The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently released a report on May 9 with details about its 2024 National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA), which is dedicated to compiling data in relation to illegal drugs and trafficking trends within the U.S.

DEA Administrator Anne Milgram introduced the report to warn of the many threats to public safety as well as national security. “The shift from plant-based drugs, like heroin and cocaine, to synthetic, chemical-based drugs, like fentanyl and methamphetamine, has resulted in the most dangerous and deadly drug crisis the United States has ever faced,” Milgram said. “At the heart of the synthetic drug crisis are the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels and their associates, who DEA is tracking world-wide. The suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and money launderers all play a role in the web of deliberate and calculated treachery orchestrated by these cartels. DEA will continue to use all available resources to target these networks and save American lives.”

Individual chapters include the Sinaloa and Jalisco Cartels and their reach within the U.S., and individual substances such as fentanyl, nitazenes, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, “marijuana,” controlled prescription drugs, new psychoactive substances, illicit finance, and DEA response.

The chapter on cannabis explained that legalization on a state level illegal cannabis continues to thrive. “Despite these measures, the black market for marijuana continues, with substantial trafficking by Mexican cartels, and Chinese and other Asian organized crime groups profiting from illegal cultivation and sales, as well as exploitation of the ‘legal’ market,” the DEA wrote. “The price of marijuana in illegal U.S. markets has remained largely stable for years, even as the potency of marijuana has increased exponentially.”

The administration noted the increase in “average Delta-9 THC Potency in Marijuana” between 1977-2022, as according to information provided by the University of Mississippi Marijuana Potency Monitoring Program. In 1977, the percentage of potency was recorded at approximately 1%, followed by approximately 3% in 1982, 1987, and 1992. This rose to 4% in 1997, 6% in 2002, 8% in 2007, 12% in 2012, 15% in 2017, and finally 16% in 2022. “The potency of THC in leafy marijuana is at an all-time high, increasing the potential risk of negative effects on users of any form of the drug, and on children who may consume edibles made with these substances,” the DEA stated.

The rest of the DEA report focuses on Asian organized crime and illegal cultivation. “Many of these home-grows pretend to operate under business registrations granted by state licensing authorities in jurisdictions where marijuana cultivation and sales are ‘legal’ at the state level but, absent overt evidence such as the trafficking of marijuana across state lines or the commission of non-drug crimes such as money laundering and human trafficking, it can be difficult for law enforcement to immediately identify violations or discover an illegal grow,” the DEA explained. The administration’s Dallas Division seized $2.8 million in cannabis linked to four Chinese nationals growing illegally in Oklahoma. Two of those nationals were convicted of drug trafficking in January 2024.

The report also described the rise in emergency room visits by children, as well as the environmental damage caused by illegal cultivation.

The University of Mississippi’s potency percentages pale in comparison to the potency percentages of current cannabis strains. In March, a study analyzed Colorado cannabis samples to determine if the THC percentages were accurate, and found that more than 70% of products were at least 15% higher than reported. Many THC potency reports showed a range between 12.8%-19.3%, as well as a higher range of 28.07%-31.28%. “THC levels averaged 9.75% back in 2009, based on testing of DEA-seized cannabis flower,” wrote report author Anna Schwabe, a professor at University of Colorado, Boulder. “Today, levels reportedly surpass 35%, though they’re not as common as consumers have been led to believe. DEA-seized cannabis flower averaged 13.88% in 2019, which is closer to my observed mean of 14.98% than the reported mean of my samples, which was 20.27%-24.10%.”

According to Headset data obtained by SFGATE, the median THC potency for cannabis has decreased over the past six months in California, with a 7% decrease in the past three months. In December, the average potency levels were recorded at 30.7%, but dropped to 28.5% in March. The potency shifted due to new regulations on cannabinoid testing, which went into effect on Jan. 1, 2024. According to Zach Eisenberg, Anresco Laboratories vice president, the potency decrease was an expected result. “We certainly heard from customers and potential customers that they’re seeing potency values dropping at other laboratories,” Eisenberg said to SFGATE. “Some labs were even proactively saying, ‘Be prepared for our results to be lower after this change.’”

