Cocaine in the U.S. Skyrockets
After years of cocaine use declining in the United States, it is now on the upswing. This seems to be a case of supply driving demand. Since 2013, the production of coca leaves, the main ingredient in cocaine has skyrocketed in Colombia.
In the Drug Enforcement Agency’s 2017 press release on the National Drug Threat Assessment, the following statement was made,
“The cocaine threat continues to rebound. Cocaine availability and use have increased significantly, partially due to record increases in coca cultivation and cocaine production in Colombia, the primary source for the cocaine market in the United States.”—DEA 2017 National Drug Threat Assessment
In fact, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, cocaine overdoses in 2015 were the highest they have been since 2006. Perhaps more shocking is that first-time use of cocaine skyrocketed in 2015 by 61 percent.
The graphs above show the first-time users and the increase in Colombia cocaine production between 2011 and 2015. The graphs are eerily similar in the spike they both show over the last year.
In reaction to this, both Colombia and the U.S. have been working together. Though the issue is more complicated than it might seem, read more on why the battle against cocaine is a complicated issue in this article from the Washington Post.
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