or coke dumped by subs and boats offshore.

José reveals: “Many fishing boats in the region haven’t fished in years. They just collect bales, but keep their nets on deck to look legitimate.” He says he would like to return to fishing one day, but for now the money is very good, and he’s got an ailing mother and four children to care for. “There is no way I could make $1,500 for two days’ work any other way,” he says regarding his current employment as a narco sub crew member.

The third person I spoke with, 22-year-old Manuel, was recruited to the narco business at an early age in his Salvadoran village. Since the age of 13, he has worked a variety of jobs, but much like José, he never dreamed he would earn the kind of money that he does now for a two-day sub run.

Typical of the businesslike attitude shared by his colleagues, Manuel insists that smuggling narcotics is not necessarily an evil trade. “Gringos have a huge hunger for the cargo, and they always will,” he says. “This business is very important for my people; many of them would not have food or shelter without it. It’s been a savior.”

This article was originally published in the October 2013 issue of High Times Magazine.

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By A. Craig Copetas and Gary Putka

Khat: the cocaine of Africa—the mint green leaf of the shrub Catha edulis—is a way of life in the new nation of Djibouti and the ancient land of Yemen. Grown on large farms resembling old-world tea plantations in Ethiopia’s rainy and embattled southeastern Harrar Province, its rough, bushy plant also thrives in the cool mountains of Yemen, where glossy-eyed Arabs ruminate its invigorating leaf like so many campesinos chewing coca.

After cultivation and harvest, branches of leaves are rushed to Diredawa, Ethiopia’s civil-war-torn transportation hub, for the night flight to clients across the Djibouti frontier. In Yemen the precious crop comes down from the mountains the quickest way possible, for the khat leaf is perishable and must remain fresh or lose its potency. It’s efficacy after cutting lasts for roughly 24 hours, and then only if the leaves are kept moist.

Not even the Somali-led insurgency in southeast Ethiopia has interrupted the rapid transshipment from Diredawa to Djibouti. The khat run has been a twice-daily affair on Ethiopian Airlines. It is so lucrative that African observers are confident it will continue unhindered even if the Somalians win the siege of Diredawa. Meanwhile, the cargo is increasing daily and stands presently at eight tons a day. When khat arrives in Djibouti, the normally listless tropical port explodes into a bustling metropolis.

By late morning, motorbikes, trucks and cars carrying wholesale traders make the three-mile speedway dash to the airport to buy up the natural stimulant by the bag as soon as it is offloaded.

Although khat has been illegal in Djibouti ever since the country gained its independence in 1976, the newly-vested authorities have followed the colonial French example of looking the other way. Indeed, using the tactics employed by the Americans in Vietnam, France tacitly encouraged the chewing to keep the natives quiet. In the century of French occupation, the use of khat in the former territory of the Afars and Issas grew from an occasional diversion for a few Issas tribesmen to a national pastime for the male population.

Today French soldiers are on hand at Djibouti’s airport to help the importers carry away the prize goods for street auction. Buyers flock around the sunsheltered stalls to bid for bags. In less than 20 minutes the airport is empty again, as buyers rush back to town. The first to return is thought to have the freshest load to offer retailers, who sell khat from mini-stands or stalls throughout the city.

Women, according to tradition, abstain from chewing khat because they don’t like the taste. Men of all ages start their daily dreams at noon, after the airport rush, when the stuff is readily available on the street.

The khat habit puts some families in a bind, as a bunch costs nine French francs ($2), a third of a day’s wages for most laborers. There are many unemployed in the new nation, but the chewing tradition hasn’t changed, so such purchases impose a hardship on the poor families who make up most of the khat-consuming population in the tiny republic.

In turn, khat provides a relief for the unemployed, helping them forget their troubles. To sit all afternoon chewing khat until the sun goes down at dinnertime is as common in Djibouti as decadent café life in Paris.

Chewing takes place only after the user selects the good leaves and casts off the undesirable ones with the stems. As with coca, the mastication process slowly takes place as the wad of leaves is alternately chomped and swished around until it dissolves and a new supply is needed. Most chewers prefer to use only one cheek for their khat, causing a sort of national epidemic of “hamster” facial malformations. Khat also colors teeth a yellowish green.

Coca-Cola or Pepsi is sipped along with the hr outage, for the combination of caffeine and khat makes an exciting high. In addition, users like to smoke contraband American cigarettes with their afternoons of fun and forgetting.

Khat has been classified by the French Narcotics Bureau in the B category (marijuana has the same classification), meaning that possession can be subject to fine or jail. The stimulant is legal in the United States, but climatic conditions in most of the country do not favor its cultivation. As no formal studies of khat have ever been made, long-term effects of its use are not known.

The new government in Djibouti, under President Hassan Gouled, has hinted that it would take measures against the khat traffic. Government ministers, however, have had their own special loads of leaf flown to them at conferences in other parts of Africa and Europe.

Just across the border in Ethiopia, growers are happy their produce is still a cherished item in Djibouti, for without the foreign buyers they would be hard-put to find a new market. Only a small amount is chewed in Ethiopia, and the government is not too happy about the profitable crop. Peasants devote huge acreages to khat, depleting land needed for vital food crops.

In the past, fresh leaves were transported by train, but a group of rebels blew up a bridge on the strategic railway between Djibouti and Ethiopia in June 1977, and the line has not been repaired. So now the air run is the only practical route to convey fresh khat to Djibouti. Nomads sometimes traverse the desert border by night in illegal camel caravans that arrive the next morning with small loads.

Last year Ethiopia exported 1,400 tons of khat by air, which represents more than a quarter of Djibouti’s foreign agricultural imports, listed at 5,400 tons annually. No one knows how many tons of leaf reach the new republic clandestinely.