In reality, the more recent reports are just reflecting current potency percentages. “I highly doubt anything has changed in terms of the actual composition of the cannabis products,” Eisenberg told SFGATE. High Times received a statement from Vicente LLP attorney Andrea Golan, based in Los Angeles, about the recent change. “For years, the efficacy of cannabis lab test results has been widely discussed across the California cannabis industry due to inflated potency test results and inconsistencies in results due to labs using different methodologies for testing cannabis,” Golan said. “The change in law ends the practice of shopping for labs with less strict testing methods in order to inflate THC content. Therefore, rather than cannabis getting weaker, recent changes may now provide a more accurate reflection of true potency.”

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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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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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More Americans are overdosing and dying by smoking illegal drugs as opposed to injecting them.

Of the 109,000 recorded overdose deaths which occurred in 2022, almost 70 percent involved fentanyl and a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that fentanyl users are beginning to favor smoking as their preferred method of ingestion, surpassing those who favor injection. 

“From January–June 2020 to July–December 2022, the percentage of overdose deaths with evidence of smoking increased 73.7%, and the percentage with evidence of injection decreased 29.1%; similar changes were observed in all U.S. regions. Changes were most pronounced in deaths with [illegally manufactured fentanyls] detected, with or without stimulant detection,” the CDC study said.

The study was performed using CDC data taken from death certificates, postmortem toxicology testing, and medical examiner or coroner reports over 28 different police jurisdictions. This collection of data showed that as fentanyl has infiltrated the American drug supply, opiate users have made a distinct and notable transition from primarily injecting heroin to primarily smoking fentanyl. The method of ingestion was determined using information from police investigations, witness reports, and autopsy data.

This data collected from the CDC revealed notable trends. From January 2020 to December 2022, the 28 jurisdictions surveyed recorded 139,740 overdose deaths. Deaths increased 20.2%, from January–June 2020 to July–December 2022 with 21,046 deaths and 25,301 deaths respectively recorded. Deaths involving fentanyl increased by 8.4% over the same time periods from 71.4% to 77.4%. 

The kicker here is overdose deaths with evidence that the user smoked fentanyl increased 109.1% when comparing the two time periods with 2,794 deaths recorded in the first half of 2020 and 5,843 in the second half of 2022. Overdose deaths with evidence of fentanyl injection decreased by 14.6% with 4,780 recorded in the first half of 2020 and 4,080 in the second half of 2022.

“The leading route of use in drug overdose deaths changed from injection during January–June 2020 (22.7% of deaths) compared with ingestion (15.2%), snorting (13.6%), and smoking (13.3%) to smoking during July–December 2022 (23.1% of deaths) compared with snorting (16.2%), injection (16.1%), and ingestion (14.5%),” the CDC study said. “During July–December 2022, most deaths with evidence of smoking (79.7%), snorting (84.5%), or ingestion (86.5%) had no evidence of injection; among deaths with information on route of use, 81.9% had evidence of a noninjection route.”

Contrary to what most current or former drug users may believe from anecdotal data, smoking actually presents a greater addiction potential than injection for most drugs because of the way smoking delivers psychoactive compounds to the bloodstream and subsequently the brain. As such, it can also make it easier to overdose when smoking. As the following language from the University of Utah illustrates, the faster psychoactive compounds make it to the brain the more addictive they are and smoking is the fastest known method of ingestion.

“The fastest way to get a drug to the brain is by smoking it. When a drug like tobacco smoke is taken into the lungs, nicotine (the addictive chemical in tobacco) seeps into lung blood where it can quickly travel to the brain. This fast delivery is one reason smoking cigarettes is so addicting,” the University of Utah said.

The same information from the University of Utah went on to explain that injection is the second fastest way of delivering drugs to the brain, which could at least partially explain why fentanyl users have largely transitioned to smoking in lieu of injecting.

“Injecting a drug directly into a blood vessel is the second fastest way to get a drug to the brain, followed by snorting or sniffing it through the nose. A slow mode of delivery is ingestion, such as drinking alcohol. The effects of alcohol take many minutes rather than a few seconds to cause behavioral and biological changes in the brain,” the University of Utah said.

The CDC said that while injection poses many potential risks in terms of complications from improper injection techniques, infectious disease transmission from dirty needles etc, smoking fentanyl may present an increased risk for overdose. They stressed the nationwide need for education and harm reduction programs to help curb the dramatic increase in overdose deaths America has seen since fentanyl reared its ugly head. 

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Nine convicted drug traffickers have been recently hanged in Iran, according to several middle eastern news sources all citing the Islamic Republic News Agency.

