Cocaine illegal market

Animals self-administer cathinone in a pattern common to abuses of monoamine stimulants such as cocaine (Woolverton and Johanson 1984). Cathinone can induce a conditioned place preference in rats (Schechter 1991). Withdrawal symptoms of khat include lethargy, depression, nightmares, and mild tremor (Kalix 1994). /V-methylated cathinone (methcathinone) is more potent, and has become available on the illegal market. It was subsequently scheduled as a controlled substance (Glennon et al. 1995). 

Cocaine Cocaine, the most powerful natural stimulant, is widely abused and very dangerous. A powerful derivative of cocaine called crack (or rock), is also used, and is known as one of the most powerfully addictive drugs on the illegal market. 

Morphine, cocaine, and mescaline are all examples of drugs that occur in plants but are commonly available in refined form as white powders, sold both legally and illegally. Some of them, such as mescaline, can easily be synthesized in laboratories, but even when they are, we can still call them natural drugs because the molecules already exist in nature. Others, such as cocaine and morphine, have more complex molecular structures. Chemists can make them in laboratories, but it is not cost efficient to do so. All the cocaine and morphine on the black market and in pharmacies arc extracted from coca leaves and opium poppies. 

In 2003, the worldwide retail market value of marijuana products was 142 billion, cocaine was 71 billion, opiates (primarily heroin) was 65 billion, and methamphetamine, amphetamine, and ecstasy combined was 44 billion. While the U.N. report does not give a breakdown of expenditures for illegal drugs by country, there are estimates by continent. North America spent 144 billion (retail) or 44 percent of the world s total on illegal drugs. North Americas share of cocaine expenditures was 62 percent opiates, 14 percent marijuana, 55 percent and methamphetamine, amphetamine, and ecstasy, 57 percent. Therefore, more than half of the world s retail expenditures on cocaine, marijuana, and stimulant drugs comes from North America. 

---