The khat scene in the Yemeni capital of Sana is similar to Djibouti’s, but with several picturesque and debilitating differences. Unlike Djibouti, Sana has special khat houses, seedy cafés or inns found off the sidewalk, where users may take their daily doses while puffing on water pipes and drinking cola for more soothing kicks. You can buy khat over the counter in these funduks and even chew all night with lodgings at your disposal for the total lull.

The situation is more intense in Sana because khat chewing has engulfed the town with funduks, enticing users to so cialize with other chewers and communi cate with the madhar (water pipe) that replaces the American cigarette used in Djibouti. The inns encourage more inten sive and numerous uses of khat, but the biggest reason why users outnumber their kind in lJjibouti is that a bunch of leaves costs about half as much. Yemen, directly across the straits of Bab a! Mandeb from Ethiopia and Djibouti, grows its own khat bushes in a similar climate, but there is no foreign commerce in the leaf.

The bushes grow in the mountains where the famous mocha coffee once thrived. But the coffee is slowly disappearing because Yemeni farmers have decided to concentrate on the profitable, easy-to-care-for khat, planting seedlings as soon as a row is plowed.

Because khat can be cut easily and is sold quickly on a daily basis, business is booming. As soon as the crops are cut. baskets come down from the mountains, sometimes in cars, jeeps or trucks, sometimes on muleback, to be sold in the open market and at street stalls or in specialty shops that sell nothing else. Farmers usually deliver the crop directly, and they must pay a fixed “khat tax.” according to the weight of a load entering Sana.

As in Djibouti, it’s a mad rush to town before noon to catch the first customers with the freshest batches, wrapped in husks to keep them moist. Yemenis stop work promptly at 12:00. rush to the nearest market and buy their daily needs. The stalls and shops are only open for 12 to 14 hours for the quick sales of leaves cut in fields early that morning.

Khat time in Yemen is midday to midnight. People rush home to chew their troubles away or share them at the local funduk. Because of this tradition, nothing is open after noon, and even offices close down until the following morning.

Everyone chews—workers, policemen, soldiers, bureaucrats and merchants. In Sana there is even a minority of women who indulge, a rare instance of nondiscrimination in the sexist Arab world. The government that came to power in 1974 would like Yemenis to kick the habit and transform plantations back to fruit and coffee crops, something which may be physically impossible to do because the land has been ravaged by so many years of khat growing.

Khat was once a social problem for the neighboring People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen), the only Marxist Arab state, but the government outlawed it. However, users in South Yemen so far have had no need to fear any legal reprisals. Although khat is forbidden there, it is tolerated.

In northern Somalia, which has a climate like neighboring Ethiopia, some khat is grown but there are few chewers. Djibouti, Yemen and Ethiopia are the only countries in the world where significant amounts of khat are consumed, posing a sociological problem for the Horn of Africa, now in the throes of violent military problems. As the military situation worsens, some top officials are pleased to ignore the favorite pastime of euphoric citizens, and an increasing number are glad to join them for the traditional, allday high.

Read the full issue here.

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Ladies and gentlemen I’m proud and brutally disgruntled to say that I’m just over six months clean and sober (yes this includes weed) after over 12 years of doing drugs.

Hold your applause, please. I’m happy about it and shit but I didn’t ever want to come to this. I love drugs like a fat kid loves cake. I just personally can’t be trusted with them anymore (if I ever could). I have kids now, I’m getting a little older and it was just time to hang up my drinking and drugging boots for a long and indefinite period of time. 

That said, sobriety is damned difficult. I got high as a kite on all kinds of shit all day every day for over a decade and it’s no easy task to change my ways after such an extended jaunt down the proverbial rabbit hole. The general state of my life is undeniably better since I got sober but as a fellow wagon rider I know likes to say: sobriety is not all rainbows and blowjobs. It sucks dirty dog ass just to get out of bed some days and I’ve had to develop little tricks to keep my head in the game.

I was in the throes of one of those no good dirty awful very bad days when the idea for this article was born. I was in a group chat with some fellow drug reporters and derelicts talking about how Hunter Biden would make a way better president than his geriatric father or that fast talking orange fellow when I lamented that I would almost certainly break sobriety to smoke crack with Hunter Biden. 

I would love to say I was joking but it’s a mortal sin to lie in print. If Hunter Biden invited me to smoke crack, ride water slides and fire off automatic weapons with Ukrainian hookers I would have absolutely no choice but to say yes. I may be trying to live a better life but I’m not fucking daft. That shit would rule.

Thus, I was reminded about the episode of Friends where Ross makes a list of all the celebrity women he’s allowed to sleep with while in a long-term relationship. A hall pass list if you will. As somebody deadlocked in a long term relationship with sobriety, I thought it might be helpful and motivating to have my own hall pass list of people I’m allowed to do drugs with should the opportunity arise. 

Obviously, smoking crack with Hunter Biden is at the top of that list and I would be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to ask him in writing if he would be down to get high and ride water slides with me and some of my fellow drug journalist friends. So, Hunter, if you happen to be reading this please get ahold of me. Your dad, lawyers, girlfriends and/or ranking members of The Justice Department absolutely do not have to know.

Now it is at this time I feel I should be absolutely clear for my fellow sober people, this is just to have a laugh. I’m fully committed to sobriety and better living and I really don’t want to overdose again. I’m just trying to be funny, mostly. I also don’t think I’ll ever realistically be put into any of the following situations but who knows, life is cool sometimes. The point is this is supposed to be funny and I’m only like 2 maybe 40 percent serious so don’t yell at me and don’t tell my sponsor, wife, parents or kids that I wrote this. 