Details on the matter were sparse, but it appeared that three drug traffickers were hanged at a prison in the northwest Iranian province of Ardabil on charges of buying and transporting heroin and opium. Iran is located more or less dead center on a major opium smuggling route between Afghanistan and Europe which has led to sky-high rates of opiate addiction in the area.

The other six convicted traffickers were executed separately for trafficking charges related to methamphetamine, heroin and cannabis though it was unclear if all six were charged for all three substances. 

Iran has some of the harshest penalties in the world for drug dealing and executions. A Reuters article from July of this year reported that Iran had executed 20 drug traffickers in one day. Figures released in June by Amnesty International, a United Kingdom-based human rights advocacy group, reported that Iran had executed 173 people for drug-related offenses and 282 people total in the first half of 2023 after what they described as “systematically unfair trials.”

“The shameless rate at which the authorities are carrying out drug-related executions, in violation of international law, exposes their lack of humanity and flagrant disregard for the right to life. The international community must ensure that cooperation in anti-drug trafficking initiatives do not contribute, directly or indirectly, to the arbitrary deprivation of life and other human rights violations in Iran,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

The same report from Amnesty International said that around 20 percent of executions in Iran targeted a community known as the Baluch or Baloch people, a poor pastoral Muslim ethnic group living chiefly in coastal Pakistan and Northwest Iran. Amnesty International said that the death penalty trials often target the poorest of Iranians who are unaware of their rights or of how to properly fight for their own defense. 

“The judges in Revolutionary Courts will ask if the drugs are yours and it makes no difference if you say yes or no. The judge at my trial told me to be quiet when I said the drugs were not mine. He said my sentence was death and ordered me to sign a document accepting it. He didn’t even allow my lawyer to speak in my defense,” an Iranian Death Row inmate said to Amnesty International.

Another relative of a death row inmate told Amnesty International that the prisoner’s court appointed lawyer basically extorted them for a large sum of money and then vanished entirely. 

“She never saw her court-appointed lawyer. He gave the family false promises that he would have her death sentence overturned if they paid him an extortionate amount of money,” the relative of a Death Row inmate said.” They sold everything they had to pay him, even their sheep. Once he took their money, he disappeared and left the family with a lot of debt.”

Another relative of someone executed in Iran, a teenager, told Amnesty International he was now faced with the choice of making money to support his family or paying his school registration. 

“I should be worried about my exams like other children, not going to work. My wages do not cover my family’s necessities because of all the loans we have. I don’t even have the money to cover my school registration for next year. If my father hadn’t been executed, I would be thinking about my future right now, not thinking of how to make money for my family,” the teenager said. 

A 2022 Amnesty International report said that Iran had the second highest rates of executions in the world, surpassed only by China. The same report said the rate of execution in Iran increased by 83 percent from 2021 to 2022 largely due to an increase in murder and drug trafficking convictions. 

“States and intergovernmental bodies must condemn the Iranian authorities, in the strongest terms, for these arbitrary executions, call for an official moratorium on all executions, send representatives to visit prisoners sentenced to death, and seek attendance at trials involving capital crimes. Given the crisis of impunity for mass arbitrary executions, they must also urgently pursue meaningful pathways for accountability,” Eltahawy said. 

In early 2023 Amnesty International reported five people were executed for engaging in protests, a man was executed for adultery due to having engaged in a consensual sexual relationship with a married woman, and two social media users were executed for “apostasy,” meaning the abandonment or renunciation of religious beliefs, and “insulting the Prophet of Islam.”

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South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun, known for playing the wealthy father in Bong Joon-ho’s 2019 film Parasite, was found dead in his car on Wednesday morning. Inside the car, parked near Waryong Park in central Seoul, investigators found a charcoal briquette. The briquette, a compressed block of coal that can cause carbon monoxide poisoning, suggests he died by suicide. He was 48 years old.

Lee passed away at the pinnacle of his career. In addition to starring in the Oscar-winning thriller, which earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award alongside his fellow cast members, he also played a leading role in the internationally acclaimed sci-fi film Dr. Brain. His last two films, Sleep and Project Silence – horror and disaster films, respectively – both made it into the 76^th Cannes Film Festival.

News outlets speculate Lee’s suicide may be related to his criminal charges. In October, the actor was arrested by the Incheon Metropolitan Police for allegedly using marijuana and other illegal drugs at the home of a hostess in Seoul’s Gangnam district earlier in the year. Lee’s most recent police interrogation, which took place last Saturday, went on for a shocking total of 19 hours. 

