The Real Truth about Cocaine

Dear World

Another topic in our Real Truth series –
The Real Truth about Cocaine

This presentation is a 911 wake up call, so listen up and pay attention to what cocaine is really about and the impact it is having on ALL of us.

What is Cocaine?

Cocaine
A powerfully addictive stimulant drug from the leaves of the coca plant native to South America. (1)

Cocaine (benzolymethylecgonine) is a naturally occurring psychoactive alkaloid stimulant found in specific varieties of the coca plant, in particular Erythroxylum coca (E.coca) and Erythroxylum novogranatense (E. novogranatense).

E. coca and E. novogranatense are native to the Andes region of western South America.

E. coca is cultivated in the Plurinational State of Bolivia and Peru.

E. novogranatense is cultivated in Colombia and Central America.

The two most common forms of cocaine are hydrochloride salt and cocaine base.

Powdered hydrochloride can be snorted, rubbed into the gums or dissolved in water and injected.

Cocaine base, often referred to as ‘crack’ has a rock crystal appearance and is readily converted into vapour with heat, making it suitable for inhalation.
(Baker et al. 2004; US DEA 1993). (2) 

Crack is simply another form of cocaine that is smoked rather than snorted because the surface area of the lungs is much bigger than that of the membranes in the nose.
The drug is absorbed much more quickly, making the hit faster and more intense.

The speed and intensity of the hit makes it much more addictive.
The high from crack is so powerfull – users can become totally consumed by the drug.
It becomes more important than eating or washing and this leads to a rapid deterioration in an addict’s health and appearance. (3)

 

History of Cocaine

Coca is one of the oldest, most potent and most dangerous stimulants of natural origin.

3000BC

Ancient Incas in the Andes chewed coca leaves to get their hearts racing and to speed their breathing to counter the effects of living in thin mountain air.

Native Peruvians chewed coca leaves only during religious ceremonies. This taboo was broken when Spanish soldiers invaded Peru in 1532. Forced Indian laborers in Spanish silver mines were kept supplied with coca leaves because it made them easier to control and exploit. (4)

Initially the Spanish invaders banned coca “an evil agent of the devil”, but then the incomers discovered that without what the natives called their “gift of the gods”, the locals could barely work the fields – or mine gold. Suddenly, coca was not only legalised but taxed, with the occupiers taking a tenth of every crop. Coca leaves were distributed three or four times a day to the workers during their breaks. (5)

1859

Cocaine was first isolated (extracted from coca leaves) by German chemist Albert Niemann.

1880s

Cocaine started to be popularised in the medical community.

Freud – Austrian psychoanalyst who used the drug himself was the first to broadly promote cocaine as a tonic to cure Depression and sexual impotence. (4)

1883

Dr. Theodor Aschenbrandt – German Army physician prescribed cocaine to Bavarian soldiers during training to help reduce fatigue. (6)

1884

Freud published an article “Über Coca” (About Coke) which promoted the ‘benefits” of cocaine, calling it a “magical” substance.
However, Sigmund Freud was not an objective observer as he is reported to have used cocaine regularly, prescribed it to his girlfriend, his best friend and recommended it for general use.

While noting that cocaine had led to “physical and moral decadence,” Freud continued promoting cocaine to his close friends, one of whom ended up suffering from paranoid hallucinations with “white snakes creeping over his skin.”

Freud believed that “for humans, the toxic dose of cocaine is very high and there seems to be no lethal dose.”
Contrary to this belief, one of his patients died from a high dosage that Freud had prescribed. (4)

Freud struggled for 12 years to break his cocaine habit. (7)

1886

Popularity of the drug got a further boost when John Pemberton included coca leaves as an ingredient in his new soft drink Coca-Cola. (4)  
The drink was also derived from African kola nuts. (6)

Pemberton had originally made his own coca wine but when prohibition outlawed Alcohol in the USA he replaced the wine in his recipe with sugar syrup. (5)

At first it only sold at racially segregated soda fountains, it became popular among the white middle-classes. (7)

The euphoric and energizing effects on the consumer helped to skyrocket the popularity of Coca-Cola by the turn of the century. (4)

1850s – early 1900s

Cocaine and opium-laced elixirs (magical or medicinal potions), tonics and wines were broadly used by people of all social classes. The drug became popular in the silent film industry and the pro-cocaine messages coming out of Hollywood at the time influenced millions. (6)

Cocaine use in society increased and the dangers of the drug gradually become more evident. (4)

1899

Coca-Cola began selling the drink in bottles. The lower classes and minorities now had access to the cocaine-infused tonic. (7)

Early 1900s

Cocaine addiction was rampant since consumption of cocaine was new and unexplored. At that time, cocaine could be easily obtained from a local chemist or a street salesperson. (8)  

Being sold over the counter, it was widely used in toothache cures and patent medicines. 99.9% pure cocaine reported in a hay fever and catarrh remedy. (5)

1900

US states started to consider anti-cocaine bills.

1902

Georgia was the first state to pass a law banning all forms of cocaine sales.

1903

The original Coca Cola recipe called for 5 ounces of coca leaves per gallon of syrup. This comes down to an estimated 9 milligrams of cocaine per glass. Due to legislation, Coca Cola stopped putting cocaine into their product in 1903. (9)

1905

Cocaine had become popular to snort and within 5 years, hospitals and medical literature had started reporting cases of nasal damage resulting from the use of this drug.

1906

Federal government USA passed the Food and Drug Act of 1906 requiring that cocaine containing products provide said cocaine information on their labels. (9)

1907

USA – the amount of coca leaf imported now 3 times amount in 1900. (6)

1912

United States government reported 5,000 cocaine related deaths in one year. (4)

1914

Cocaine was fully regulated with the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914. (7)

The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act established strict production and distribution standards. It was one of the country’s first forays into national drug legislation. (9)

The Act, introduced by Representative Francis Burton Harrison of New York effectively outlawed the sale and use of coca and opium products. (7)

1916

The famous department store Harrods in London sold a kit containing cocaine, morphine, syringes and needles. (5)

1922 

Cocaine was officially banned in the United States. (4)

The Narcotic Drugs Import and Export Act was passed by federal lawmakers to create the Federal Narcotics Control Board (FNCB). Their job was to oversee the import and export primarily of drugs like coca. It also banned all recreational consumption of cocaine and ensured that it was being used for medical purposes only. (9)

1940s – 1960s  

Cocaine usage declined

1970s

Colombian drug traffickers began setting up an elaborate network for smuggling cocaine into the United States.

Traditionally, cocaine was a rich man’s drug, due to the large expense of a cocaine habit. (4)

Cocaine regained popularity as a recreational drug and was glamourised in the US popular Media.

Articles from the time proclaimed cocaine as non-addictive.
The drug was viewed as harmless until the emergence of crack. (6)

Crack Cocaine

Freebase – Ether was used to “free” the base – hence the name, from any additives and impurities that were in traditional cocaine. A heat source, like a lighter or torch was then used to heat the freebase so the vapors could be inhaled.

Freebasing is a process that can increase the potency of a substance. The term is typically used in reference to cocaine, though it is possible to freebase other substances including nicotine and morphine.

Due to its chemical structure, cocaine cannot be heated and smoked.
Freebasing alters its structure in a way that makes it both smokable and more potent.

Cocaine is made from hydrochloride and alkaloid, which is also known as a “base.” (10)

The technique is highly dangerous because the mixture can easily ignite.
It is also a technique that tempts the user to overdose, since the high continues for ten minutes but the peak of the freebase rush is over almost as soon as the user exhales the vapour.

The risk of spontaneous freebase combustion led users to develop the most lethal form of cocaine – known as devil’s dandruff, food, rock or simply crack.

The cocaine is cooked with ammonia or sodium bicarbonate to a pale brown colour. (5)

The end result are crystal rocks that can be smoked in a pipe. (10)

In that form cocaine is at its most addictive – more than heroin. (5)

The name Crack comes from the crackling sound the rock makes when it is being heated. (10)

1971

USA
Federal government began their full-scale war on drugs.
In a speech by President Richard Nixon, he declared that Drug abuse was “Public Enemy #1.” (9) 

UK
Misuse of Drugs Act 1971
Cocaine was classified as a Class A drug. (8)

1973

The market moved north from Argentina, Brazil and Chile to Colombia.

1975

Colombia exported 4,000 kgs of cocaine to the US. (11)

Late 1970s

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the price of illegal cocaine dropped by as much as 80% as a glut of white powder flooded the U.S. market.
Dealers looking for new ways to sell their products turned to Crack.

Crack was produced by dissolving powdered cocaine in a mixture of water and ammonia and boiling it down until a solid formed. Broken into smaller chunks or “rocks,” this solid form could then be smoked.

Smoking crack brings a short, intense high, making the substance more addictive than powdered cocaine. Crack was also a lot cheaper than cocaine powder.

1980s

Crack usage began to surge.

Public concerns over illicit Drug use had been building throughout this decade and political tensions erupted as the US nation entered a so-called “crack epidemic”. (7)

During the latter part of this decade, cocaine was no longer thought of as the drug of choice for the wealthy. It now had the reputation of America’s most dangerous and addictive drug, linked with poverty, crime and death. (4)

80% of the global cocaine market was supplied by one Cartel who at its height were running its product up through the Caribbean.

Norman’s Cay, a small island in the Bahamas became a key stopover where drug planes could re-fuel enroute to the United States. This is due to one cartel co-founder buying property on the island in 1978. (11)  

1982

First crack house discovered in Miami and it drew little national attention.
The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) thought it was a localised phenomenon.

1983

Crack appeared in New York and soon spread to other major cities.

1985

Where cocaine was expensive, crack could be bought at affordable prices and it became prevalent in working class and poorer neighborhoods. (6)

Crack sold for about $5 a rock in most USA cities. (7)

1986

The Federal Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, part of the “War on Drugs” established a disparity between the amount of crack and powdered cocaine needed to trigger certain criminal penalties at a weight ratio of 100:1 and set a mandatory 5 year minimum sentence for any crack cocaine possession.

For example – the same minimum penalty of 5 years was given for 1 gram of crack cocaine as for 100 grams of powdered cocaine. Opponents argued the law was racist since crack users were more likely to be African American.

In response to these criticisms, the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 reduced the weight ratio between crack and powder to 18:1 and eliminated the mandatory 5 year sentence for crack possession. (7)

1985 – 1989

Number of regular cocaine users in US went from 4.2 million to 5.8 million people.
Around the same time crime in some major cities spiked.

32% of all homicides tied to crack use.

60% of all drug-related homicides in New York City linked to crack.
1988 study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (7)

1989

UK

The press and politicians warned of an epidemic; crack became the number 1 public enemy.
Home Secretary Douglas Hurd described crack as a spectator hanging over Europe. (3)

1990s

80% of the cocaine destinated for the US entered via Mexico (11)

500 – 800 tonnes of cocaine a year were produced and exported by the Colombian drug cartels for shipping to US, Europe and Asia. (4)

£200 thousand million – Drug Cartels gross annual turnover (12)

By mid 1990s the large cartels were dismantled by law enforcement agencies but they were replaced by smaller groups. (4)

How often have we come across something so huge that we cannot actually work it out in our brain because it is way beyond anything we have ever seen in the numbers department?

Do we need to just stop and pause to take a moment to digest all this stuff?

Hello Hello – This is about money and it is about profit and it is about Drugs.

If a thousand million is a billion, imagine what two hundred thousand million is and this is how much those involved in the production and supply of drugs have.

We could say this is mega big bucks but it does come at a price. Anyone trying to compete or take a slice out of the deal is not going to get far, as those that run the cartels go to violence and murder if anyone is in their way.

Before we move on, it would be worth considering the volume of what has just been said and what it entails. This is not a blockbuster movie we are reading about, this is real life going on right now in our world and it has got to this point because of the consumer demand which keeps on rising.

Let us not be Fooled the drug barons of this world are not going down anytime soon, as they have banked on us wanting more Drugs and they will find a way to supply, as that is what they do. They are not interested in humanity or the fact that we are all inter-connected in some way. They have one goal and that is to profit and their purpose is to keep the prices high and ensure competitors are dealt with swiftly, as they have their own laws and are known to run circles around the police or those in authority. We could say it is like a gangster movie with the mafia, where they have their own ruthless behaviour code but in this case it is a real movie – it happens to be our world right now – the world we all live in.

What about all the murders related to cocaine – we want to snort it on a Friday night or dial up and receive some for an all night sexathon, as things are not going great for us in that department, but at what cost?