Now that we got the disclaimer out of the way, here’s my sobriety hall pass list complete with the people I’m allowed to get high with and the substance we’re allowed to do together. 

1. Drinking Lean with Future

This one should be obvious. I have listened to the 56 Nights mixtape well over 10,000 times. When I found out my lady was pregnant with my first son I swear to God I put an earbud in her belly button and played Codeine Crazy at max volume. I never had enough access to lean in the mountains of NorCal to really sip like I wanted to but on the rare occasion it was around I loved me some dirty sprite. If DJ Screw or Pimp C were still alive I’d choose to sip with them instead but I’d still want to do drugs with Future even though I’m pretty sure he’s actually sober in real life. His music was the soundtrack to so many of my degenerate activities it would only be right to sip a double cup or three in the studio with the man himself. 

2. Whiskey with Johnny Depp

Hear me out on this one, I don’t want to drink with Johnny Depp just because I’m secretly a little gay for him. I want to drink with Johnny Depp because he’s one of the few remaining people walking the Earth who knew and loved the late and great Hunter S. Thompson while he was still alive. As a die-hard Thompson fanatic with a Gonzo fist tattooed on my chest, I would love nothing more than to hear some stories about him from one of his closest friends and allies. I also know Johnny appreciates great literature and writing which I can sit and nerd out about with anybody, but to toss a few back with the guy who played Hunter in real life and trade stories from the dark and bloody ground would easily be the coolest moment I’ll ever experience in this lifetime. 

3. Acid with Ralph Steadman

Could it be any more obvious that I’m a Gonzo fanatic? Not only that, Ralph Steadman is one of my favorite artists and a noted lover of psychedelics, though maybe not so much in his old age. Either way, it would be an absolute gaggle of fun to dose with Steadman, watch his process, throw some paint around a studio and hear stories from his life. Art and acid also just go hand in hand for me. I used to dose up and spray paint manic scenes of pigs, butterflies and grim reapers (oh my!) on bedsheets in my old garage, so this would be a much more well-thought out version of that with one of the true godfathers.

4. Cocaine with Grace Slick

The 60’s are, naturally, my favorite bit of American history I wasn’t around for and Jefferson Airplane is one of my all-time favorite bands. As the lead singer and mastermind behind some of my favorite tracks from that era, it would be unbelievably rad to toss back some nose-beers with Grace Slick and fast-track a conversation about the 60’s, the Vietnam War, the Chicago Seven, the original Woodstock and how shitty the weed was back then compared to now. She’s probably a little old to be railing lines now but hey, this list was never supposed to be super realistic. I actually reached out to her for an interview once but never heard back so if anyone knows Grace Slick, tell her to call me so I can pick her brain. Doing drugs together would not be required.

5. Smoking Weed with Barack Obama

I stole this one from Jon Cappetta but it was too good to leave out. I’m not the most political person in the world. Frankly, everyone who gets too into politics seems to be fighting a losing fight against what I can only assume to be a superhuman race of reptilian overlords. That said, Obama was by far the coolest lizard-person ever to grace the White House since I’ve been alive (Although Slick Willy was in office the year I was born I was just too young to remember and too young to know what a blowjob was). The Secret Service would likely have to be there which would be really, really funny to me. They might even have to test the weed first, in a highly classified fashion of course. I also want to ask the former president about the night we killed Bin Laden, what it was like in the Situation Room, etc. That seems like it would make for some fun, light weed conversation.

6. MDMA with Emma Watson

Before anyone accuses me of anything let me be clear: this is not a sexual thing. Emma Watson just seems like she’d be fun to party with and I don’t want to take Molly with dudes. Not to mention I already saw Daniel Radcliffe in person once after doing a bunch of cocaine on a sea cliff (the details of which are here) so as my other favorite character from the Harry Potter series and somebody who generally seems cool as shit, I just have a weird feeling that it would be super fun to take Ecstasy and go to a light show with the brilliant Hermione Granger. Maybe we’d fake magic fight just for fun. Miley Cyrus also seems like she’d be fun to take Molly with, for whatever that information is worth.

During the course of writing this I was surprised to find this was actually a bit of a difficult list for me because all the people that came to mind originally are dead. Mac Miller, Hunter S. Thompson, Kurt Vonnegut, Warren Zevon, Joan Didion, MF Doom, James Gandolfini, Charles Bukowski and plenty more I can’t be bothered to remember at the moment would have all made the list ahead of the rest but they tragically passed before the fateful day I sat down to write this silly little article, many of them far too young. Maybe that says something about who I choose to look up to but I think it says more about the bargain you make between heaven and hell when you decide how you want to be remembered. Greatness takes a heavy toll on the mind, body and soul after all. Live fast, die young and don’t leave enough money behind to pay for the casket.

Anyway, I won’t turn this into a philosophical diatribe. I’d have to be high for that and I am regretfully…not…. I’ll end by saying that getting sober was a smart choice for me at the time I decided to do it but I don’t regret getting after it as hard as I did, not for a second. You gotta get a little weird with it sometimes. You gotta balance out the mundane with some good old fashioned freak power. You gotta have a backup plan to get through the pain of being a well-functioning human. You don’t necessarily need drugs to do that and I would be remiss if I did not take the time to strongly recommend sobriety to anyone struggling with substance abuse. It helps, it really does. Everyone else feel free to party on for the rest of us who can’t anymore.

That said, if anyone listed above wants to get high with me you can find me on AOL Instant Messenger. My screen name is “5ubstanc3Dumpst3r143.” Until then, you can find me hanging out with my kids, fully present, telling better stories than the other parents and casting my vote for Hunter Biden this November. 