According to an article from Korea Times, Lee said that he was “tricked by the hostess into taking the drugs and that he did not know what he was taking.” He had tested negative for a reagent test and a lab-based drug test from Korea’s National Forensic Service, and submitted a polygraph lie detector test at the insistence of his lawyer. 

The Korea Times article also states that, before his death, Lee filed a complaint against the hostess and one other, seemingly unknown person, “accusing them of blackmail and swindling him out of money.” When the actor was first taken in for questioning on October 28, he said he was “sorry for my family, who are enduring extreme pain at this moment.”

In an apparent suicide note addressed to his wife Jeon Hye Jin, which was published by the Korean channel TV Chosun the following day, Lee wrote he “cannot do anything else, there is no other way but this.” Relaying a message to his agents, he added that “the financial penalties for breaching advertising and movie contracts are overwhelming. I am sorry.” 

Although the motivations for Lee’s suicide remain the subject of debate, journalists link the event to the Korean government’s ongoing crackdown on recreational drug use. This crackdown began in April, when conservative president Yoon Suk Yeol announced a “war on drugs” and created an 840 person-strong department to help him wage it. 

New laws subjecting producers, distributors, and users to prison sentences of up to 10 years in prison have since led to the arrest of over 17,000 people – a number that not only includes other South Korean celebrities like actor Yoo Ah-in and K-pop singer Kwon Ji-yong, but also a group of American army officers accused of shipping in synthesized marijuana through the US postal service. 

The scale and scope of the crackdown is questionable. Included in the government’s list of illegal drugs are not just cocaine, opiates, and methamphetamines, but also soft drugs like marijuana. If South Korea once appeared willing to adopt more liberal drug policies, President Yoon is stirring the country in the direction of zero-tolerance regimes like Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. 

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A Reuters investigation found that raids on suspected fentanyl labs by the Mexican government have almost exclusively targeted inactive labs.

Pressure from the United States on Mexico to curb the massive flow of fentanyl coming into our country from theirs has led to a dramatic increase in raids on labs suspected of producing the powerful opioid responsible for the 73,000 some odd overdose deaths of American citizens in 2022 alone. However, it has recently come to light that at least 95% of the raids conducted between January and August of this year were on labs that had already shut down production, according to Reuters.

Data obtained through a freedom of information request submitted to SEDENA, the Mexican Defense Ministry showed that in 2023, Mexican military units performed 503 raids on inactive labs and 24 raids on active labs. In 2022 the military raided 450 inactive labs and 42 active labs. In 2021, the numbers were 195 and 22 respectively, and 267-55 in 2020.  Between December, 2018 and August, 2023 89% of the raids conducted on Mexican fentanyl laboratories were performed on inactive labs. 

Many have speculated this discrepancy in raid effectiveness has spurned from many sources, including the hands-off policies of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who took office in 2018. President Lopez Obrador has been vocal about trying to solve narcotics issues where they begin by addressing issues like poverty rather than the traditional game of narcotics whack-a-mole so to speak of aiming to take higher level cartel captains. The numbers, however, would also suggest that President Lopez Obrador’s administration has been inflating the data they share with the U.S. by only sharing the total number of raids conducted rather than including the context of how effective these raids have been, as was pointed out by Guillermo Valdes, Mexico’s civilian spy chief from 2007 to 2011.

“SEDENA is ripping up its prestige by altering the figures. Who is going to believe them after this?” Valdes said to Reuters.

Other possible causes for such ineffective raids could be the same problems that have plagued the country of Mexico for decades. Cartel superpowers buying off government, military and law enforcement officials to look the other way and killing those who oppose them certainly makes it difficult to conduct such high-risk operations. One ex-cartel member told Reuters the practice of giving up smaller labs with the understanding that the larger labs can continue business as usual has been commonplace long before fentanyl entered the picture.

“The trade offs happened a lot,” said Margarito Flores, a former associate of notorious cocaine kingpin El Chapo who turned government informant in 2008, eight years before El Chapo’s capture. 

Two active Sinaloan traffickers who refused to be identified for obvious reasons also told Reuters that these raids were often “for show,” as there were several Mexican military members sympathetic to cartel causes and/or on cartel payroll.

Since this data was made available some U.S. lawmakers have accused Mexico of running a completely fictitious war on drugs. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), co-chairman of the senate’s international narcotics control caucus told Reuters this data shows that our neighbors to the South are “fighting an imaginary war on drugs designed to score political points rather than save lives.”