If we stopped and used our common sense – do we really want to enjoin in taking a poison that not only alters our state of mind and literally eats away at our body, but it comes with blood through the supply chain?

Is that the bit we want to forget or miss as it may put us off from wanting the high that we are looking for from cocaine?

Watch this documentary where Gordon Ramsey shakes the hand of an assassin then on camera says how cold blooded this guy was; because that is what he saw through his eyes. This is their job – they kill as instructed, all in the name of cocaine https://www.bitchute.com/video/koHu8KE8OIjt/

29,000 per year – Colombia’s murder rate (12)

By mid 1990s the large cartels were dismantled by law enforcement agencies but they were replaced by smaller groups. (4)

1992

The following section has been transcribed from a BBC Panorama documentary –
Crack UK: Britain’s War on Cocaine

£11 million per year given by Britain to Colombia to fight the narcotics gangsters.

Enormous amount of cocaine passing through Caribbean.

St. Martin – Caribbean island paradise for cocaine smuggling and money laundering.

US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) – 4 tonnes of cocaine being smuggled through the Caribbean every seven days. St. Martin attracted 1 tonne a week.

Win or lose Gambling is a traditional way of laundering Drugs money. It’s all too easy to shuffle the truth about how much cash actually passes from hand to chip to bank account, especially on St. Martin. 

You had gambling casinos that had no customers. If you run a casino and you come up with a carload of cash you say it was last night’s takings. Who’s to go back in and figure out exactly how many people gambled and how much money came through. It becomes perfect cover and perfect reason for depositing money in a legitimate manner. 
Jack Blum – Former Special Counsel, Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Cocaine is the most lucrative commodity ever conceived by organised crime. From Bogota, Colombia to London it makes a simple profit of 4,000%, hard cash that then needs to be laundered into respectability.

Once the profits are generated and they are in US currency, once it is converted or gotten into any type of banking system it can be moved around the world in a blink of an eye numerous times from account to account to account, with no possible way to trace that stuff. It’s gone, it loses its narco dollar character, it’s gone and there’s nothing we can do track it or to trace it or do anything with it once it gets into the system.
Mike Wald, FBI Miami

London has the largest crack cocaine problem in UK. (12)

Are our governments wasting £11 million of public money by giving the country that supplies them cocaine, funding to fight the gangsters involved in Drugs?

Can we safely say after almost 3 decades that it clearly did not work and whilst 11 million pounds was a huge amount back in 1992, we are seeing even more violent crime today associated with the cocaine industry?

How many of us are aware of the link with Gambling and Drugs?

Did we all know that it is a long-established way of laundering drugs money?

How much cash can we legitimately use and how much can we hide and where?

So this example from a former special counsel spells it out for us…
You own or run a casino where it is known large volumes of cash flow in and out.
So, if you happen to be a drug baron caught with a ton of cash there is the answer – ‘it was the profits from the casino last night’ and how can the authorities check and prove this is wrong?
So it becomes the perfect cover up and all in the name of conducting business in a ‘legitimate manner’. In other words, conforming to the law but in truth far from the legal rules that do apply.

Cocaine being so profitable –
4,000% profit from the start to where it ends up, how do they conceal the hard cash obtained illegally and look good, proper and correct by society’s standards?

The FBI tell us that once the profits are in US currency and it enters the banking system, there is no chance of retrieving or tracing the monies.

Question – WHY have we not poured our so-called Intelligence₁ and resources into finding a way to trace those who deposit large sums of hard cash to bring a stop to this type of trading?

For example – we all know that expensive watches and very expensive motor vehicles are purchased with hard cash. So WHY are these organisations ok with accepting this form of payment when we do know there is a very strong indication it is not money saved from decades under the mattress coming out now in a 6 figure sum to buy an elite car?

1999

75% of the worlds annual yield came from the world’s leading producer, Colombia. (6)

2000s

Cocaine sales waned in the US, but Europe emerged as a new and powerful market. Cartels imported through Spain by way of West Africa. (11)

2019

Colombia remains as the world’s top producer of Cocaine.

The Colombian president and the US Secretary of State discussed plans to cut the supply of the coca leaf plant in half by 2023.
The Colombian government planned to eradicate 100,000 hectares of coca crops. (13)

Today

More than 300 known active drug smuggling organisations in Colombia. (4)

169,000 hectares of coca under cultivation in Colombia. (14)

The following presentation may seem like some narrative is being repeated but it is deliberately so, as the author is providing it in context to the commentary being offered for the reader to consider.

If we start this history section above with 3000BC we could say that the coca leaves back then were potent as it was used to have an affect on the human heart.

Without speculation, we were not around to say whether it was really used to speed up breathing to counter the effects of living in thin mountain air.

We could say ‘why not live down below on the ground as humans were never designed with the anatomy and physiology to live and breathe thin air from high altitude mountains.

Next –

Did native Peruvians chew coca leaves in religious ceremonies to have an altered state of mind because that was what these toxic leaves do?

So we know that back in the early 1500s slavery was going on with labourers forced to work and by supplying coca leaves they were easy to control and manipulate. This would confirm that there was something potent in these toxic leaves that changes the minds of men.

What is worth noting is those invaders who exploited others initially viewed the coca leaves as evil and the natives called it a gift from the gods. Without this so-called gift, workers could barely do their job and so it was given to them multiple times during the day.

This in itself tells us that there was some potency in the coca leaves to stimulate the human frame which meant the natives could endure working in the mines to extract the gold and silver for the Spanish invaders.

We could say that 1859 is a year worth noting as this is where we have the first extraction from leaves to Cocaine in a different form.

Many of us may not be aware when studying Freud in Psychology that he used cocaine and promoted the drug as a cure for depression and sexual impotence.

Were some of his studies that we champion and claim today in the name of psychology written under the influence of cocaine consumption and so it may not be the answers for our mind?

Next –

How convenient that in 1883 our soldiers are prescribed cocaine to reduce fatigue?

We do not ask WHY our soldiers are exhausted in combat and how it could be possible because we as humans are not designed to fight and be on alert all the time in un-natural circumstances.

Soon after in 1886 the drug was used in the famous new soft drink made with sugar syrup.
Popular among the white middle class and sold only at racially segregated soda fountains.
A dark brown drink where dark brown skin people are banned from buying it. Interesting.

A combo of sugary soda with cocaine came with euphoric and energising effects and it is no surprise it was so popular.

Does this tell us something about the people back then?

Were they exhausted and in need of energy and this drink did the job with an instant buzz?

Was something missing in their lives that they needed intense excitement and Happiness, which is what the dictionary tells us euphoric means?

Cocaine in tonics and wines were broadly used by people of all social classes which means the masses needed a mind-altering state of being to operate in daily life back in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Add to this the Hollywood film industry endorsement message that influenced millions more.
ADD to that easy access – obtainable on the street or from a local chemist and cocaine consumption was the remedy for any ailment.

Cocaine use in society increased and the dangers of the drug gradually become more evident.

Now the US realised this drug of choice by the masses was creating harm and so law was needed to ban all forms of cocaine sales.

We knew back in 1905 about the nasal damage resulting from the use of snorting cocaine.

115 years later, we call ourselves an advanced intelligent species but this tells us we have not learnt anything, as noses around the world continue to erode with the inhalation of cocaine.

In 1912 the government reported 5,000 deaths in US related to cocaine.

So WHY was this drug not banned and eradicated back then?

WHY have we allowed more deaths, more violence and more consumption over the next 100 years with no signs of it stopping?

Where are the pay-offs, who stands to gain and benefit from this type of drug?

WHY have federal and state governments not nailed this over the last century?

WHY has the official US ban, back in 1922 not stopped and ended this trade?

WHY did our policymakers and bigwigs of that era allow cocaine to regain popularity as a recreational drug?

WHY were the US media authorised and allowed to glamourize cocaine back in the 1970s?

WHY was this lethal drug viewed as harmless and non-addictive when we know that was a lie?

WHY has cocaine, supposedly beneficial for medical use only, become a recreational hit (pun intended) for so many around the world today?

How did the suppliers go from providing the rich only to making it accessible for anyone?

Next – Crack Cocaine

To increase potency a new form of ingesting cocaine was created – the inhalation of vapours.

The mixture can easily ignite and is highly dangerous, but what we do know is that users are tempted to overdose as the high continues for 10 minutes. However, the peak is almost over as soon as the vapor is exhaled.

Crack is the most lethal form of cocaine, cooked with ammonia (a colourless gas used in cleaning fluid) then turned into a solid form which can be broken down into small chunks or ‘rocks’ which allow it to be smoked.

Who on earth comes up with names like “devils dandruff, food and rock”?

The very fact that it is associated with ‘food’ should get alarms bells ringing.

In this form, cocaine is at its most addictive.

With an excessive supply the price of cocaine dropped significantly in the late 70s and dealers on the front foot were seeking new ways created Crack.

Smoking Crack gives the user a short intense high and was at the time a lot cheaper than cocaine in its original powder form.

In the 80s the US had a ‘Crack epidemic’ with the drug linked to poverty, crime and death and known as the most dangerous addictive drug.

The price of Crack meant it was affordable for the working class and those living in poorer neighbourhoods and Crack users were likely to be African American.

We do not need to be a maths expert to work out that $5 for a rock of Crack in 1985 may be a reason WHY this drug became so widespread.

The fact that 60% of all drug related homicides in the state of New York were linked to Crack tells us this new variation of cocaine comes at a real high cost.

In the 90s the majority (80%) of cocaine went through Mexico to reach the demand in the US.

The murder rate in Mexico at this time was 29,000 per year.

We can join the dots to easily work out that there is a correlation between the demand of cocaine and what happens during the process – violence and murder.

Do any of those who order their cocaine in US, Europe or Asia in the comfort of their homes realise what happens en-route from the start to when it arrives in a small package ready to snort, sniff or inhale?

Are they aware that their habit, lifestyle choice, self-medication or addiction feeds this industry where families are ripped apart, assassinated, tortured or killed in the name of profit?

The government law enforcement had a Solution and were able to dismantle the large cartels but this did not deter them from forming smaller groups. Let us not be Fooled that this continues because the demand is there. If we stopped consuming cocaine then the suppliers would no longer have the commodity to supply.

Hello

Let’s rewind and re-read 2019 again.

We have the government of the world’s top producer of Cocaine in conversation with the Secretary of State of our biggest nation planning to eradicate 100,000 hectares of the plant responsible for cocaine by 2023.

Note that there are 169,000 hectares of coca under cultivation today.
So this means that they are looking at getting rid of around 60%.

Surely the drug cartels and those in the supply chain will be looking at ‘alternative’ ways to stop this happening.

Are they concerned or do they have no doubt that whilst the demand for cocaine remains on the increase there will be a way to supply, in other words continue to feed the consumers and that means the profits carry on…?

For anyone interested that is equivalent to 247105.38 acres.
If it feels unfathomable then it is and worth taking note of…

A year later, keep on reading knowing that there are just 3 years left to reach this goal of completely destroying a vast amount of coca crops which is where the coca leaf plant comes from.

What is really worth noting is that we currently have over 300 known active drug smuggling organisations in Colombia alone.

How many ‘unknown’ active drug smuggling organisations are working in the dark world of Colombia?

What about the rest of the world and all those under the radar that may never reveal or expose themselves for the statistics?

Origin of Cocaine

Cocaine is a stimulant drug that is made from the leaves of the South American coca plant. For thousands of years, indigenous people in the Amazon Rainforest and Andes Mountains have chewed coca leaves to get an energetic high.

Once lauded as a medical “wonder drug”, experts now recognise cocaine as one of the most addictive substances on Earth.

The coca plant is one of the oldest cultivated plants in South America. Botanists think its cultivation may have started in the Amazon Rainforest and spread to the Andes Mountains.

The indigenous people of South America have chewed the coca leaf for centuries because users felt an exhilarating sensation and an increase in energy.

Coca leaf was also included in Inca cultural and religious ceremonies. (7)

Let us not be Fooled. Cocaine has been around for a very long time.
Back in the old days the coca leaves were chewed and now in its new formation, it has been branded as one of the most addictive substances on the Earth.

What is that telling us and what on earth are we going to do or not do, now that we know this information?

Cocaine: a range of products

Cocaine is most commonly used in its hydrochloride salt form.
Cocaine hydrochloride salt is generally prepared by extracting the crude coca paste from the coca leaf; this paste is then purified to the base form, which is then converted into a hydrochloride salt using hydrochloric acid. (Casale and Klein, 1993).