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In an interview with Taste of Country published on May 24, Grammy Award-nominated country artist Jason “Jelly Roll” DeFord said that he smokes weed to stay away from hard drugs that he’s used in the past—namely opioids and benzodiazepines.

Given his past as an addict and his role in speaking against the use of fentanyl sweeping the country, the interview quickly shifted on the topic of drugs. But Jelly Roll doesn’t see weed the same way as hard drugs which can tear families apart and lead to deadly overdoses.

“I get in trouble for this, all the time, but my stance on marijuana will always be the same: I believe marijuana has helped me in so many regards, with my anxiety,” Jelly Roll told Taste of Country. “This is a hot button topic, but, truly, marijuana has kept me sober.”

The country superstar paused for a moment, then added, “I think a world without weed, Jelly Roll’s drinking codeine and popping Xanax and snorting cocaine again, but a world with weed, I’ll be alright.”

Jelly Roll abandoned hip-hop for a career in country music—which turned out to be a wise and lucrative decision. Jelly Roll’s album Whitsitt Chapel hit number 1 on the Billboard Top Rock Albums chart and number 2 on the Billboard Top Country Albums in 2023. In November 2023, he won the award for New Artist of the Year at the 57th Annual Country Music Association Awards. He’s won three CMT Music Awards and several other accolades.

TMZ reports that Jelly Roll has been a huge voice against fentanyl use and an example for people dealing with drug addiction. Last January, he appeared in front of Congress to back anti-fentanyl legislation called the Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act.

Jelly Roll gave an opening statement at a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing about fentanyl awareness and legislative solutions to stop illegal smuggling of fentanyl. “Fentanyl transcends partisanship and ideology…this is a totally different problem,” he started the hearing with in a speech that was described by many as “powerful.”

‘The sad news is that narrative is changing, too, because the statistics say that in all likelihood almost every person in this room has lost a friend, family member of colleague to the disease known as addiction,’ DeFord told the committee chaired by Cleveland Democrat Sherrod Brown. ‘I could sit here and cry for days about the caskets I’ve carried of people I love dearly.’”

His messages about fentanyl and hard drug use, and the potential of replacing them with a less dangerous substance such as pot, have made a lasting impact.

Cannabis for Addiction

Cannabis has been explored for its potential role in fighting addiction of hard drugs. Some studies have focused on CBD for treating addiction disorders, some of which are caused by compulsive cravings, while others focused on THC as well.

While many studies have focused on cannabis to curb opioid use with some looking more broadly at stimulants, new research suggests that it could prove useful for those with crack use disorder (CUD). In fact, the popular non-psychoactive CBD, or cannabidiol, seems to be the key element.

The study, published recently in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, utilized a double-blind randomized clinical trial comparing CBD to three drugs commonly used to treat CUD: fluoxetine, valproic acid and clonazepam. Authors represent a number of Brazilian academic and official institutions, comprising various departments at the University of Brasília, the Brazilian Federal District’s secretary of health and forensic institute and the Federal University of São Paulo.

The research ultimately found that participants who took CBD had better health outcomes and fewer adverse effects compared to those who underwent traditional pharmaceutical options.

In another study published in the journal Addictive Behaviors, researchers found that cannabis is not only widely used to manage stimulant cravings but that it may be an effective strategy to reduce stimulant use.

To further analyze how cannabis use may affect people using stimulant drugs, researchers collected data from three cohorts in Vancouver, Canada: the At-Risk Youth Study (ARYS), the Vancouver Injection Drug Users Study (VIDUS) and the AIDS Care Cohort to Evaluate Exposure to Survival Services (ACCESS).

Researchers used a cross-sectional questionnaire alongside logistic regression models to analyze the relationship between cannabis use to manage stimulant cravings as well as self-reported changes in the frequency of stimulant use. 

Many others say cannabis replaced their daily alcohol use.

The studies seem to back up some of the claims about cannabis and sobriety. Jelly Roll, like country outlaw Willie Nelson, are helping to spread the good word on cannabis to the country music world.

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A new California program incentivizes people using meth or cocaine with money if they can prove they are clean in an evidence-based system in which participants can earn incrementally more the longer they stay clean. Why? Because California is grappling with substance use disorder “crisis” with deaths from cocaine, meth, and other stimulants soaring in recent years. In 2021 for instance, 65% of drug-related overdose deaths involved stimulants, compared to 22% in 2011. The impulsive nature of stimulant cravings and addiction calls for alternative approaches.

A Medi-Cal initiative called CalAIM provides social and behavioral health services, including addiction treatment to individuals in California . California Healthline reports that CalAIM provides people who use meth and cocaine with an incentive to quit habit-forming drugs that are difficult to kick on your own.

Contingency Management (CM) is a program that provides motivational incentives to treat people who use stimulants like meth or cocaine, and support their path to recovery. It recognizes and reinforces individual positive behavioral change, and requires them to prove it with drug tests showing negative results for stimulants. “CM is the only treatment that has demonstrated robust outcomes for individuals living with stimulant use disorder, including reduction or cessation of drug use and longer retention in treatment,” the program states.

“The Recovery Incentives Program increases access to new evidence-based treatments for Californians living with substance use disorder,” the program’s Fact Sheet states. “Starting in 2023, the program is available to members living with stimulant use disorder in participating counties, in outpatient, intensive outpatient, and Narcotic Treatment Program settings. As part of the program, eligible Medi-Cal members participate in a structured 24-week outpatient program, followed by at least six months of additional recovery support services. Participants meet with a trained contingency management coordinator twice weekly for the first 12 weeks of the program, then weekly for weeks 13 to 24 to complete a drug test. Participants receive a small gift card each time they test negative for stimulants and can earn up to $599 per year in incentives.”