In October of this year, several banners appeared in Sinaloa appearing to ban fentanyl production in the area, though many wrote this off as a cartel tactic to relieve pressure on their organizations by the U.S. and Mexican governments. 

“Attention. Due to the incessant disinformation of some media and the obvious omission of the government in not investigating and prosecuting the true culprits of this epidemic,” the banners said (in Spanish). “In Sinaloa, the sale, manufacture, transportation or any type of business that involves the substance known as fentanyl is strictly prohibited, including the sale of chemicals for its preparation. We have never been nor will we be related to that business. [Be warned of] the consequences. Att: Chapitos.”

The recent data put forth by Reuters was capped in August of this year so it was not immediately clear whether these banners had any effect on fentanyl production, though the U.S. has certainly kept the pressure on Mexico to do something about the issue as President Biden and President Lopez Obrador just spoke on the phone Thursday concerning the need for more enforcement at the border. President Biden also visited the country in November to discuss similar issues.

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Things got a bit spicy for border patrol officers in San Diego last week.

It was there, near the United States-Mexico border, that officers discovered more than $10 million worth of hard narcotics that had been hidden in a shipment of jalapeño paste.

The bust went down on December 13.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers said that they encountered a 28-year-old male driving a commercial tractor-trailer with a shipment manifested as jalapeño paste” at the Otay Mesa Cargo Facility.

“The driver, a valid border crossing card holder, was referred for further examination by CBP officers along with the tractor-trailer and shipment,” the agency said in a press release issued this week. 

“In the secondary inspection area, a CBP K-9 unit screened the shipment and alerted officers to examine the trailer more closely. Upon further examination, CBP officers discovered and extracted a total of 349 suspicious packages from vats of jalapeño paste. The contents of the packages were tested and identified as methamphetamine with a weight of 3,161.43 pounds and cocaine with a weight of 522.50 pounds,” the press releases continued.

As Customs and Border Protection spokesperson Michael Scappechio told the Los Angeles Times: “It was an extremely spicy situation.” 

“You never really know what you’re dealing with just in terms of dangerous narcotics and then you throw in there all that organic material; we had to break out the full [personal protective equipment],” Scappechio said.

“We won’t expose the reasons that led to the further examination,” Scappechio added, “but agent suspicion is often used.”

Rosa Hernandez, the director at the Otay Mesa Port, credited the unit’s K-9 teams for the bust.

“Our K-9 teams are an invaluable component of our counter-narcotics operations, providing a reliable and unequaled mobile detection capability,” said Hernandez “By implementing local operations under Operation Apollo and CBP’s Strategy to Combat Fentanyl and other Synthetic Drugs, we will continue to secure communities and stifle the growth of transnational criminal organizations, one seizure after another.”

According to local news station NBC San Diego, the “narcotics-in-jalapeño-paste seizure was just one of many successful drug busts in the border town recently.”

The United States Coast Guard said that it seized 18,219 pounds of cocaine, with an estimated street value of more than $239 million in the Pacific Ocean that was offloaded in San Diego earlier this month.

According to the Coast Guard, the offload was the “result of six separate suspected drug smuggling vessel interdictions or events off the coasts of Mexico and Central and South America by the Coast Guard Cutters Waesche and Active in November.”

According to the Coast Guard, the Waesche “is one of four Legend-class national security cutters homeported in Alameda, California.” National security cutters “can operate in the most demanding open ocean environments, including the hazardous fisheries of the North Pacific and the vast approaches of the Southern Pacific, where a large amount of narcotics traffic occurs,” the Coast Guard said.

“The biggest of the six interdictions was the most recent interdiction, occurring Nov. 20, which was an interdiction of a self-propelled semi-submersible (SPSS) carrying more than 5,500 pounds of cocaine. The interdiction of the SPSS was the first in the Eastern Pacific since 2020,” the Coast Guard said in a press release.

Capt. Robert Mohr, commanding officer of the Waesche, said that all “four of our interdictions on this patrol are crucial to the Coast Guard’s efforts to keep illicit drugs off the streets, but our last interdiction of a semi-submersible vessel was noteworthy since it was the first semi-submersible interdicted in the Eastern Pacific in over three years.” 

“I am extremely impressed with the crew’s dedication throughout this dynamic patrol. They overcame multiple challenges with collective hard work, ingenuity, and positive attitudes to keep us in pursuit of these cartels and their dangerous drugs. A successful patrol like this one is rewarding and leads to better retention and recruiting efforts because everybody feels a sense of accomplishment,” Mohr said.