Cocaine hydrochloride usually appears as a white crystalline powder. This form of cocaine is generally snorted (intranasal route) but can also be dissolved in water and injected. The hydrochloride salt is not smokable as it is destroyed at high temperatures resulting in negligible to no psychoactive effects.

Street names for cocaine hydrochloride include:
Coke | Blow | Snow | Flake | White Powder | Dust | C | Charlie

The combination of cocaine hydrochloride and heroin, generally injected is often referred to as a ‘speedball’.

Crack cocaine is obtained by dissolving cocaine hydrochloride in water; this solution is then made alkaline using ammonia or sodium bicarbonate. This mixture is then heated, producing a solid residue (Perrine, 1996). While practically insoluble in water, crack cocaine is and vaporizes at a temperature of 90 °C, much lower than the hydrochloride salt’s melting point of 190 °C.

Crack Cocaine can also be injected if a weak acid such as lemon juice is added to it to increase its solubility (Waninger et al., 2008).

Street names for Crack Cocaine include:
Base | Rock | Crack | Moonrock | Snow Coke | Gravel

Smoking the mixture produces a crackling sound, which is the origin of the term ‘crack’.

The speed of onset of the effects of cocaine varies depending on the route of administration. The inhalation of vapours (crack only) achieves the fastest onset of effects, after approximately 3-5 seconds, followed by the intravenous and intranasal routes. The duration of effects is reported as approximately 5-15 minutes for inhalation of vapours, 20-60 minutes for intravenous route and 60-90 minutes for intranasal route (Goldstein et al., 2009). (15)

WHY are we not questioning why anyone needs a further hit to add to the cocaine intake, in this case a ‘speedball’ where we have heroin in the mix?

Read on and you will learn the effects of cocaine on the human frame.
Heroin comes with its own long list of side effects and addictive nature.
Add the two together and it is super clear and very obvious it spells DANGER.

Yet nothing seems to stop us from seeking the next hit and if it means going deeper into dangerous territory then we are ok with that – enter Crack.
Cheaper, faster and intense in its potency.

Bingo – a winner for those who want that type of self-medication or the need to want more of the desired effects that come with a myriad of negative side effects.

Another source states that when cocaine powder is snorted it takes over 10 minutes for 30% of the drug to reach the brain. (12)

No other illegal drug acts so quickly and powerfully, there is an instant rush of pleasure hormones into the blood stream. No other drug delivers such a magnificent high but demands so much in return.

Crack dealing creates higher levels of violence

“If I was a crack dealer and selling crack I’m gonna arm myself with a gun cause I don’t want anybody to come and take over my stash. I’m gonna defend my stash. You see if he comes with a gun to takeover my things I’m gonna shoot him first or he will shoot me first. That’s where you get the violence into it…”
Former crack cocaine dealer (12)

Hello

Is this is a no brainer? For a drug user they want the hit, the buzz, the heightened altered state of being instantly and waiting around 10 minutes might seem too long, so they try the fast, almost immediate option now out and cheaper called Crack.

Of course for some the excitement and anticipation of knowing the drug is powerful and acts quickly with the rush of pleasure hormones is what they want and sod the consequences or the damage it does with knock on effects that have not even been contemplated, let alone considered.

Why on earth would we want a lesson to learn about drugs like cocaine?

Why would we want the real truth about the manufacture and supply of this illicit trade that has violence and murder as part of the delivery to the doorstep?

Why are we not informed about the higher levels of violence created that comes with Crack dealing?

Why do we not really care beyond our own needs about what is involved and what harm it does when we make the choice to take cocaine?

Cocaine as Medicine

Albert Niemann, German chemist was able to isolate the cocaine alkaloid from the leaf. He noticed that the powdery white substance made his tongue feel numb.

He perfected a method which distilled a crystalline tropane alkaloid from the leaves of the plant. That refined version of the drug brought the user an exhilarating rush by, in effect, tricking the brain into thinking it had been furnished with something pleasurable.

Like heroin and nicotine it taps into the brain’s natural reward pathways bringing an enhanced awareness, self-confidence, feeling of strength and sexual prowess. (5)

French chemist Angelo Mariani at the same time created a tonic made from Bordeaux wine and coca leaves and called it Vin Mariani. Advertisements claimed the popular drink could “restore health and vitality”. (7)

Back in the 1860s people were drinking a strong alcoholic beverage, which also contained a dose of cocaine. This mix could no longer be marketed in this form and it was replaced with another mind-altering substance – Coffee. We may or may not be aware that coffee is a drug and it contains an addictive ingredient called caffeine. This website presents an in depth article called The Real Truth about Caffeine. The reader can ascertain all the facts and the stats and the effects of what caffeine does to the human frame.

What is it about us that we never Question WHY we need this extra stimulant and WHY it is so popular?

The Alcohol and Coffee industry are booming with no signs of a downward turn even in the global economic state that we are currently in.

Have we clocked that they really are drugs that alter our state of being and we have made them legal?

So we could say that we have two very popular drugs that the world consumes and have no signs of changing our Lifestyle Choices regardless of the consequences.

Presidents, Royalty, Celebrities and Religious Leaders ALL enjoyed this cocaine-laced wine.

Vin Mariani wine contained 11% alcohol and 6.5 mg of cocaine in every ounce. (5)

1884

Austrian ophthalmologist Carl Koller experimented with cocaine as a surgical anesthetic because cataract surgery was typically performed without anesthesia.

Ether and chloroform could not be used because it made patients vomit – an obvious problem when performing delicate eye surgery. As a result, most cataract patients endured excruciating pain.

After soaking the eye in a cocaine solution, Koller found that patients no longer flinched when the scalpel touched their eye. (7)

Koller presented his results at the Medical Society of Vienna that year and this was a significant step contributing to the use of cocaine as an anesthetic.

Cocaine was used for the first time for nerve block by William Halsted. He had a great influence on modern surgery and notably he was one of the founders of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Halsted made many remarkable discoveries in the field of anesthesia and was a pioneer in the field.

However, along with several other colleagues, Halsted became addicted to cocaine later that year, after the famous mandibular nerve block. At the time, physicians and students experimented by performing nerve blocks on each other, only then administering the drug in a similar manner to patients.

Although Halsted’s discovery was said to be ‘remarkable’ it had a detrimental effect on him, leading to a serious addiction; this was followed by an addiction to morphine, initially used to wean him off cocaine.

It can be questioned whether Halsted was really aware of the addictive properties of cocaine before he became addicted to it.

1885

James Corning, a neurologist from America had learned a lot about spinal anatomy in Europe. Some of Corning’s knowledge about the spine’s anatomy was incorrect but he had enough understanding of the subject to perform the first spinal anesthesia, a revolutionary procedure of his time. The procedure successfully produced loss of both pain and sensation in one of Corning’s patients who had spinal weakness. The effects lasted for around 30 minutes in the patient. The only side effects were Headache and dizziness.

1886

Corning published “Local Anesthesia in General Medicine and Surgery”, the first textbook of its kind. James Corning was a student of William Halsted and a lot of information provided in this book was closely linked to Halsted’s work.

The importance of this textbook in publicising the anesthetic use of cocaine is greatly recognised. (8)

Dr. William Alexander Hammond, the Surgeon-General of the US Army endorsed the medical use of cocaine at a meeting of the New York Neurological Society. (6)

1891

The technique of lumbar puncture was developed.

1898

Successful use of cocaine as a spinal anaesthetic by Dr. August Bier.

1899

Bier reported the method he adopted for performing 6 unproblematic orthopaedic operations in his paper entitled “Experiments with Cocainization of the Spinal Cord.” He also theorised the manner in which his method might have affected the nerves and spinal cord.

Throughout the 1890s, doctors administered inappropriate doses of cocaine to patients causing toxicity, which was potentially fatal.

Over the turn of the century, knowledge of the effects of cocaine increased and the number of doctors who encouraged its use decreased, leading to a reduction in the reported number of cocaine-associated deaths.

As is the case with most medical discoveries, the use of cocaine became a part of the popular culture of that time. (8)

Throughout the 1900s unregulated medicinal “tonics” were sold containing ingredients including cocaine and opium. (6)

1905

Further progress in the field of local anesthesia occurred.

Procaine, a synthetic agent that was much safer than cocaine was synthesised by Dr. Alfred Einhorn. Further, Heinrich Braun combined procaine with adrenaline to increase its duration of action. Since procaine was far less addictive than cocaine, it became a much more popular anesthetic than cocaine.

During the following years, several other improved compounds were developed and the medical use of cocaine reduced further.

However, cocaine was an early anesthetic and its use paved the path for the development of other anesthetics.

It is still widely researched upon and a large proportion of this research is focused on its effects in addiction and abuse and not on its use as an anesthetic. (8)

How on earth did cocaine go from being an anesthetic to where it is today?

It is clear that cocaine was used in the field of medicine and surgery to block nerve pain, anaesthetise a patient or use in surgery where the patient is numb from feeling pain or sensation.

Hello

This tells us that it is not for pleasure seeking highs.
It is not for recreational use in any form whatsoever.
It is not an option to numb our deep hurts and pain.
It is not a licence to forget about the day and use it.
It is not the answer to relieve us from everyday Stress.
It is not in any way to be an Excuse to go sense-less.
It is not a way to ignore our body and over-ride it.
It is not a way to escape and distract us from real life.
It is not to anaesthetise and have our brains hijacked.
It is not the medication for blocking the pain we feel.

In other words, cocaine was never ever designed for human consumption. We could say it was initially the intention of physicians to use the drug to perform surgery so the patient experienced less pain and sensation at the time.

But WHY would we even start to create a drug with such devastating side effects, even if it is in the name of medicine?

The very fact that those creating discoveries were they themselves addicted to the drug speaks volumes. To ignore this fact would expose our lack of real Intelligence₂

Facing Addiction in America – Office of the Surgeon General

Cocaine

Common Commercial Names

Cocaine hydrochloride topical solution
(anesthetic rarely used in medical procedures)

Street Names

Cocaine: Blow | Bump | C | Candy | Charlie | Coke | Crack | Flake | Rock | Snow | Toot | Dust

Crack Cocaine: Crack | Rock | Base | Sugar Block | Rox/Roxanne

Common Forms

White powder, whitish rock crystal

Common Ways Taken

Snorted, smoked, injected, orally, topically

DEA Schedule / Legal Status

Schedule II / Illegal, except for use in hospital settings (however it is rarely used)

Uses and Possible Health Effects  

Short-Term Symptoms of Use

Narrowed blood vessels; enlarged pupils; increased body temperature, Heart₁ rate and Blood Pressure; Headache; abdominal pain and nausea; euphoria; increased energy, alertness; insomnia; restlessness, irritability, anxiety; erratic and violent behavior, panic attacks, paranoia, psychosis; Heart Rhythm problems, Heart₂ attack; stroke, seizure, coma; and death from cardiac arrest, respiratory arrest or Suicide.

Long-Term Consequences of Use and Health Effects

Loss of sense of smell, nosebleeds, nasal damage and trouble swallowing from snorting; infection and death of bowel tissue from decreased blood flow; poor nutrition and weight loss from decreased appetite; and severe Depression.

Other Health-Related Issues

Risk of HIV, hepatitis and other infectious diseases from shared needles.

Pregnancy-related premature delivery, low birth weight, neonatal abstinence syndrome.**

In Combination with Alcohol

Greater risk of overdose and sudden death than from alcohol or cocaine alone.

Withdrawal Symptoms

Depression, tiredness, increased appetite, insomnia, vivid unpleasant dreams, slowed thinking and movement, restlessness.

Medical Use

Cocaine hydrochloride topical solution is indicated for the introduction of local (topical) anesthesia of accessible mucous membranes of the oral, laryngeal and nasal cavities.

Treatment Options 

Medications

There are no FDA-approved medications to treat cocaine addiction.

** Neonatal abstinence syndrome is a group of problems that occur in a newborn who was exposed to addictive Opioid drugs while in the mother’s womb. At birth, the baby is still dependent on the drug and because the baby is no longer getting the drug after birth, symptoms of withdrawal may occur. (1)

The US Surgeon General and his team put together this book called Facing Addiction in America in 2016.

This tiny section above gives us an insight into the possible side effects from Cocaine and that list in itself is enough to alert any reader that this is Danger Zone territory and we ought to Question WHY anyone would want to seek this path.

Cocaine is a popular drug but most of us have not been asking WHY it has become the drug of choice for all classes across the globe?

WHY on earth would anyone want a short term high with increased blood pressure and heart rate?

