Navigation:
- Cocaine Value Route
- History of Cocaine
- Cocaine was most expensive in the 1960s as well as in the late 1980s.
Rock star Rick James is right when he described cocaine as a “helluva” drug. This type of drug stems from a natural plant that grows in the deep jungles of South America. The shimmering white powder form of the drug has crossed over transnational borders finding its way across the world. The drug is usually sniffed or shot in the veins.
Cocaine prices differ but profits are huge for the heavy hitter depending on where he sells dope. Narcotic analysts reveal that illegal drugs including cocaine and heroin actually cost a lot less where it is being produced. The prices of cocaine can range from $2/gram in Panama to more than $300/gram in New Zealand.
- According to the U.S. law enforcement, foreign narcotic experts, and the Colombian national police, wholesalers can buy 1 kilo of cocaine from the jungle in Colombia for only $2200.
- Wholesale prices of 1 kilo of cocaine at Colombian ports cost around $5500-$7000. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials have reported an increase in cocaine prices once it is transferred to the U.S. and other foreign markets.
- The farther the destination and the more isolated the drug is from other countries, the higher the cost for drug dealers as well as users.
Cocaine Value Route
In Central America, the cost of cocaine is $10,000/kilogram. In Southern Mexico, cocaine is sold for $12,000/kilo unless a broker can make an agreement to slash the price based on several kilos of cocaine. After cocaine is brought into Mexico City, the price of cocaine goes up to $16,000/kilo near the border town of North Mexico. In the U.S., cocaine can cost $24,000-$27,000 off the streets.
History of Cocaine
Coca is a substance acquired from leaves; it is being used to make cocaine. It is one of the oldest, most potent, and highly dangerous stimulants of natural origin. The world-renowned psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud was considered the first person to promote the use of cocaine to cure depression and sexual impotence. In fact, Freud himself once used cocaine.
In the 1600s, people chewed coca leaves like tobacco. During the 1800s, cocaine had earned a distinction as a mind-altering substance among the upper-class society in Europe. Pope Leo XIII was also believed to have given a papal endorsement to a certain coca-treated Bordeaux wine. In the 1850s, the Italian neurologist Paolo Manteganza used coca to write tens of thousands of words at a time.
Around the year 1886, cocaine became more popular when the maverick John Pemberton mixed coca leaves in his new soft drink popularly known today as “Coca-Cola.” Consumers sipping coke skyrocketed during the 1900s.
Cocaine was most expensive in the 1960s as well as in the late 1980s.
Frank Lucas, the Harlem dealer was immortalized in “American Gangster” movie and the Colombians are well-known sellers of cocaine. At the time, cocaine was being sold for $50-$75/kilo.
Recently, in Europe and Australia, the cost of cocaine is as high as $55,000/kilo. In Australia specifically, cocaine costs $20,000/kilo, while off the streets, the price of cocaine in the U.S. can cost $100-$150/gram.