California is the first state in the country to receive federal approval of CM as a benefit in the Medicaid program through the CalAIM 1115 Demonstration. CM also tested other sources of funding.

According to the state Department of Health Care Services, about 2,700 patients from 19 counties have enrolled in the program since April 2023.

Quinn Coburn, 65, who is in the program, told California Healthline, “It’s that little something that’s holding me accountable.”  Coburn received $10 for each clean urine test he provided the first week of the program, and the pay increases in subsequent weeks: $11.50 per test in week two, $13 in week three—up to $26.50 per test.

The program promises as much as $599 a year, and Coburn is proof that it’s doable: As of mid-May, Coburn had completed 20 weeks of clean drug tests and made $521.50.

“The way stimulants work on the brain is different than how opiates or alcohol works on the brain,” said John Duff, lead program director at Common Goals, where Coburn receives treatment. “The reward system in the brain is more activated with amphetamine users, so getting $10 or $20 at a time is more enticing than sitting in group therapy.”.

The average recovery rate for people suffering from meth addiction is around 37%, which is about equal to other physically addictive drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and prescription drugs. Cannabis is also being explored as a potential treatment to help reduce stimulant cravings.

Fighting Meth Abuse at the National Level

The fight against meth abuse is also taking place at the national level.

In 2022, President Joe Biden signed legislation designed to address the rising scourge of meth abuse in the United States.

The new law, titled the Methamphetamine Response Act, “requires the government to declare methamphetamine an ‘emerging drug threat’ and to develop a response plan specific to methamphetamine,” according to a press release.

The bill had bipartisan support in the House of Representatives and Senate: its sponsors were Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Reps. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) and John Curtis (R-Utah).

According to a study from the National Institutes of Health, “overdose deaths involving methamphetamine nearly tripled from 2015 to 2019 among people ages 18-64 in the United States.” That study showed that the “number of people who reported using methamphetamine during this time did not increase as steeply, but the analysis found that populations with methamphetamine use disorder have become more diverse,” suggesting that “increases in higher-risk patterns of methamphetamine use, such as increases in methamphetamine use disorder, frequent use, and use of other drugs at the same time, may be contributing to the rise in overdose deaths.”

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In a study that was originally published late last year, researchers unveiled the risks for former cocaine users who may relapse by taking methylphenidate.

Methylphenidate is used as a treatment for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and is often recognized through brands such as Aptensio XR, Concerta/Concerta XR-ODT, Jornay PM, and most commonly, Ritalin. As a stimulant drug, these medicines increase brain neurotransmitters such as dopamine and norepinephrine, to help a patient achieve better focus and behavior control. To a lesser degree, methylphenidate can also be used to treat narcolepsy as well.

Methylphenidate is currently a Schedule III substance in the U.S., and has a history of misuse. According to Psypost.org, college students sometimes use methylphenidate to help them focus. Although methylphenidate has shown some promise in studies as a treatment to help people abusing cocaine, it comes with a few concerning side effects such as cravings and relapse. Researchers also found that methylphenidate use in conjunction with fluoxetine (a treatment for depression) actually mirrors the effects of cocaine.

The study entitled “Methylphenidate with or without fluoxetine triggers reinstatement of cocaine seeking behavior in rats,” was originally published in the December 2023 issue of Neuropsychopharmacology, and lead by researchers Lorissa Lamoureux, Joel Beverly, Heinz Steiner, and Michela Marinelli.

Study author Michela “Micky” Marinelli works at the University of Texas as an associate professor, and explained the history behind this unique study topic. “The interest started many years ago, from a creative graduate student I worked with in Dr. Frank White’s lab: Cindy Brandon. Cindy had school-aged children and noticed that more and more children at school were being diagnosed with ADHD and treated with methylphenidate,” Marinelli explained. “She wondered if this could pose a risk to develop stimulant addiction and she set out to study this in rodent models. She found that rats are not likely to self-administer very low doses of cocaine (they are too low to have an effect) but they will self-administer these low doses of cocaine if they have been previously exposed to methylphenidate (Brandon et al., 2001). She continued this line of research as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Heinz Steiner’s lab. Dr. Steiner was an expert in studying gene expression and together they found that methylphenidate alters gene expression in the brain in ways that were similar to cocaine, but not quite the same.”

She added that according to Dr. Steiner’s research, methylphenidate elevates just dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain, but cocaine elevates those two as well as serotonin. Because of these similarities. “So he asked: what would happen if people taking methylphenidate also take antidepressant drugs like selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which elevate serotonin. Would the methylphenidate + SSRI combination become cocaine-like?”

Dr. Steiner observed gene expressions in the brain, which revealed the answer to his questions. Together, Dr. Stein and Marinelli wrote a grant study revealing the risks of using both a methylphenidate and an SSRI. “At this point in time, methylphenidate started to be taken not just in the clinic, as a medication for ADHD but also recreationally or as a ‘cognitive enhancer’ so we set out to examine both low and high doses of methylphenidate, to mimic (as much as possible in a rat) doses used in the clinic (low doses) vs. those used recreationally or as a cognitive enhancer (high doses),” Marinelli explained.

In the most recent study, researchers studied male Sprague Dawley rats in a controlled setting. Rats were trained to self-administer cocaine as a way to mimic youth cocaine use. This was followed by a withdrawal phase when cocaine access was removed, where rats exhibited “cocaine-seeking behavior,” which included “nose poking” whenever they would receive the cocaine. Then an extinction phase followed, where the rats would learn to no longer exhibit that behavior.