Look no further, read our blogs on this website about the human Heart and hypertension, which we call High Blood Pressure. This is not a fun party drug. Cocaine is lethal and our lack of awareness and understanding is creating even more harm than we care to realise.

WHY are we seeking moments or a euphoric state and dismissing the nausea and abdominal pain that goes with it?

WHY is it making absolutely no sense to have increased alertness and energy but then to have insomnia and restlessness? 

Hello

This tells us SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT.

WHY are we not choosing to join the dots and admit cocaine makes us anxious, erratic, irritable and violent, so how can it possibly be ok to snort, even if it is at weekends only?

WHY are we accepting we could have panic attacks as a result of ingesting cocaine but conveniently forget that the next time we order our lines of coke to snort?

WHY are we not concerned about a stroke, a seizure, being in a coma or having a heart attack as a direct result of our cocaine habit?

WHY are we not waking up with a 911 emergency message informing us that the above list of symptoms are all from short term cocaine use?

We all know beyond doubt that Drugs have an addictive nature and so it would be safe to say many short-term users will end up on the long-term consequences road to cocaine addiction.

Continue reading this article and it will become clear that our health systems can expect more patients with the side effects related to long term cocaine use, such as severe Depression, demise of the bowel tissue because of the decreased blood flow and weight loss.

Most of us do know that Drugs go hand in hand with Alcohol and we are being told by the Surgeon General – so pay attention here.

There is a greater risk of overdose and sudden death with the deadly combo of cocaine and alcohol. Now read what this mix does to the body…

The Dangers of Cocaine

Evidence shows that cocaine is as addictive as Alcohol

50% cocaine users end up with an addiction problem

Cocaine dependency develops after about 3 years of steady use.
While it takes about 6 months to become addicted to heroin, it can take as few as 6 hits of crack cocaine to become addicted.

There is a further danger, which comes from mixing of drugs.

Taken with Alcohol, cocaine produces cocaethlyene in the liver, which both produces a greater euphoria and a higher risk of Heart attack or respiratory arrest.

Taken with heroin, in a mixture known as speedball or moonrock, the cocaine produces a rapid increase in heart rate but when that wears off, the heroin slows down the heart, risking total heart failure. (5)

As cocaine stimulates the cells of the central nervous system and the cardiovascular system, in the hour after cocaine is used, the risk of a heart attack rises 24-fold. (5)

With the search for greater highs have come greater dangers.

Cocaine that is smoked reaches the brain in 5 seconds, giving a rush which is much more intense than taking the same amount of cocaine in through the nose.

A solvent like diethyl ether can be used to allow the drug to be smoked “freebase”. (5)

Dear World

Do we really need any more scientific evidence, research studies or statistics from our health systems to tell us that half of our cocaine consumers end up with addiction?

We could at this point admit that we do have evidence that shows “cocaine is as addictive as alcohol” – so WHY is Alcohol not classed as a drug and why is it so acceptable and legal knowing the effects of this toxic poison?

The mix of alcohol and cocaine give us a greater more intense high, which comes with an even higher risk of a heart attack. That tells us that our human heart is not able to deal with a lethal combination of 2 drugs at the same time. Yet we continue to chase the highs and not focus or pay attention to the aftermath that follows a session where we mix our drug(s) of choice with alcohol.

WHY do we take even greater risks by using cocaine and alcohol together?

Can we go back and re-read – cocaine taken with heroin increases the heart rate rapidly and heroin slows down the heart and this is a risk for total heart failure.

Sounds crazy but yet we endorse and subscribe to this and it’s not going away.

• Does the risk of a heart attack actually bother us?
• Does it make any difference knowing the rise is 24 fold?
• Would it bother us if the risk of a heart attack was 90 fold?

WHY do we seek and search for greater highs should be the Question we need to be asking?

WHY do we need a rush that is more intense in less time and so we opt to smoke cocaine as snorting the same amount takes a bit longer to give us the hit we want?

What is missing from our lives that we go in search of a substances that play havoc with our central nervous and cardiovascular systems?

What could possibly be going on in our minds that make the movements to go for Drugs in the first place and why do we never stop and ask any Questions?

Taking Cocaine and Alcohol together produces ‘Deadly Combination’

Alcohol and Cocaine leading to ‘self-inflicted deaths

Taking cocaine and alcohol together produces a “deadly combination” that can lead to increased violent and impulsive behaviour, doctors have warned.

Alcohol is a depressant, it increases the levels of Gaba (gamma-aminobutyric acid) in the brain, which is like the brain’s handbrake and makes us feel less anxious.

You add cocaine into the mix and you almost have a rocket-fuelled increased impulsivity which gives people the driver to complete an act that they may not otherwise do. 
Julia Sinclair – Professor of Addiction Psychiatry | University of Southampton (16)          

The very fact that we know that the mix of alcohol and cocaine is lethal and makes the user have impulsive behaviour, which can be violent, what are we waiting for?

More deaths and more health systems not knowing where and how to resource for the escalating drug crisis? More violence, more harmful and destructive behaviour?

Where is this going? When will it end and how on earth can we bring an end to this?

If we read the blog on this website called The Real Truth about Alcohol and thereafter the 200+ comments to expand the reader about this dangerous toxic poison, we call alcohol, that just happens to be a legal and acceptable drug worldwide, we can then be informed about the facts.

What we do after that is entirely up to us because our world grants us this thing called ‘free will’ but what we can do is consider our so-called Intelligence₂ because something is clearly not right or making any sense.

No one sensible or what we call Intelligent₁  would drink poison or something so dangerous to the human body but yet millions and millions of us continue to drink alcohol with no signs of reducing our intake or stopping.

Something happens to us when we drink alcohol. We all know that so for now let’s stop pretending. We see it, we feel it and we can sense it when someone has had a drink or two, or if it is us drinking the legal scientifically proven poison we call alcohol.

What is running the show because suddenly we become someone else, not the person we know ourselves to be and behave like without the alcohol?

For the majority it makes us forget about life and its problems, helps to numb the constant pain we feel or the misery of our daily Stress.  It is like our choice of medicine – call it self-medication and it works. The only thing we do not seem to comprehend is we start to develop a need to want more of the same to get that feeling we like – forget about things, numb the pain, be more chatty and the list goes on…

So what is telling us to go for cocaine in addition to taking Alcohol?

Is it seeing others or is it something inside us that is seeking this mind altering substance, because the alcohol is just not cutting it and we need a stronger dose to knock us out from reality and this combo does the job?

If we were of sound mind surely we would Question that we know and can feel Alcohol acts like a depressant, which means it reduces activity so we get relaxed and chilled out, so the anxiousness we have suddenly goes away. Most of us live with some level of anxiety and that tension goes when we drink alcohol so is it any wonder that the masses are going to alcohol to ease the stress and tension they are experiencing on a daily basis?

But it is no longer doing the job we want – Why is that?

We are seeking stronger beverages with even more alcohol content and we are going for a mix with drugs of choice like cocaine, which is available and accessible with great ease now.

What is worth taking note of is that the combination of cocaine and alcohol is being described as “rocket-fuelled increased impulsivity” and the user acts differently, not like their innate and natural state of being.

Can we join the dots and consider something, which could be very important?

This mix of drugs alters our natural state of being and something takes over which is clearly not us. We start behaving out of character so to speak. So what is the character inside at that time doing what it does, because it sure ain’t the person we know.

But we say nothing, Do Nothing and never demand research to find out the what, why, how and when so we can get to the root of what exactly is going on when our mind and body is hijacked when we take Drugs.

Unless we start asking Questions or posing the SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT in our everyday conversations, we can expect things to stay the same, get worse or continue to escalate at epic proportions under our watch.

What Cocaine Does to the Human Body

Documentary –
How Drugs Works: Cocaine

The following is the narrative transcribed from the documentary
https://documentaryheaven.com/how-drugs-work-cocaine/

This section is a real lesson in education – learning about the way cocaine works and what it actually does inside the human body.

This is proper Public Health Education with the intent to bring awareness.

As a line of cocaine is snorted it flies up into the nose at up to 100 miles per hour.

The fine powder rips through the nostrils coating the mucous membranes lining the sinuses.

Up to 60% of the powder gets absorbed through the nasal membranes straight into the bloodstream by small capillaries, beginning a journey through the body.

These capillaries feed into bigger veins leading eventually to the heart.

The cocaine is then pumped into our lungs where the blood absorbs oxygen, before shooting back up to the heart, which is starting to beat faster as the cocaine takes effect.

The cocaine payload is carried onto the major organs in the body, much of it to the brain. Here the cocaine molecules can leach out through the blood vessels. Soon they reach the billions of nerve cells that the brain is made of, the cells that control every aspect of how we behave.

The huge high and burst of energy come from the huge changes that have just happened in the brain.

Our brains are composed of networks of billions of tiny nerve cells. Signals race around these networks crossing the gaps between the nerve cells using chemical messengers. One network is dedicated to making us feel good when we do something that is essential to survival such as eat, drink or have sex. Normally when this network is activated the nerve cells in it release the feelgood chemical messenger, dopamine. Dopamine travels across the gap from one nerve cell to receptors on its neighbour, triggering a chain reaction, which makes us feel good. This dopamine then returns to the nerve cell that released it for further use.

Cocaine hijacks the feelgood network in the brain. It causes huge increases in the amount of dopamine throughout the network, flooding the brain with feelgood chemicals and it also stops the dopamine returning to the nerve cells that have released it meaning more and more builds up.

‘Cocaine blocks something called the dopamine transporter and what that does is it mops up dopamine that sits in the space between two cells and if that reuptake is blocked what you get is an awful lot of dopamine floating around this space. The flood of dopamine sends the feelgood network in the brain into overdrive producing a sense of euphoria and self-assurance making the user more animated and talkative.’
Dr Adam Winstock, Consultant Psychiatrist

‘Cocaine’s main effects are emotional. The user quite rapidly feels more confident, talkative, assertive, sometimes quite garrulous and aggressive and all of those effects relate to the amount of cocaine that’s taken.’
Dr John Marsden, Research Psychologist

Feelings of excitement and sexual desire are caused by the release of dopamine and noradrenaline, another chemical messenger in the brain. It floods into the feelgood network and also the emotional centre. Noradrenaline is normally released when we are in danger, it makes us more alert and ready for action. Cocaine also supresses the area of the brain involved in decision making. This makes people more impulsive.

“I would say sex is better on coke. As much as it numbs you it accentuates everything so you can do a lot of things for longer.”
Cocaine user

This is because cocaine makes the body produce a chemical, which increases the blood flow to the penis stimulating an erection, just like Viagra. The chemical also delays ejaculation but it can cause problems. If users take cocaine regularly or take a lot in one session it can produce too much noradrenaline in an area of the brain called the hippocampus. This can stop male users getting an erection.

As the cocaine travels around the body in the blood it passes through the liver, which begins the process and breakdowns the drug. After 30 minutes half the cocaine has been broken down and the high is over. This process happens much more quickly with cocaine than with other drugs such as cannabis or ecstasy. To keep feeling good on coke people have to keep doing more lines. This can lead to people bingeing on it with serious consequences.

It is not just the brain where cocaine has an effect. The drug also directly stimulates nerve cells in the heart to produce noradrenaline from their tips straight into the muscle fibres. This normally happens when we are in danger to make our heart beat faster so that we can fight or get away from trouble. It also causes blood vessels to squeeze and constrict. Blood pressure starts to rise.

‘Cocaine increases your pulse rate and your blood pressure. It makes your heart beat more quickly. All of those things mean that your heart needs an increased blood supply. It needs more oxygen to beat more quickly and beat more strongly. Unfortunately, what cocaine does is it also causes constriction of those blood vessels that supply blood to the heart. It’s like putting your foot on the accelerator and pinching the fuel line.’
Dr Adam Winstock, Consultant Psychiatrist

The heart is starved of the oxygen it so desperately needs to beat faster, putting it under enormous strain. This can cause a heart attack.

Cocaine also causes the build-up of plaque in blood vessels over long periods, just like fatty foods. This plaque can tear causing a blood clot to form, blocking the artery causing a heart attack at any time.

‘About a quarter of heart attacks among people under 45 years of age are cocaine related.’
Dr John Marsden, Research Psychologist

It doesn’t take much cocaine to affect the heart’s function. A couple of lines can have a massive impact. Even occasional users can have problems, taking them by surprise.