Vice Adm. Andrew Tiongson, commander, U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area, said he was “proud of the unity of effort displayed by U.S. Coast Guard members aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Waesche and our partners who stopped these narcotics from entering our Nation through the maritime domain.”

The Coast Guard said that multiple agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security, “collaborate in the effort to combat transnational organized crime. The Coast Guard, Navy, Customs and Border Protection, FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with allied and international partner agencies, all play a role in counternarcotic operations.” 

“The fight against drug cartels in the Eastern Pacific Ocean requires unity of effort in all phases, from detection and monitoring to interdictions and criminal prosecutions,” the press release said.

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According to a recent Gallup poll, there’s a significant change in Americans’ sentiment toward the nation’s handling of the illegal drug problem and its casualties. According to this survey, which has been tracking public opinion since 1972, a majority of U.S. adults, a whopping 52%, now believe that the country is falling behind in its efforts to manage the illegal drug issue, Gallup reports. 

While High Times readers may think, well, of course, the feds are failing; this poll marks the first instance in its history where such a negative majority opinion has been recorded. Before 2019, their polling showed that Americans were optimistic that the country was making progress combating illegal drugs, with the approval stats clocking in at 41%. 

The latest results reveal that only 24% of the participants maintain that the U.S. has made progress in this area, setting a new low in the trend. Additionally, 23% of respondents believe the situation has remained static. 

The central villain in this story is fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, which has caused drug overdose fatalities to spike. According to USAFacts, in 2022, 73,654 people died from a fentanyl overdose in the U.S. This is more than double the amount of deaths from three years prior in 2019. Fentanyl deaths have increased every year for the past decade. 

However, as much as drug enthusiasts would love to blame fentanyl, there are other culprits in play. Gallup reports that since 2019, there has been an escalation in overdose cases associated with other drugs, including cocaine and methamphetamines.

America’s view on handling illegal drugs shows a divide among political parties — and presidents. Republicans do not think that progress is being made. A mere 12% of Republicans responded that they felt we were headed in the right direction, while 75% feel we’re regressing. The Democrats were much more optimistic. 40% answered that they consider the situation improving, compared to 27% who think it’s worsening. Independents clocked in somewhere in the middle, with 22% seeing progress and 52% feeling that the situation is going down the drain.

Gallup reports that voters may be more likely to respond positively based on who is in the White House, which explains why the Democrats were more glass-half-full than the Republicans. And, of course, Republicans are historically more conservative about drug use. Even though some of the liberal’s most loathed figures, such as Matt Gaetz, a U.S. representative from Florida, are joining leftist hero Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, aka AOC, the U.S. representative for New York’s 14th congressional district, in the right to help pass pro-psychedelic and cannabis legislation. Most recently, Gaetz proposed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization to cease cannabis testing for military members. 

Conservative Dan Crenshaw of Texas, a former Navy SEAL, is also pushing for changes to drug policy. In July 2023, Crenshaw and AOC hosted a press conference recognizing progress with a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that directs the Secretary of Defense to conduct a clinical report on psychedelic treatment in military treatment facilities. 

Despite a tendency to feel better about things when your party is president, the Democrats aren’t thrilled with Biden. The same data from Gallup shows that Democrats responded less positively reading the illegal drug situation under Biden than Republicans did under Trump in 2019. 

Biden has been careful to walk the tightrope of acting pro-cannabis legalization without following through. “I believe the president has displayed a regressiveness for cannabis policy,” said AOC in July. “And if there’s a regressiveness toward cannabis policy, it’s likely to be worse on anything else,” she added. 

While both voters and lawmakers are let down by Biden’s failure to reschedule cannabis, according to the Gallup poll, 74% of U.S. adults see the government’s failure to address casualties from illegal drugs as “extremely or very serious.” This is up from 64% in 2021. The highest concern was recorded in 2000, when the question was first asked, clocking in at 83%. 

Interestingly, while Americans are upset with the national handling of illicit drugs, they voice less concern in their local areas. 35% rate it as extremely serious (19%) or very serious (16%). This figure is almost equivalent to the record 34% in 2000. 

In light of the terrifying increase in overdose deaths from fentanyl and other opioids, in addition to deaths from substances such as cocaine, the American public has never been more pessimistic regarding the government’s handling of illegal drugs, even if they don’t carry that same concern in their hometowns, where it may be harder to criticize. 