The next step included giving the rats either a high dose of methylphenidate or a combined dose of methylphenidate and fluoxetine to see if the rats would relapse and begin exhibiting cocaine-seeking behavior once again. “One needs caution extrapolating studies in rodents to human,” Marinelli said to PsyPost in an interview. “But at least in rats, if one has previously taken cocaine, taking methylphenidate can push that individual (rat) to seek cocaine again. This happens at high doses of methylphenidate, comparable to those used recreationally or as a cognitive enhancer.”

Researchers also observed that there was no significant difference between rats who took methylphenidate alone, or the combined methylphenidate with fluoxetine, showing that fluoxetine doesn’t impact the effect. “We were surprised that adding a SSRI (fluoxetine) to methylphenidate did not exacerbate the effects of methylphenidate,” said Marinelli. “The effects we saw were due to methylphenidate alone.”

It’s easier to study rats in an isolated, controlled environment versus studying humans, which leaves much to be desired in human observations. “It will be important to examine how much this work translates to human populations,” said Marinelli. “These are difficult to study as, unlike rats, they are not in a controlled environment, where we can determine the dose, duration, and manner in which they are exposed to different drugs or medications or treatments.”

The rats also did not have ADHD, which could lead to different results in a human trial. “When I teach about addiction in summer camps or to undergraduate students, I ask how many of them know of someone who has taken methylphenidate as a cognitive enhancer. Almost all raise their hand. When I then ask them if any of them have, nobody raises their hand—so self-reported use of methylphenidate might be difficult to obtain. Anonymous questionnaires are helpful, but not if one wants to obtain more information from a person, which is only done face-to-face.”

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The ports in Antwerp, Belgium and several cities in The Netherlands are fighting to curb the illicit trade of cocaine, which is seeing somewhat of a heyday in recent years. Criminals are allegedly smuggling cocaine on shipping containers, often disguised as fruit or other goods.

To keep up with the extremely high demand for cocaine in Europe, ports in Belgium and The Netherlands, Europe’s “cocaine superhighway,” have stepped up security, Bloomberg reported Monday. Cocaine is the second most commonly used illicit drug in Europe (after cannabis, of course) according to the European Drug Report 2023.

Dutch authorities say they have been intercepting an increasing amount of cocaine in recent years. Seizures jumped 18% to 60,000 kilograms of cocaine in 2023 from a year earlier, according to the Netherlands’ customs data. 

According to findings published March 20 by the EU drugs agency (EMCDDA) and SCORE group, a sewage analysis spanning across Europe identified Antwerp as the cocaine capital of Europe, and it has been for several years.

Politico reports that Antwerp was once again Europe’s cocaine capital where consumption is highest per capita, according to EMCDDA’s findings, with 1,721 milligrams detected per 1,000 people per day, a slight decrease from 2022 but still enough to top the list. Five cities from the Netherlands also made it into the top 10. Three of those Dutch ports in the top 10—Amsterdam, Leeuwarden, and Rotterdam—are home to large port destinations.

Data from 2023 indicated that Antwerp set a record of 116 tons of cocaine seized, breaking the previous record of 110 set in 2022. Eight tons of the cocaine was confiscated in a single bust on a freight vessel.

“The fight against international drug trafficking requires a lot of expertise and energy from our customs,” said Vincent Van Peteghem, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. “I can only emphasize my great thanks and pride for that. Especially since this fight is just one of the many components of customs’ remit. Thousands of employees, spread all over the country, gave their best in once again extraordinary circumstances last year. And while this may officially be the last presentation of annual figures of this legislature, it remains my goal to continue on the path we have taken. We have increased investment in people and resources in recent years for the first time in a long time and we will continue to do so. It remains my conviction to support and strengthen customs and customs officers.”

Franky De Keyzer, chief of the city’s public prosecutor’s office, said last week that Dutch criminals had overrun the port of Antwerp. Teens are allegedly paid to retrieve shipments of coke in Antwerp and Rotterdam, local reports indicate.

The report analyzed wastewater in 88 cities in 23 countries in the European Union as well as Turkey, home to some 55.6 million people, and researchers found a rise in cocaine consumption, followed by ketamine and MDMA. The prevalence of amphetamines and cannabis were less clear.

Drugs Destined for the Netherlands

Seizures of cocaine in Dutch ports are skyrocketing, with the nation’s largest busts ever taking place over the past few years. It’s alarming enough to prompt authorities to try new tactics.

In August 2023, Dutch customs officials announced they had seized eight tons of cocaine on a Maersk container ship during a routine check, after drug-sniffing dogs alerted them on July 13. The ship originated in Ecuador and docked at the port of Rotterdam, where port authorities found the drugs hidden inside pallets with bananas.

According to Dutch customs authorities, the cocaine estimated value is €600 million (about $662 million USD). Officials found and confiscated over 8,000 kilograms (17,600 pounds) of cocaine at the bust. It represents 23 times more than all the cocaine seized in Denmark in 2022, according to national police records from the Special Crime Unit, and was a record bust for the country.

Drug traffickers are also sending drugs to the Netherlands via airplane as well. Six bags containing 250 grams of cocaine, destined for The Netherlands, were seized by the Dominican Republic’s National Drug Control Directorate (DNCD) at the Las Américas International Airport just last Sunday. 

A drug-sniffing dog signaled the presence of controlled substances inside a box loaded with computer video cards, and a search revealed 250 grams of cocaine hidden in six envelopes.