Tom – 17 Years Old

Introduced to cocaine at a party

1^st time taken – very chatty and full of energy

After party, regular user few times a week
Mostly weekends – about 1 gram

Occasional chest pains experienced
Went to doctor who said it was indigestion

Few weeks later took some cocaine with friends
Next day met with family
Had pain in arm all day – did not take much notice

Pain shot up arm, chest went tight, lost breath
Tapped mother on shoulder to get her attention
Could not hear or feel anything – everything was like it was on mute
Felt like he was just looking at life but without being in it

Managed to say “I need to go to the hospital”

Went to emergency room – oxygen mask fitted
Heart wired up, needle in arm, fluids going in…
Terrified

The cocaine that he had taken caused a clot to form
Stopping blood getting to the heart
Heart rate slowed to just 28 beats per minute
Heart attack

He thought “What have I done?”
Did not realise the effect this would have on people
On his death bed with family next to him, in tears

The damage to the heart meant that he had to have a pacemaker to regulate his heart beat.

“Imagine being told that part of your body’s not working and it’s your fault as you took cocaine.”

Users take even greater risks with cocaine by mixing it with other substances like Alcohol.

61% of people that take cocaine, drink alcohol at the same time

One of the side effects of cocaine is that people can feel a little bit anxious, a little bit too jittery and consuming alcohol kind of turns the volume down on that, so it can reduce that anxiety and that twitchiness.
One of the unusual things about cocaine is that it does tend to creep up on people.
People can use cocaine intra-nasally – snorting it, for many months and years within what they might consider quite a functional social setting and gradually the amount and the frequency and the consequences of use build up.
Dr Adam Winstock, Consultant Psychiatrist

When users drink and take coke at the same time, the liver forms a chemical called cocaethylene. This cocaethylene is pumped through the blood, up to the brain where like cocaine it also causes the release of dopamine making users high. The effects are quite similar to cocaine – there’s euphoria, confidence, talkativeness but the effects last a lot longer.

The high from cocathylene can make people feel less anxious than just cocaine. It also stimulates nerve cells in the heart to produce lots of noradrenaline, making it beat three times faster than cocaine alone. The blood vessels get even tighter and blood pressure shoots up, making users much more likely to die from a heart attack than from taking cocaine on its own.

The risks from mixing coke and booze are all the worse because cocaine allows users to drink far more than they normally would.

Cocaine is powerfully addictive

The repeated exposure to cocaine that an addict’s brain is subjected to causes it to physically change. To regulate the constant triggering of the network, the brain kills off some of the receptors on the nerve cells. With fewer receptors on each nerve cell it takes much more dopamine to trigger Happy feelings, more than is released by normal sources such as food and sex. Only cocaine can release enough dopamine to trigger their feelgood network. After a while addicts crave a line not to feel high but to feel less bad, more normal.

Cocaine causes the adrenal glands to produce cortisol, the Stress hormone. This normally happens when we are in threatening situations to prepare us for physical action. Elevated levels of the hormone also make people feel anxious and restless. The longer a cocaine session lasts the more these unpleasant feelings can be felt as the level of cortisol rises.

Users say no matter how much they chased that first cocaine high they never got close to it again.

Cocaine can cause people to feel down the next day, just like Alcohol.

The cocaine hangover is down to the way in which the drug makes users feel high. The euphoria of cocaine comes from the release of large amounts of the feelgood chemical messenger dopamine, because the drug blocks the dopamine from being recycled; it stays in the gap between nerve cells. Eventually it breaks down and disappears. It takes several days for nerve cells to replenish the stocks of dopamine. After a cocaine binge the shortage of dopamine stops the feelgood network from functioning properly making users feel down.

The cocaine come down is really about users feeling depressed and fed up and that is because the brain’s dopamine system, this pleasure chemical is struggling to get back to normal.
Dr John Marsden, Research Psychologist

Snorting too much of any type of coke can harm the nose. As it hits the delicate lining inside the nostril it causes blood vessels to constrict and shut down, depriving the tissue of blood and oxygen. Eventually the tissue weakens and dies. This can cause a hole or perforations to develop in the nose. An operation is often required to repair this damage. The operation requires the patient’s nose to be cut open and split in two.

Sometimes doing it there was times when you’d take a line and you’d have a real bad burning sensation from the start of your nose right the way to the back of your throat. It’s really painful and the next day when you wake up you find you’ve got scabs and you’re actually blowing out probably parts of your nose. I was doing it every day of the week. It doesn’t worry you at the time when you are doing it obviously but afterward when you start to feel that your nose is as sore as hell, times when you’ve had your nose bleeding, it kind of makes you regret doing it in the first place.
Cocaine user

With chronic cocaine abuse, as the perforation gets bigger and bigger the cartilage gets weaker and weaker because there is not enough support and as the top of the nose begins to collapse one can end up with an almost boxer type appearance. I’ve seen patients where the whole middle of the nose has gone effectively and you’ve just got one big nasal cavity and everything just collapses inwards…Initially the cocaine would have created a hole in the lining but not through the cartilage, eventually it would have worked its way through the cartilage and then eventually through the other side. 

The fact that cocaine is often mixed with a lot of contaminants, all sorts of things including baking soda, glucose and in the worst case scenario even talcum powder can cause an intense inflammatory response…I must see a patient every few weeks with nasal problems related to cocaine exposure.
Sandip Paun, Consultant Surgeon – Leading Specialist in Nose Reconstruction

This inflammation can cause the flesh in the nose to die even more rapidly.

Ironically Mr. Paun actually administers cocaine to the patient to stop bleeding during surgery.

Cartilage from the backend of the nasal septum is removed and used to replace the cartilage missing from the front of the nose. The cartilage closes the hole. (3)

This documentary highlights some very important facts and the one that sticks out the most is how cocaine increases the pulse rate and blood pressure. This means the heart beats faster and this requires an increased blood supply to the heart AND it needs more oxygen to beat more strongly and quickly. But cocaine also causes constriction to those blood vessels that need to supply the heart. The Heart is starved of oxygen and so it desperately needs to beat faster, putting it under enormous strain and this can cause a heart attack.

It is like putting your foot on the accelerator and pinching the fuel line.
Consultant Psychiatrist Dr. Adam Winstock                                                                                      

Hello – are we getting this? Why on earth would we do that when it makes absolutely no sense?

Imagine if we harm a child and it ended up deprived of oxygen to the heart, we would certainly end up in prison, but yet we can do what we want in the claim that we are adults and we make our decisions and nothing or no one can stop us.

We ought to take a look at what our so-called free will world has created, the cost to our Health and Well-Being and the real cost to society.

What if we started to have dinner table conversations about these kinds of documentaries where we get to learn and understand more about the effects and dangers of drugs like cocaine and Alcohol?

How serious is it that we think we are in control and we bludgeon and assassinate our body by ingesting poison like cocaine?

At what cost to the human frame are we using our so-called free will to do as we please and not give a hoot about the consequences?

Why is the world not talking about the facts of what cocaine actually does to the brain and the false state it leaves us in?

Why is the Media not using its platforms to publicise and inform us of the facts relating to drugs such as cocaine?

Imagine if ALL of us worldwide knew that a quarter of all heart attacks in people aged 45 and under are related to cocaine.

How serious would that news headline be?

Why are we using cocaine to feel more assertive, confident and talkative?

What is going on in our life that we are unable to connect and express naturally?

Why do we prefer to seek Drugs to give us something that is short lived and comes at a high cost to our body?

If we are in doubt – read the story of Tom the teenager introduced to cocaine at a party and within weeks of use had a heart attack and now lives with a pace maker.

Is that serious enough or are we those that need double blind tested, scientific research studies to convince us of the harm and dangers of cocaine consumption?

There will be plenty of other Tom stories relating to cocaine use but yet we continue to seek and indulge in a habit that is literally killing us inside our body.

Global

20 Biggest Cocaine Consuming Countries

1. Albania
2. Scotland
3. United States
4. England and Wales
5. Spain
6. Australia
7. Uruguay
8. Chile
9. Netherlands
10. Ireland
11. Canada
12. Aruba
13. Bermuda
14. Ghana
15. Italy
16. France
17. Israel
18. Iceland
19. Costa Rica
20. Luxembourg (17)

If we just stop and study this list for a moment, what is it telling us?

Cocaine is widespread in every continent in this world of ours and that in itself speaks volumes.

With a real dose of Honesty, can we admit that our war on drugs and/or our Solutions to end the production, distribution and supply of cocaine has not worked and is never going to work, if we have such a global demand as the above chart confirms. It would be like fighting to stop us eating sugar and that ain’t going to happen overnight.

What we all seem to be good at is avoiding the reality that goes with the high consumption of cocaine. That means we know it is happening probably in our own homes, neighbourhood, communities, towns and cities, but we have come to accept it as if it is not going on and this is WHY it is so rife all over the world.

Kids don’t get born with the intent to wake up one day and start taking cocaine.

Something happens along the way and this ‘something’ needs to be explored, nominated and outed if we are going to ever get close to dealing with the use of cocaine or any Drug including Alcohol. It is like we have a void in our lives and we go seeking for something to fill that empty-ness and our world is great at giving us the filler in the name of self medication and free will.

It is like our modern day laws have zero effect as we do what we want on our terms, because we can and we can Get Away with it. Add to this our attitude which comes with the ‘what’s the big deal man – everyone’s doing it out there’.

What if we start with real Education and bring presentations like this article into schools from a young age and continue to offer Another Way to the current model of what our education system is providing?

For example – instead of learning where a country is in the world by way of geography and what goes with that topic, we show our children the top 20 list of countries where cocaine is consumed and then talk about and discuss what exactly is cocaine and the effects on the human body which includes the mind.

What if Independent researchers funded by the public purse could do studies and track these kids who have been educated in this way and observe how many actually end up ingesting toxic poisons like cocaine or alcohol or both?

United Nations – World Drug Report 2020

Production of cocaine – among the highest levels recorded in modern times.
Ghada Waly, Executive Director – United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Drugs such as cocaine are even more firmly associated with the wealthier parts of the world. (18)

Dear World

United Nations have an office dedicated to Drugs and Crime.

They are an organization going since post war 1945
https://www.un.org/un70/en/content/history/index.html

With 193 member states to report to, we get informed that the production of Cocaine is among the highest levels recorded in modern times.

If we read the purpose and goals of what the United Nations present, the words somehow are not aligned to what is actually going on in our real world and with particular reference to Drugs like cocaine.

We could just keep it simple and say that as a world we need to unite and currently and up until this present day, we as nations do not have a one-unifying approach in our policy, laws and governing of a drug like cocaine and this is why we are where we are at with the steep rise in cocaine production and consumption.

What would possess a human being to produce a lethal poison from plant leaves that literally destroys the vehicle we call the human body and then introduce it to others in a form that is easily accessible – powder, light in weight and easy to supply and deliver?

Let’s get Real Dear World, our suppliers are not going to stop the trade whilst we keep demanding more and more of this stuff. We cannot blame them as they profit from our need and that is basic economics – no supply unless there is a demand.

It would be wise to keep this in mind when reading, criticising, judging or questioning anything that we know is harming us as humans, like Caffeine, Alcohol, sugar, pornography, Tobacco and all forms of drugs that we use to self-medicate because we can.

COVID-19 may lead to further expansion of drug markets    

As a result of the pandemic, more farmers may increase or take up illicit crop cultivation, either because State authorities may be less able to exert control or because more people may have to resort to illicit activities due to the economic crisis.

Reports from Colombia indicate that law enforcement pressure has increased during the pandemic and that the coca bush eradication campaign is continuing as planned. Cocaine manufacture appears to be being impeded, as producers, especially in eastern Colombia are suffering a shortage of gasoline, which was previously smuggled from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and is essential in cocaine manufacture.

In the Plurinational State of Bolivia, political turbulence in late 2019 and the recent challenges related to the spread of COVID-19 appear to be limiting the ability of State authorities to control coca bush cultivation, which could lead to an increase in its cultivation. In Peru, a drop in the price of cocaine is indicative of a reduction in trafficking opportunities and may discourage coca bush cultivation in the short term. However, the looming economic crisis may lead more farmers to increase or take up coca cultivation in all major cocaine producing countries.

Cocaine is mostly trafficked by sea, sometimes using non-commercial craft such as yachts and specialized boats. 

Relatively recent large seizures of cocaine made in European ports demonstrate that the trafficking of large shipments of cocaine is still ongoing.

The Flow of Cocaine and Seizures

Cocaine continues to be seized in large quantities in Europe and Latin America, which indicates that drug trafficking is ongoing but also that the law enforcement is continuing to intercept such shipments. There are indications of a reduction in the flow of cocaine from source countries to destination countries.

