A<\/span>t 64,000 deaths a year and rising, the staggering and benumbing death toll of the country\u2019s drug-overdose crisis has now outpaced the amount of Americans killed in the Vietnam War, and annual deaths from HIV\/AIDS at that fiasco\u2019s peak. All this carnage masks a telling and troubling fact: Opiates have never had a better market value than they have today. And the value of cocaine, methamphetamine and cannabis is also following similar patterns, as all of these drugs are increasing in potency and decreasing in cost, according to a new report. These developments are fueled by simple market forces within the illicit drugs world, experts say.<\/p>\n Heroin is cheaper and stronger than ever,\u00a0users and health professionals report<\/a>. In San Francisco, a town once notorious for expensive and weak junk, a single $20 bag will do the work of four bags bought a decade ago \u2014 and this isn\u2019t\u00a0just<\/em>\u00a0because of fentanyl or prescription opiates, though there\u2019s little doubt that synthetic opiates stronger than heroin by degrees of scientific notation play a role.<\/p>\n Something about the War on Drugs just isn\u2019t working. Heroin, methamphetamine and \u2014 yes \u2014 cannabis are all becoming stronger, a trend driven by market forces within the illicit drugs market, according to a new report.<\/p>\n The briefing from the Drug Enforcement Administration, detailed by the Pacific Standard<\/a>, reports that methamphetamine, cannabis and opiates are increasing in potency.<\/p>\n Methamphetamine, according to the DEA, now clocks in at 96 percent pure, four points stronger than in 2011. The average potency of cannabis seized by the DEA has increased from 4 percent THC in 1995 to 11 percent in 2015.<\/p>\n And, owing to the cannabis concentrates<\/a> revolution and the dawning knowledge than just about anyone with a bag of trim and some butane can make hash oil \u2014 not that they should; in fact, they almost certainly really should not \u2014 the average strength of hash seized by the DEA during that time period has increased from 13 percent to 56 percent.<\/p>\n Readers of this publication won\u2019t be surprised to hear cannabis is increasing in strength as well as availability \u2014 a trend that began during black-market days, as breeders discovered mind-blowing varietals sold better than chiller strains and chased genetics with more THC in order to chase dollars.<\/p>\n In a real way, the same mentality is driving operators of meth \u201csuperlabs\u201d and heroin sellers mixing fentanyl into their bags of China White to amplify the punch of their products, experts believe.<\/p>\n The Los Angeles Times spoke<\/a>\u00a0with some drug-policy experts, who posited that simple capitalist competition in a crowded market is compelling drug-makers to strengthen the sauce.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got to believe that the higher potency is to compete with the higher potency of other drugs available on the market,\u201d Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, director of the Santa Monica-based Bing Center for Health Economics and a drug policy expert with the RAND Corporation, told the Times.<\/p>\n Cocaine production is also ramping up in Colombia, RAND experts interviewed by the Times declared, and potency and price are adjusting accordingly in the states. A gram of cocaine at 56 percent purity now costs $165, according to the DEA. If you\u2019re paying less, then you may be living in a saturated market.<\/p>\n Fentanyl is also popping up in stimulants like methamphetamine, leaving some users expecting a rush stunned to discover they now have difficulty walking or breathing. Mixing cocaine and heroin is nothing new, but there seems to be little explanation for why a drug manufacturer would combine two wholly opposite drugs without informing the user, aside from the desire to make a product that will stand out.<\/p>\n The other conclusion experts draw about drugs amplifying in strength and diminishing in price is that there must be increased supply. Weak tea will only exist in a market where there isn\u2019t much demand for product. The obvious conclusion is that the war on drugs as we\u2019ve known it for generations simply isn\u2019t working and that an alternate tack is required. With the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy still absent an executive director, and the DEA led by a careerist with 30 years in the agency<\/a>, this doesn\u2019t appear to be happening anytime soon. Meanwhile, the opioid crisis rages on, with no end in sight.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong> how do you think the federal government should police drug use?<\/p>\n The post Report: All Drugs, Not Just Cannabis, Are Getting Stronger<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A new report from the DEA illustrates that the decades-long War on Drugs has done little to stifle the proliferation of potent drugs. At 64,000 deaths a year and rising, the staggering and benumbing death toll of the country\u2019s drug-overdose crisis has now outpaced the amount of Americans killed inContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,80,848,170,738],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21688"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21689,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21688\/revisions\/21689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Report: All Drugs, Not Just Cannabis, Are Getting Stronger<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"