DNCD said that a shipping manifest showed the package was allegedly sent by a woman with an address in Ciudad Juan Bosch, Las Flores and would be received by a person with residence in Rousseaustraat, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

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According to a Swedish customs official, authorities confiscated approximately 1.4 tons of cocaine last week in a port near Stockholm, as reported by Associated Press.

While the precise figure is still pending, Swedish customs official Stefan Granath told broadcaster SVT, “If it’s as big as we think, it is one of the biggest seizures ever made.” Authorities discovered the cocaine in a container in the Nynashamn port south of Stockholm on April 18, according to Granath.

Six men have also been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the drug’s transport.

The Latest of Many Record Drug Seizures in Europe

Granath noted the size of the seizure, saying that only five to 10 years ago it was “very unusual” to seize only 100 kilograms, or 220.5 pounds. 

To put it in perspective, 1.4 tons is equivalent to 2,800 pounds. That’s more than the volume of total cocaine seized by Sweden in 2022, and the country’s previous cocaine seizure peak — 822 kilograms or 1,812 pounds. The prior record was set in 2018, with 300 kilograms or 661 pounds of seized cocaine.

Granath also added that it’s likely that the cocaine was meant for the European market and that Sweden was only a point of transit.

It’s historic for Sweden, but it also acts as one of the more significant drug seizures for Europe as a whole. 

Earlier this year, Portuguese authorities discovered 1.3 tons of cocaine within shipments of frozen fish, similarly expected for distribution across Europe and unloaded at the Lisbon port. Authorities noted that the way the drug was hidden made it extremely difficult to detect and that the frozen fish had to be completely destroyed in order to remove the cocaine.

In 2023, Netherlands customs agents seized a whopping 17,600 pounds of cocaine hidden inside crates of bananas in what was the largest haul ever collected in Rotterdam’s port, the largest port in Europe that had processed more than 220 million tons through its terminals in the first six months of 2023.

The Shifting Culture in Sweden

According to Swedish radio, the recent figure and seizure is indicative of more efficient search methods and an increase in the flow of drugs as a whole. 

Demand for cocaine appears to be growing rapidly across the European Union, with governments blaming the drug trade for increased violent outbreaks in major port cities like Antwerp in Brussels, Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Marseille in France. 

On top of some of the other recent busts, Antwerp customs reported that it had seized 116 tons of cocaine in its port throughout 2023, setting a record for the second year in a row according to an Associated Press report.

EU member countries stopped a total of 303 tons of cocaine in 2021, the most recent year for which figures are available. AP reports that 75% of that quantity was seized in Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain.

Outlets have suggested that the European drug boom is impacting neighboring countries like Sweden. EL PAÍS notes that the Swedish government opted to put the army on the streets last September to combat a wave of murders linked to gang rivalries.

Sweden now has the second-highest gun crime death rate in Europe, with poverty and inequality as driving factors as well as arms and drug trafficking. It’s a stark shift over the past several years, as Sweden’s once peaceful image has been drastically altered by an increased onslaught of gang violence.

“What started out as gun violence between young gangs looking to defend their territory has turned into a vicious circle of firearms trafficking and gun violence,” said Nils Duquet, a firearms researcher based at Brussels’ Flemish Peace Institute. “Gangs have also matured and are no longer just the street criminals, but are often connected to higher-level criminals as well.”

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A 73-year-old American man was arrested in Colombia this week for leading “cannabis tours” in his home.

Per CBS News, citing Colombian law enforcement, the unidentified man “advertised on social media and a website for foreigners to visit his house in Sabaneta, a town south of the city of Medellín in the northwestern part of the country.”

CBS said that the man “distributed flyers advertising ‘Cannabis Farm Tours’ given by ‘Cannabis Jimmy.’” 

“The materials said ‘free samples’ would be distributed during the tours. Approximately 2-8 people were on each tour, and reservations were required. The tours lasted 2-3 hours during which the man taught visitors ‘the process of planting, caring for, harvesting, and maintaining this plant,’ police said. He also sold tour-takers marijuana for $20 a gram,” the outlet reported. 

“Police said they confiscated 1,380 grams of marijuana during the arrest. They did not identify the man, only saying he is an American.”

Medical cannabis and industrial hemp are both legal in Colombia, but the country continues to impose a ban on recreational marijuana. 

But as CBS notes, the country has “long struggled to control the trafficking, manufacturing and/or possession of narcotics within its borders.”

“Late last year, the Colombian Navy intercepted a shipwrecked boat carrying 33 kilograms of cocaine and 744 kilograms of marijuana,” the network said. “The South American nation is the world’s largest exporter of cocaine – almost 90% of the cocaine sold in the United States each year arrives from Colombia.”

Lawmakers in Colombia considered a proposal last year to legalize adult-use marijuana and commercial sales. 

But in December, members of the Colombian senate “rejected the proposed legislation aimed to legalize adult-use cannabis in the country,” according to Forbes.

“The proposed legislation faced a setback in the Senate on December 12 during the plenary session in its attempt to regulate the adult use and commercialization of cannabis. During the plenary session, a proposal to archive the bill submitted by Senator Karina Espinosa from the Liberal Party right before the formal debate began received 45 positive votes,” Forbes reported at the time.

“Following the vote, Senator María José Pizarro, who spearheaded the project, spoke before the plenary session. She vehemently criticized the senators who supported archiving the project, attributing blame to the Senate for enabling organized groups to profit and condemning youth and consumers to the influence of illicit traders and drug traffickers.”

A different legalization proposal met the same fate in June, when the Colombian Senate voted down a proposal to allow the sale of weed.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who was elected in 2022, has spoken in favor of legalizing and commercializing marijuana in the country. 

In October, Petro recounted a visit to New York City, where he smelled marijuana burning wherever he went.