In Peru, falling cocaine prices and difficulties in trafficking cocaine abroad have been reported, which could lead to an overall reduction in cocaine trafficking in the near future. (18)

So what has the current pandemic brought with it ?

A rise in cocaine consumption because of the restrictions imposed or a licence to give up on the work front and live in a constant heightened state of anxiety that brings with it a tension that is dissipated and/or not felt if we consume cocaine, alcohol or another substance of equal numbing quality?

Taking the above into consideration, are we really on track with the Colombia campaign of coca bush eradication or have our suppliers just upped their customers worldwide because of the pandemic?

Are our desperate farmers going to seek a better life with money flowing and greater profits if they change to coca cultivation, as the demand is there and they could get on board the cocaine supply chain, which comes with great risk?

Let us not be deluded or Fooled in anyway – large seizures of cocaine aimed at reaching a destination confirms the volume of trafficking. What we ought to be reminded of at this moment is how much is getting through and arriving literally to our streets or our doorstep if we choose that form of delivery.

It is great news if we think that the overall reduction of cocaine trafficking in the near future is going to happen but the raw reality is – right now with the addition and excuse of a pandemic, things have got worse Dear World and our cocaine suppliers are on the front foot, as they are super busy finding ways to get shipments where they receive the orders from and delivery means huge profits.

Let us not forget the violence and other atrocities that go hand in hand with the production and supply of cocaine. If we need a reminder, re-read this blog and then the documentary narrative below extracted from the UK documentary – Gordon Ramsey on Cocaine

If that is not enough, stand by for the next instalment – Part 2 of The Real Truth about Cocaine, where we will deliver and present even more narrative taken from other documentaries about Cocaine.

Sensible Questions

What if we put this to the kids in the classroom?

What if we done a podcast for the world to hear?

What if we take money totally out of the equation?
How engaged would we be with no monetary profit?

Would we suddenly see a demise of a game where we were never ever going to win because we cannot have winners where there is loss of human life, even if that means just one person?

What would our children have to share and express about all of this?

How would they discuss this topic in the classroom with a teacher that holds a quality, like the author of this article and this website?

Next –

Cultivation of Coca Bush and Manufacture of Cocaine

2013 – 2017 – massive upward trend, during which the area under coca bush cultivation at the global level more than doubled.

2017  
Latest year for which comparable estimates are available, Colombia accounted for 70% of the global area under coca cultivation.

2018
1,723 tonnes expressed at 100% purity – on the basis of preliminary estimates, the global manufacture of cocaine hydrochloride may have reached its highest level ever.

37% increase in global cocaine manufacture between 2015 and 2016. (14)

Reflecting on the above dates here, we could ask a sensible question –

WHY was there such a ‘massive upward trend’ from 2013 to 2017 where global demand for cocaine more than doubled?

Next Question –

Is this why a year later we have a statistic informing us that one thousand, seven hundred tonnes of cocaine had been made at 100% purity to supply our world demand and it could be the highest level ever. Really? Are we certain?
OR are we to wait and see in 2021 what figures we have now reached taking into account our recent rise in cocaine consumption that is possibly linked to a virus where our world has literally shut down the flow of economics – our work world.

The fact of it being pure with nothing added should set off alarm bells alerting us that this is clearly a 911 world emergency and not something that is going away. We the customers, the consumers of this toxic substance are responsible or we may even start to contemplate and admit that we are irresponsible when we choose any drug that alters our state of mind.

Latest Trends

Stimulant use on the increase 

The stimulant scene is dominated by cocaine and methamphetamine.
Use of both substances is rising in their main markets.

19 million people used cocaine in 2018 –
fuelled by the drug’s popularity in North America and Western Europe.

Coca bush cultivation continues at a historically very high level.
Estimated global manufacture of cocaine reached an all-time high and global seizures increased marginally, to the largest quantity ever reported.

Trafficking

Cocaine traffickers have varied routes and continue to develop new trading patterns.

Cocaine smugglers are diversifying routes. The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela was once a major departure point but declined in importance as a result of political volatility. Brazil remains a major transit country and may even have to play an increasing role. Uruguay appears to be growing in importance.

9 tonnes of cocaine seized by authorities of Uruguay destined for West Africa – 2019 (18)

We have covered the combination of cocaine and Alcohol and now we have the ‘latest trend’ report saying the stimulant seeking customers are going for cocaine and methamphetamine.

For the reader that wants to understand more about the drug known as methamphetamine or its common known name – Ice, read our presentation The Real Truth about Amphetamines.

Next –

19 million of us were using cocaine two years ago.

Are we certain and absolute that we have a real and accurate figure here or could it possibly be more because we do know that there is a dark world of drugs operating under the radar, Getting Away with it and never rising to say ‘Hello, do you want to know what we get up to so you can lock us up in jails for the rest of our lives?’. The answer is simply No and it would be naïve on our part to think there is not more going on behind the scenes, so to speak in this world that we have created in the name of drugs.

If both substances are rising in their markets, do we need to be concerned as that was 2 years ago and reading what we have thus far in this article alone, points to an obvious fact that ‘popularity’ means the masses are seeking this form of self-medication now fuelled by the developed nations of North America and Western Europe.

Traffickers have a job to do – keep the supply chain going and that means staying on the front foot and developing ‘new trading patterns’. If we think or believe for one moment that we have this nailed and/or that our governments have managed to somehow slow down this illicit trade of cocaine, then we are officially off track when it comes to real world reality check status. That means we will not get our ‘Passport to Get Real’ renewed – read the blog. Hilarious but not really as it makes the point.

The Impact of Cocaine on Communities

Cocaine mostly comes from Colombia, Bolivia and Peru.

The violent gangs making and dealing cocaine use murder and torture to force people into working for them or into staying silent.

When the drugs pass through other countries to reach Europe and America, so does the violence.

25,000 murders recorded in Mexico in 2017

Most of these were linked to drug trafficking violence.

The gangs selling cocaine and other drugs in the UK can be very violent.

Cocaine farming leads to deforestation which devastates environments. (19)

Dear World

This requires a complete stop to re-read what the impact of cocaine really is on human life and why we are not all up in arms demanding answers to our Questions.

How have we accepted and allowed this to continue on our watch?

Have we considered what the families of those 25,000 murdered in Mexico are dealing with?

Have we noticed that number was 3 years ago and we all know about the Drug wars in Mexico, so what is the real figure today at the end of 2020?

WHY has the following sentence not made it to front page news headlines across every country in this world and remained there until we bring a complete end to this?

Violent gangs use murder and torture to force people to work for them or stay silent – in the name of cocaine.

These are not words about a new movie – this is real life going on right now. YES dear people of the world – we have murder, torture and forced labour but it does not stop us dialing up for the next line of cocaine that suits our current lifestyle. This is where we need to go and call it out instead of making Excuses or finding More Solutions or demanding even more research studies, when in truth we all know.

Yes we do ALL know that drugs are dangerous and not for human consumption.

How do we know – because our body tells us.

Watch this documentary about what cocaine does to us inside our body and we will realise instantly that this is not a lifestyle choice that is fun, party, recreational or ok in any form.

https://documentaryheaven.com/how-drugs-work-cocaine/

For those consuming cocaine as a social ‘bit of fun’ to boost confidence or ignite our lack of sex department to function, or a licence to act Crazy, impulsive and totally off our heads literally – please take note how that white powder is produced and delivered. It comes with blood as Gordon Ramsey says in his insightfull documentary worth watching.

https://documentaryheaven.com/gordon-ramsay-cocaine/
https://www.bitchute.com/video/koHu8KE8OIjt/

For those who are on the ‘climate change’ and ‘save our environment’ bandwagon, it is worth noting that cocaine farming leads to deforestation and devastates our environments. Our campaigns to fight for anything have not worked and it never will because history has confirmed this to us over and over again.

So what if there is Another Way?  Keep on reading…

Cocaine Worldwide

23 million cocaine users worldwide – highest number found in the Americas. (20)

Just to be clear here, we have not Lost the Plot with our number reporting.
We have quoted above in our ‘Latest Trends’ section that 19 million people used cocaine in 2018 and then in this section above, we are told we have 23 million cocaine users worldwide.

The first statistic is from the United Nations World Drug Report of 2020.
So we would probably assume they know what they are talking about and they have the majority of nations as members and this could mean they have access to more of what is going on in the world of cocaine.

The second statistic comes from a company that is huge when it comes to reporting data and many of us have come to rely on this as it is not a mickey mouse outfit, giving out big numbers.

For the purposes of this blog, we could say there are around 20 million cocaine users 2 years ago, so what is the real and accurate figure today – December 2020?

Does anyone actually have this kind of data and if they did, will it get to the public domain for us all to see?

Are we certain that it includes everything that goes on in the dark web, the dark world of drugs and the hidden encryption stuff that no authority gets to hear about?

Until we are absolute, we could say these figures give us something to go by but are probably inaccurate because let’s face it, if you are a member of a drug cartel or the guy on the street doing dodgy cocaine deals, you are not likely to be coming forward to support a study of any kind or be up to become a statistic ,when your trading could lock you up behind bars for a long time.

Cocaine in the United States

5.5 million people used cocaine.

40.2 million used cocaine at some point in their lifetime.

14,666 deaths involving cocaine in 2018, significant rise from previous years.

It is important to note that a large portion of deaths from cocaine involve the use of other drugs, specifically Opioids.

A valid point worth noting here is that death from cocaine in the majority of cases involves the use of opioids specifically.
Read our in depth presentation on this website – The Real Truth about Opioids.

What we can then ask is WHY is one drug not enough that there is the seeking of another substance which creates a deadly and potent poison that will do even more damage to our body?

Colombia’s Battle with Cocaine Traffickers

900 tonnes of cocaine produced in 2018.

The police torch any illegal crops they seize. They use helicopters, satellites and informants to discover illegal crops.

400 tonnes of cocaine seized in 2017.

Traffickers pay locals on the coast to smuggle drugs on container ships.

They use informers inside the port to get the information about the locations of the containers and the destination of it. Coastguard (21)

The port city of Tumaco is at the centre of the cocaine trade. The murder rate has gone up as rival gangs compete. Mothers in this city fear their sons will eventually join the drug gangs.

Demand for cocaine is soaring in Europe and the USA which is fuelling the drug trade and gang violence. (21)

What chance have Colombia got with policing and stopping traffickers when even the locals are involved in the trade?

We need to wake up and smell the raw truth of what is actually going on in the name of cocaine. They have insiders reporting back to the bigwigs where their shipment is – that means they know the location ahead of where it is going to end up.

We could call that front foot and then ask why is our supposedly good world not on the front foot of the bad world we have created?

Are the good people of this world allowing this to continue as they partake in this form of drug taking, or they stand to profit along the way or they are so wrapped up in their own little world that the real big world instills way too much fear to go there and face it?

Why does this whole world of ours not know that there is a port city in Colombia where murder has gone up and mothers fear that the future of their sons will be working with drug gangs. How devastating would that be for any mother, regardless of the country?

Our need, our demand and our choice to seek cocaine is adding more business to the Cocaine industry. With it as a by-product comes the violence and murders and no amount of cocaine consumption will let us forget this immutable fact.

Europe 

Enterprising criminals have set up “cocaine call centres” across Europe to provide fast and flexible delivery services. Distributors are utilising encryption services on their smartphones in an “Uberisation” of the trade, the EU drugs agency says.

The findings appear in an annual report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drugs Addiction (EMCDDA).

It also warns that European authorities are now seizing record quantities of increasingly pure cocaine.

The latest data cited by EMCDDA suggests that the purity of cocaine distributed across the continent is at its highest in a decade.

Issues such as the use of large shipping containers to transport cocaine are providing a major challenge, according to the Lisbon-based agency.

There is evidence that the use of  Social Media, dark net marketplaces and encryption techniques are playing an increasing role in enabling smaller groups and individuals to engage in Drug dealing. Sellers compete by offering additional services beyond the product itself.
EMCDDA (22)

2.6 million people age 15 – 34 used cocaine in 2018. (22)

Cocaine is the most commonly used illicit stimulant drug in the EU (22)

Hello – this is super serious
We got cocaine call centres

Let’s talk front foot – how smart are our suppliers that we actually have cocaine call centres set up across a whole continent (Europe)?

Are they simply maximizing ways to distribute as the demand goes from epic to galactic?

In other words, there is a call and the so-called ‘enterprising criminals’ respond with ‘fast and flexible’ delivery services, as the old way was small business and now it’s so huge they need call centres to handle the volume of demand.

