A kilo, or 1000 grams, of cocaine costs approximately $2000 in Columbia. Once it crosses the Texas/Mexico border, it now becomes worth about $10,000. As the drugs are transported north across the country,the value increases dramatically. In the Midwest that same kilo of cocaine has a street value of about $100 per gram, or $100,000, if uncut. When cut, the value can easily reach $300,000 to $400,000. The cutting of a drug simply means adding a similar substance to the drug to increase the amount. The purity will be less, but the quantity will multiply along with the profits.

Here are a few examples of drug use in the United States: New York City consumes approximately 10 tons of illegal drugs each day; Minneapolis/St. Paul consumes about 500 pounds of cocaine each month; the city of Baltimore has an estimated population of 600,000 people with approximately 10 percent of the population, or 60,000 people, addicted to heroin; in 2004, the law enforcement in the state of Missouri located 2,204 methamphetamine labs (how many were not located?); Wisconsin has a population of 5.5 million people with an estimated 1 million people abusing pharmaceutical drugs, that’s about one-fifth of the population. Those are some startling statistics.

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