“Marijuana is sold today in Times Square,” Petro said, as quoted by Marijuana Moment. “It smelled on all the streets, all the way around the corner, and they sold it…like any other product. I suppose they charge taxes and that New York City or the state of New York lives partially from them.”

Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, went on to criticize the United States for its role in the drug war.

“That’s where the war on drugs began,” Petro said, according to Marijuana Moment. “How many people have been imprisoned? How many people have died? Because undoubtedly illegality brought violence.”

As one of the world’s leading producers of the coca bush, Colombia has long been associated with cocaine trafficking.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, an estimated “63,660 of the country’s households were involved in the cultivation of that illicit crop.”

“This has led the Government and the international community to design an innovative programme that also addresses security issues. In 2012, the area under coca crop cultivation in Colombia fell by a quarter to 48,000 hectares (ha), down from 64,000 ha in 2011,” the UN said. 

“Experience has shown that it is not enough to eradicate illicit drug crops to bring about a lasting solution to the problem. This is why UNODC supports the Government’s efforts to assist farmers who give up cultivating coca bush through alternative development initiatives such as the Forest Warden Families Programme and the Productive Projects Programme. These initiatives ensure that former coca bush farmers have legal and adequate incomes. These rural activities are integrated into broader socio-economic development strategies and benefit rural, indigenous and Afro-Colombian populations.”

The United Nations estimates that “the area under coca bush cultivation in Colombia has declined by 15 per cent from 73,000 hectares in 2009 to 62,000 hectares in 2010.” 

“During the last decade (2000 to 2010), cultivation levels have been reduced significantly by 62 %. These declines signal an advance of sustainable livelihood programmes and are due mainly to a combination of alternative development and law enforcement measures,” the report said.

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Prison walls do little when drones can easily deliver drugs and other contraband to prisoners, and the tactic appears at prisons all across the country. Georgia Gov. Brian P. Kemp announced last week that 150 individuals were arrested in a drone drug delivery operation that served inmates in Georgia correctional facilities as law enforcement confiscated 67 pounds of pot and various other drugs.

“Operation Skyhawk” was a joint investigative effort between the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Safe Streets Gang Task Force. Eight dirty GDC correctional officers who allegedly took part in the operation were also arrested and immediately terminated from their positions.

NBC News reports that items that have been confiscated thus far during the operation include a full range of illegal drugs, with a total combined street value of over $7 million. This includes 87 drones, 22 weapons, 273 cell phones (which are banned in the prisons), 180 civilian cell phones, 185 pounds of tobacco, 67 pounds of pot, 12 pounds of meth, 51 pounds of ecstasy, 10 grams of cocaine, and 90 various pills. Photos of the confiscated drugs and weapons, including Wonka-branded products, were also released. Three large vacuum-sealed bags of flower can also be seen in the photos.

The governor announced the arrests in a March 28 press release. Search and arrest warrants were served at two locations in the Metro Atlanta area—taking down a “sophisticated, multi-state criminal enterprise that included civilians, inmates, and staff involved in contraband introduction into GDC facilities.”

“Georgia will not tolerate those who put our communities at risk by trafficking drugs, weapons, and contraband both in and out of our correctional facilities,” said Kemp. “I want to thank Commissioner Oliver, the hardworking men and women of the GDC, and all law enforcement who worked to shut these operations down and help keep both Georgians and our correctional facilities safe.”

“Operation Skyhawk” led to over 1,000 criminal charges stemming from contraband introduction, drug trafficking, and felons in possession of firearms. 

The governor also announced that many of the individuals arrested will also be facing Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) charges and Participation in Criminal Gang Activity in multiple venues across the state, resulting in what may be the largest Gang RICO investigation in the state’s history.

Law enforcement officers warned that many other states may also be affected by the same criminal enterprise.

Prison Drone Delivery

Drone deliveries in California and Kansas recently led to a total of 10 indictments. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of California posted a press release on Thursday, announcing that four defendants have been indicted in schemes to deliver drugs into prisons via drone.

In that case, drones delivered not only weed, but spice/K2 drugs that mimic weed, butane oil, and an assortment of other drugs and contraband items. If convicted of conspiracy charges, the defendants face a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years to life in prison and fines of up to $10 million. If convicted of possession with intent to distribute drugs, the defendants face a statutory penalty of five to 40 years in prison and a fine of up to $5 million.

Meanwhile, another team of criminals allegedly used drones to deliver drugs into the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas.  Between August 2020 and May 2021, drugs on demand were available, and inmates into the prison yard could order specific drugs.

Last September, an Australian woman and two accomplices pleaded guilty in court to using a drone in an attempt to traffic multiple different drugs and a USB stick filled with pornography into a Queensland, Australia prison yard.

In that case, 27-year-old Cheyenne Anniki Petryszyn was on parole when a drone containing Buprenorphine strips, methamphetamine, and a USB thumb drive containing pornography was found in an exercise yard where it crash-landed.

Prison staff said they found a drone on the ground near a baggie containing 79 strips of Buprenorphine which is a drug used to treat opioid dependence, 0.94 grams of meth, and the USB drive containing an undisclosed amount of pornographic material. 

Law enforcement is also using drones to spot cannabis operations—particularly in California. A pilot program involving the use of drones to spot illegal cannabis grow operations took place in 2021 in Nevada County, California.

In many areas in California, growers have the challenge of competing with illicit operations amid an epic oversupply problem—driving some operators into the black market. 

Also in 2021, a House appropriations committee backed federal efforts to track down illicit grow operations on public lands in California. If issues around cybersecurity and domestic production can be resolved so that drones can be fully trusted, it could become a reality in more areas. 

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