With it comes record amounts of quantities seized and the demand for the pure stuff, as customers want it pure because that is far more potent than the cheaper end of cocaine with additional bulk or ingredients that don’t give the max instant hit required.

We do not need data or evidence to work out that if we have got call centres operating for the business of cocaine, then of course it confirms that demand is at its highest.

We should all be asking now – What Next?

What could possibly be next for ALL those involved in Cocaine – be it to profit or snort it or both.

We also do not need any further research studies to tell us what we already know – our Youth₁ are taking cocaine.

Would it be wise to ask – HOW does ‘evidence’ come up with a figure like 2.6 million in the 15 to 34 age group used cocaine in 2018?

Are these estimates, assumptions, super accurate, real and worth taking note of or is the figure much higher, but we do not have that kind of investigation or real reporting going on?

AND finally on this section – so what exactly is going on in Europe that cocaine has become the most commonly used illicit Drug of choice.

Yes we do have a say in what we ingest, even though at times we feel the decision is made ahead of us – like our brain is hijacked and we do something that we Regret or later wonder how we ended up doing that in the first place.

EUROPEAN DRUG REPORT – 2020  

Cocaine’s role in Europe’s drug problem is increasing. The number and quantity of cocaine seizures are now the highest ever reported with over 181 tonnes seized in 2018.

Belgium, Spain and Netherlands are key countries for the interception of large quantities. Indicators point to high availability of cocaine on the European market and signs of growth in countries where it was previously uncommon.

Crack cocaine use, while still uncommon is now reported by more countries. The purity of cocaine at retail level has increased almost every year since 2009 and in 2018 it reached the highest level in the last decade. Collectively, the high purity of the drug, along with data from treatment services, emergency presentations and drug-induced deaths suggest that cocaine is now playing a more important role in the European drug problem.

The cocaine market also appears an important driver for drug-related violence.

Offences related to the supply of cocaine have increased mainly in the last 2 years.

110,000 seizures reported.

243 kilograms of small but increasing seizures of coca leaves in 2018.

184 kilograms of small seizures of coca paste.

This may indicate a diversification in production tactics by some criminal organisations.

Cocaine laboratories found in Europe in the past have mainly been ‘secondary extraction facilities’, where cocaine is recovered from materials in which it has been incorporated (such as wines, clothes and plastics), rather than laboratories manufacturing cocaine from coca leaves or paste. Seizures of certain chemicals in Spain and the Netherlands also support this finding.

Average purity of cocaine at retail level varied from 23% – 87% across Europe in 2018, with half the countries reporting an average purity between 53% and 69%.

Among those countries consistently providing data on purity and price, the purity of cocaine has been on an upward trend over the past decade and in 2018 reached a level 44% higher than the index year of 2008. Over the same period, the retail price of cocaine has remained stable. Considered along with the seizure data, these indicators suggest that cocaine availability in Europe is at an unprecedented level.

Limited data on drug purity are also available from European drug checking services, which test samples submitted by individuals. While these services only exist in some countries and the data they provide are not representative of the market as a whole, the picture emerging lends support to recent reports on the increased availability and use of high purity cocaine. (23)

Well we could not ask for a more up to date drug report to present because it has been published this year – 2020. We call that bang up to date and great timing !

Firstly – can we actually stop and ponder on what it takes – the resources involved to pull off over a hundred thousand seizures.

100,000+ times we have used force to take action and yet we are no longer ahead of the game, as the supply for cocaine is on the up with no signs of slowing down.

How creative are our suppliers – how do they come up with such unthinkable ways to hide the drug – in wines, clothes and plastics and then set up laboratories, which extract the cocaine back to the powder form needed for delivery?

Could we be honest enough to say we had not thought that was possible and yet to supply an illicit drug with high customer demand, it looks like anything is possible?

Next –

Cocaine availability in Europe is at an unprecedented level. (23)

Hello – do we understand what this is telling us here?

Yes we do but we would rather say “No – I don’t know”
Or “No – I don’t understand, as I do not want to know”

Something is going on for the people living in Europe and they are demanding the use of cocaine and the availability is now at a level that has never been known before, so we can take it that means super mega high (high pun intended).

Lots of cocaine consumption going on across the nation and the data is telling us the demand is for high purity stuff and that means potent – not your average strength.

This means Europe want the effects of cocaine and supplying the purity is an important factor.

January – June 2019 cocaine was the substance most frequently submitted to European drug checking services for testing.

1011 samples presented as cocaine were analysed and reported by 11 services operating in 8 EU Member States.

57% of all samples presented as cocaine contained only cocaine and inactive compounds (e.g. milk powder).

4% of the samples cocaine was not detected.

40% contained a combination of cocaine and one or more pharmacologically active adulterants, with Levamisole the most common, found in 184 samples, followed by Caffeine in 146 samples. (23)

Note – the European Drug Report on page 21, last paragraph states the above percentages.
We are fully aware it does not add up but for the purpose of this blog, we are ok with their number error.

Data on cocaine purity were available for 852 cocaine samples from 7 drug checking services operation in 6 EU Member States.

• 69% average purity of cocaine samples
• 73% during the same period in 2018

75% cocaine found in one in every two samples

65% of the samples presented as cocaine were obtained through direct contact with a known supplier. (23)

Levamisole is an antihelminthic drug that was commonly used for the treatment of parasitic, viral and bacterial infections. It was manufactured and first used in 1969 as an agent to treat worm infestations. The FDA approved Levamisole in 1990 as an adjuvant treatment for colon cancer. Prior to this, levamisole was used as an antirheumatic therapy in the 1970s and 1980s for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. (24)

Levamisole is also used in veterinary medicine as an antiparasitic active ingredient.
In livestock, dogs and cats it is used against internal parasites (roundworms). (25)

Levamisole was withdrawn from the American market in 2000 due to its ability to cause serious adverse effects, including *agranulocytosis.

Levamisole has been found as an adulterant in cocaine and can lead to a variety of adverse effects in individuals using this drug. (24)

*Agranulocytosis is a rare condition in which our bone marrow does not make enough of a certain type of white cell, most often neutrophils. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that our body needs to fight off infections. They make up the largest percentage of white blood cells in our body.

In agranulocytosis, the low level of neutrophils means that even minor infections can progress into serious ones. Weak microbes or germs that usually cause no harm suddenly can evade the body’s defenses to attack the body.  (26)

Cocaine Contaminant, Levamisole – link to Brain Damage

Individuals who regularly take the cocaine contaminant, Levamisole, demonstrate impaired cognitive performance and a thinned prefrontal cortex.

Findings from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, indicate that those who take cocaine cut with the animal anti-worming agent, levamisole could experience a toxic effect on the brain.

Cocaine sold is typically cut with other substances, such as local anaesthetic agents, painkillers and Caffeine.

However, around 10 years ago, a new adulterant appeared, which is now widely spread in street cocaine across Europe and North America, known as Levamisole – an animal anti-worming agent.

Although researchers do not understand why levamisole is added to cocaine, it is assumed that cocaine contaminant may increase or prolong the effects of cocaine.

Levamisole can lead to severe side effects such as changes in blood counts and blood vessels.
It has also been discovered that the substance can attack the nervous system.

Cocaine users in the study showed lower performance in all areas:
Attention | working memory | long-term memory | executive functions

Those who consumed cocaine with high levels of levamisole, showed even greater impairment in the executive functions, even though the level of cocaine consumed was the same. With MRI, the researchers found evidently displayed, a thinner prefrontal cortex.

We can assume from our findings that it is not just cocaine that changes the brain but that the adulterant levamisole has an additional harmful effect.
The sorts of cognitive impairment often exhibited by cocaine users may therefore be exacerbated by levamisole.
Boris Quednow, Lead Researcher | University of Zurich, Switzerland (27)

To keep it Simple here, on the street cocaine is being tampered with and we all know why. Profits can be more if we cut it as they say and that means add something, but this means there are even more Dangers, albeit hidden.

We know anaesthetics are to do with inducing a state of unconsciousness or sedation and the purpose is generally for medical surgery.

Why on earth would that be added to cocaine we could ask and what side effects will that combo bring?

Painkillers are drugs to numb the pain we feel, so cocaine users are taking this probably without knowing. Worth reading our blog – The Real Truth about Opioids.

Caffeine and cocaine – look no further, read The Real Truth about Caffeine on this website and consider what is being presented about this mind altering legal drug that seems to be the daytime prop used by the masses to keep the nervous system heightened.

Next –

WHY would we have Levamisole as a new adulterant suddenly just appear on the market in the western hemisphere? (the origin of this word comes from mid 18^th century latin and means corrupting)

How desperate have we become to get our cocaine fix that suppliers are getting away with adding toxic substances that are attacking our own body?

WHY are we not educating the whole world and its brothers about this kind of stuff which needs to be known?

More to the point, what on earth is missing from our lives that we need to seek out cocaine and other drugs and act like it’s normal because so many are doing it?

Indications of Increased Cocaine Use

18 million adults aged 15 – 64 in the European Union have used cocaine at least once in their lifetime.

The UK has observed an upward trend since 2015.
France (2000 to 2017) and Finland (2010 to 2018) have also reported upward trends in cocaine use.

Analysis of municipal wastewater for cocaine residues carried out in a multi-city study complements but is not directly comparable to the results from population surveys.

2019 analysis found the highest mass loads of benzoylecgonine – the main metabolite of cocaine in cities in Belgium, Spain, Netherlands and UK.

The most recent data indicate that cocaine is becoming more common in eastern European cities. (23)

We seek treatment programs, Solutions and anything that we can to fix the problem but we need to first admit that it is not working, as things have gotten far worse than ever before. If the model of how to eradicate Drugs was working, we would not be in the mess we are today.

WHY are we not asking what is the root cause – the trigger, the start of how and when we seek this form of self-medication, as that is what cocaine and all our mind altering substances are?

Could it be possible that we want something and it is because we feel something is missing inside of us and the drug of choice fills that void? Could it be that Simple?

Whatever our views, beliefs or opinions are about cocaine or any other drug, we need to suspend them and continue reading, as there is even more to be aware of.

UK

The following is an extract taken from the UK documentary – How Drugs Work

Cocaine seized as it is being smuggled into Britain is relatively pure but when the Forensic Science Service test cocaine from the street, seized from dealers and users, they find it is much less pure. Dealers cut cocaine with bulking agents to increase their profit margin. Most of the white powder sold as cocaine is usually made up of something else, but looks like it; sugars such as lactose or glucose or anaesthetics such as benzocaine or lignocaine.

‘Benzocaine and lignocaine actually mimic the effects of cocaine and so if you actually test it cocaine will actually give you a numbing effect; benzocaine and lignocaine will do likewise. Just by sight you are not going to know what the quality of cocaine actually is and you may not know what is present in the powder before you actually buy it.’
Dean Amos, Forensic Science Service (3)

The purer the seizure of cocaine –
The closer the source will be to its Importer.

The whole banking system has been contaminated with cocaine from drug dealers and users’ money. (3)

2017
Documentary – Gordon Ramsey on Cocaine

The following is the narrative from this exposing documentary about cocaine.
https://documentaryheaven.com/gordon-ramsay-cocaine/
https://www.bitchute.com/video/koHu8KE8OIjt/  or keep on reading…

I saw cocaine quite a lot in my career. I have been served it, I have been given it, I’ve had my hand shaken and left with little wraps of foil, I’ve been asked to dust cocaine on top of soufflé’s, to put it on as icing sugar.

Coke’s everywhere. It’s spiralling out of control.

You look at the numbers, what comes into this country.

Year on year, death after death. That’s the devastation I think.
No one wants to talk about it, but they all want to snort it.

Cocaine once the exclusive drug of millionaires and celebrities, now Britain’s favourite class A drug commonplace in every town and city across the UK.

Britain consumes 30 tonnes of the drug every year, more than any other country in Europe.

And the value of this and this is a kilo – about £100,000.

But behind cocaine’s glamourous image lies a criminality, cruelty and death toll of the illegal drugs trade.

Anyone who thinks that the use of cocaine is in any way victimless is living an absolute lie.

We’ve seen extraordinary levels of violence, gang crimes, shootings and stabbings, all of which are linked to cocaine trade.
Detective Chief Superintendent Kevin Southworth

140,000 drug related offences committed
£10 billion cost to Britain in 2016

I am joining forces with police and military here and abroad who are battling to stop this drug. It is a journey, which will take me from testing the bathrooms of my own restaurant… to the British streets where coke is bought and sold every day. And I am going back to the source deep in the jungles of South America.

With the soaring cocaine deaths in Britain and along the coke supply chain, I am determined to understand the criminal business behind this deadly drug.