Perhaps most importantly, this data shows that drug policy will shape the upcoming 2024 presidential election in numerous ways. To start, there is pressure to decriminalize cannabis on a federal level. A new Gallup poll published on November 8 showed that an estimated 68% of Americans, or seven out of every ten individuals, said “yes” to the poll questions, “Do you think the use of marijuana should be legal, or not?,” as High Times reports. And now, additionally, as this latest poll shows, voters also want a leader who can stop the deadly drugs from taking any more American lives. If AOC is right about Biden, and he isn’t cut out for the task, voters must consider that Trump could once again find his way into the White House. 

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Dramatic new footage released by Mexico’s Navy shows officers carrying out a major drug bust after a high-speed chase at sea.

The footage, which has been widely reported on in the media, depicts a pair of operations carried out by the Navy; in one, an officer can be seen descending from an overhead helicopter to arrive on a boat that was carrying a large amount of drugs.

According to CTV News, “Mexican authorities say they have seized some 9,700 pounds of cocaine during two operations on Aug. 22 and 23 in the Pacific Ocean.”

“Both operations resulted in high-speed boat chases at sea,” CTV News reported. “Mexican authorities say they also found more than 5,000 litres of fuel. Eleven people were detained and handed over to the prosecutor’s office.”

Cocaine trafficking has exploded in recent years.

A report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released earlier this year indicated that production of cocaine had skyrocketed to record levels after lagging for a stretch during the pandemic.

“The COVID-19 pandemic had a disruptive effect on drug markets. With international travel severely curtailed, producers struggled to get their product to market. Night clubs and bars were shut as officials ramped up their attempts to control the virus, causing demand to slump for drugs like cocaine that are often associated with those settings,” the report said.

“However, the most recent data suggests this slump has had little impact on longer-term trends. The global supply of cocaine is at record levels. Almost 2,000 tons was produced in 2020, continuing a dramatic uptick in manufacture that began in 2014, when the total was less than half of today’s levels.”

According to the report, the surge in cocaine has “partly [been] a result of an expansion in coca bush cultivation, which doubled between 2013 and 2017, hit a peak in 2018, and rose sharply again in 2021.”

“But it is also due to improvements in the process of conversion from coca bush to cocaine hydrochloride. In parallel, there has been a continuing growth in demand, with most regions showing steadily rising numbers of users over the past decade. Although these increases can be partly explained by population growth, there is also a rising prevalence of cocaine use. Interceptions by law enforcement have also been on the rise, at a higher speed than production, meaning that interdiction has contained the growth of the global amount of cocaine available for consumption,” the report stated. 

Given all that, perhaps it isn’t a coincidence that news of major cocaine busts seem to surface regularly these days.

In June, law enforcement officials in Uruguay broke up an international drug ring after police there were alerted to half a dozen surfboards that contained a total of 50kg (110lb) of cocaine.

Three Italians were arrested as part of the bust.

In May, police in Hong Kong seized $82.97 million worth of cocaine and cannabis. 

And in February, law enforcement authorities in New Zealand announced that they had sezied “3.2 tonnes of cocaine afloat” in the Pacific Ocean, saying they had taken roughly a half-billion dollars worth of the drug out of circulation.

The report from the United Nations explained that consolidation has upended the cocaine trade in one of the drug’s longstanding hubs, Colombia.

“The cocaine trade in Colombia was once controlled by just a few major players. As a result of a fragmentation of the criminal landscape following the demobilization of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) in 2016, it now involves criminal groups of all sizes, structures and objectives,” the report said. “But, signs of consolidation of some of these groups have recently emerged. These developments have led to an increasing presence of foreign actors in Colombia. Mexican and Balkan criminal groups have moved closer to the centre of production to gain access to supplies and wholesale quantities of cocaine. These foreign groups are not aiming to take control of territory. Instead, they are trying to make supply lines more efficient. Their presence is helping to incentivize coca bush cultivation and finance all stages of the supply chain.” 

It continued: “In established cocaine markets, the proportion of the general population using the drug is high. But these markets only cover around one-fifth of the global population. If the prevalence in other regions increases to match established markets, the number of users globally would increase tremendously because of the large underlying population. This type of market convergence has already been happening in the case of Western and Central Europe, where purity levels and prices have harmonised with the United States, although prevalence of cocaine use in Western and Central Europe has not yet reached the level in the United States.”

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