Cocaine related deaths are reaching epidemic proportions.

I’ve never touched a line of cocaine in my life. I was anti-drugs from a very early age, having to watch my brother *** his life up. He’s gone from coke to heroin and so I just worked my arse off to get out of the shit mess I grew up in. 

I went to a dealer’s house once when I had to take my little brother into this shit hole of a flat for a fix to get him to my father’s funeral. That was grim. And that was the big shock – for me to see how far he had gone.

Ask any chef or waiter, cocaine use has long been the industry’s dirty little secret. But for me, the issue is very personal. In 2003, David Dempsey, one of my best mates and head chef of my flagship restaurant died as a direct result of taking cocaine. I lost a good chef, an amazing chef. He had 2 kids, Megan and Jack. I never thought in my wildest dreams that David, my head chef was on cocaine. We had dinner the night he died. He just seemed agitated, he was constantly restless, kept on disappearing to the toilet every 20 minutes. I went back home and he went back to Chelsea. He went to a dealer’s house that gave him some shit cocaine and it *** him over. David died falling 40 feet from a block of flats. At the inquest it was described as an act of excited delirium fuelled by cocaine. I kicked myself for not doing more and recognising it earlier.

I am giving David’s son Jack a shift in the restaurant his Dad helped make famous.
He is determined to be an award-winning chef just like his father.

I am determined that neither Jack nor any of my staff fall victim to drugs as David did. So I want to find out if cocaine is still being used under my roof.
I’ve decided to do a series of spot checks in the bathrooms of my restaurants.

Right now, I am obviously concerned about the staff. Why are we ignoring it? Why are turning a blind eye and yeah, those samples, those swabs, some of them are bright blue. And that is in my own business, that is my responsibility.

But, it is not just my own business, I’ve also tested other top end restaurants, bars and pubs, I am genuinely shocked by how many have tested positive.

More alarming still is that many Brits are also using coke on our roads. But with hundreds of serious accidents every year linked to drugged driving, police across the country are beginning to crack down.

So, tonight I’m heading down to the South coast to hit Bournemouth where the police are launching a campaign to find out how many drivers are using cocaine. I want to find out how widespread the problem is. I’ve asked them if I could join them.

Since police introduced roadside drug kits nationwide, arrests have gone up a massive 800%.

(Arrest on the streets, man tested positive for cannabis and cocaine, driving whilst disqualified, two kids in the car).

The most important thing for me is that those young boys are safe and they are out of that car.

As the man is taken away to the station, Dave and I head back on patrol. And it is not long before we spot another erratic driver – on the way to pick up his son, age 6.

Why do you use cocaine?

Man:  Confidence.
I’ve had problems in the past. Relationship breakdowns, stuff like that.
And it gives me a buzz really. I enjoy the buzz.

(Both men were on the school run in Bournemouth).

I am shocked and nervous that it’s that prevalent, it is everywhere, broad daylight. I think it’s the tip of the iceberg, because it’s clearly going on a lot more than we know.

In the UK over the past 20 years, cocaine use has gone up 400% and coke related deaths have increased 4 years in a row to stand at an all time high. 

At the forefront of stopping this deadly drug getting into the country and onto Britain’s streets are the NCA, the closest thing we have to the FBI.

I am going to meet one of the senior officers of the National Crime Agency (NCA), Tony Saggers and he’s going to give insights to what’s coming in, where it’s coming from, and what has he done to slow this down.

As Head of Drugs Intelligence, Tony has dedicated his 30-year career to fighting a war against drugs, and he is disturbed by the rising use of cocaine.

The cocaine trade is without doubt the biggest problem within the drugs industry.  The demand for cocaine in the UK I would say is at a high, if not an all-time high.
Gun crime in the UK is very closely associated to our drugs trade. People are making a lot of money out of it and to make that money people are generating a lot of misery…

So in terms of our collaboration with colleagues in Europe, Caribbean and Latin America, we are stopping about 60 tonnes a year. Are we stopping the problem? No we are not.

Are we locking some really bad people up and taking away their revenue? Yes we are.
I think you have to look at it that way. But the reality is this country demands high volumes of coke. Organised criminals take advantage of that…

I think what that demonstrates Gordon is this: it’s the public’s attitude towards cocaine. It’s part of society: gangs on the streets, brothels, young people with guns. You’ve just funded that. And that’s what annoys me.

So rather than it actually being abhorrent within society, which it should be, the people sitting at restaurants have the conversations that you and I might have at home, about a sweatshop somewhere being used by a high street brand, exploiting children and slave workers and then going to snort cocaine in the toilets. They’ve just subscribed to the very thing they find abhorrent.
Tony Saggers, National Crime Agency (NCA)

It’s great to see how passionate Tony is. Well, you can feel that level of frustration because there is so much work to be done. And his gripe is the fact that you know you think it’s cool, it’s the opposite to cool, and the more you take the harder my job is, and the harder my job is, the less grip we have on this problem.

Tony and his team are in a seemingly never-ending struggle to gain control of this issue. They are up against organised criminal gangs, many of them from overseas who control a 3.7 billion pound UK drugs business.

The NCA are tasked with tracking, intercepting, and ceasing the vast quantities of coke trafficked into Britain from abroad. And the huge amounts of money used to buy and sell the drug.

Tony set me up with the rapid response team who rely on incredible intelligence to bust big drug deals and the cash that goes with it.

John Nolan is one of the most experienced officers working with the NCA. There’s no time to hang about. John and his team must act immediately. They have intelligence of a drug deal. 

Covert officers have detained a man carrying a suspect looking bag. Their suspicions have paid off. The man is Albanian and the bag contains tens of thousands of pounds of cash used to buy and sell cocaine.

If he’s a runner, if he’s an Albanian runner, then he’s come into the country and he may not be here too long. He’ll live in poor conditions and he’ll be exploited like everyone through the drug trade, really.
John Nolan, National Crime Agency (NCA)

No sooner has the suspect been handcuffed than John and his team, hear about a potentially bigger deal at an address across town, in one of London’s most exclusive neighbourhoods.

As we arrive at the address, officers are keeping their eyes peeled for anything or anyone who seems suspicious. The officers take a gamble and follow a taxi seen driving away from the address they had identified.

The team quickly arrest the passenger of the taxi after he attempts to flee the scene.

It’s extraordinary. Another massive bundle of cash. That’s two within 60 minutes.

Probably cleaned about £120,000, £130,000 within the space of two arrests.

This arrested man is merely a foot soldier. However, the team tell me Albanian crime gangs currently dominate the UK’s cocaine trade because of their willingness to use extreme violence.

We’re dealing with hundreds of thousand pounds of cash just being delivered in party bags. Cocaine coming in, money going out to Albania and it’s rife.

In 2016 alone, British police and Border Force ceased a staggering 4 tonnes of cocaine. That’s more than at any time in the last decade. Despite these increased police activity, UK is still the biggest user in Europe. And with the strength of the drug increasing, coke deaths in Britain are up 16% the last year alone. So the authorities are working hard to stop this stuff going onto our streets.

Last night 30 kilos of cocaine was ceased by the police. And I am on my way to a lab at a secret location where it’s going to be tested.

I am here to meet Peter Caine who’s been a drug scientist of 3 decades.

When I started, we were a team of 8 people and we are now a team of 70.

This secure lab is where 70% of the drugs in Britain are tested after seizure.

So this is a case that’s just come in.

So 30 kilos from one raid?
Wow. That is a big seizure.

Yeah. When I spoke with the officer, they said it was seized about midnight, so we’ve got a bit of time on it, but it is urgent that we need to turn it round as soon as possible.

30 kilos just arrived like that in the morning.

So how many cases do you actually do in a week?

Just as an example last year in this laboratory we examined 1.25 tonnes.
Peter Caine – Drug Scientist

Peter and his team are looking for hallmarks, which may give a clue to where this cocaine has been processed.

It is just wrapped so tight like a book, compressed to a solid mass.

So you can see coming through there is just a little bit of green, which is probably some green rubber. Quite often in the Caribbean they will drop these into the sea to be picked up by small boats.

That’s the cocaine there. My goodness me, how packed that is.

These little holes are actually from where it was produced in the laboratories in South America. They use presses to get the excess solvent out.
Peter Caine – Drug Scientist

And the value of this?  This is a kilo.

Wholesale probably about £35,000. And when it gets to the street you probably times that by about 3. So about £100,000.
Peter Caine – Drug Scientist

If this haul was to be sold to the customer here in Britain, it would be worth an incredible £3 million.

Peter wants to give me a taste of the remarkably creative ways coke is smuggled into the country.

Show you these bottles of Rum. One of them is a genuine bottle of golden Rum. The other one actually contains quarter of a kg of cocaine hydrochloride. Cocaine is very soluble. You can actually dissolve 2 grams in 1 ml of water. This was a smuggling technique that is used from time to time. Easy way to check is you just weigh the bottles, and you actually find that one is extremely heavy compared to the other. If you were to drink one mouthful of that you’d die. A 25ml shot probably contains about 8 grams of cocaine.
Peter Caine – Drug Scientist

How would you get the cocaine back into powder form from that?

Literally just put it on something like a baking sheet and gently warm it so you are evaporating off the liquid.
Peter Caine – Drug Scientist

Are you surprised at the prolific-ness of the business now in terms of the £billions it now generates globally?

The thing is it is a business and that’s it. And they do use proper business tactics when they are selling it etc.,
Peter Caine – Drug Scientist

It’s spiralling out of control. It’s part of the going out fashion. It’s all over my restaurants. It’s even in the staff toilets. How’s so much coming in?

Well if you look at the UK, we’re an island nation. It’s an almost a 360 degree target for international trafficking. We’ve got production here in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. So there’s a chain of countries where most of the cocaine is produced.

You’ve got this Latin American coastline, which enters the Caribbean Sea. You see it is a gateway. So, people sailing yachts, transatlantic into the UK, smuggling coke.

Countries that get exploited through this, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras. These are the places where bad things happen. Swallower Couriers from Latin America and the Caribbean.
Tony Saggers – National Crime Agency

(showing photographs)
This individual has swallowed cocaine pellets down through the throat. It’s basically filled the entire human cavity.

So they swallow these prior to jumping on board the plane?

Yes, so basically 24 hours or so before the flight, these individuals will start swallowing. That person had about 2 kilos inside their body. So that is over 120 pellets. That is going to pass through the intestine. It is going to come out the way that all food comes out and someone is going to sit and pick the layers off that. And then in your restaurant someone else is going to sit and snort it as a glamourous drug. And there is nothing glamourous about that picture.

I’ve interviewed people in Lagos airport, literally who can touch the last pellet, it’s that close to their throat opening.
Tony Saggers – National Crime Agency

That is an incredible insight. I think the big shock for me is how exposed we are as a country, and the amount of avenues that these smugglers and dealers and cartels are using to bring the drugs into the country.  It’s coming in from everywhere. That’s the problem.

With so many smuggling routes and techniques, it’s no wonder cocaine is flooding our towns and cities. 80% of the coke that ends on Britain’s streets, comes from just one country. And the amounts that they are producing has surged dramatically, rising to levels unseen for 20 years.

So I am heading to the source: Colombia, the biggest producer of cocaine anywhere in the world. But what I am desperate to understand is what is Colombia trying to do to bring a halt to this multi £billion industry.

First time in South America for me. We are in the arse end of nowhere Villagarzon, Colombia.

Colombia has now regained its crown and its status of number one producer of cocaine anywhere in the world. Year on year, over the last two years it’s gone over 40%. It’s now close to producing over 650 tonnes of cocaine. That’s a £40 billion industry just from this country.

The Colombian government’s battle to stop cocaine is big news here. You can’t read a newspaper or switch on the TV without a drug gang killing or a massive cocaine seizure.

To understand the war on drugs properly I have to come to the heartbeat of where it starts and to see how this shit’s produced.

I am beginning by heading deep into the jungle to meet someone who risks everything to produce cocaine. I’m attempting to reach one of the small scale farmers. who grows, processes and cooks the coco plant which is then turned into coke.

I’m on my way to the jungle to meet this farmer/chef. Now this guy is basically harvesting the coco plant, but in hiding.

I’m slightly edgy because, last night, first thing this morning, you can hear the local military police helicopters scouting the area. So this is a high risk for this farmer. For me, why would you put yourself at risk. Why would you put yourself out there with your family at risk? Because getting caught here, the consequences are massive.

Now this farmer/chef is one individual of 1 million workforce that are now behind the cocaine industry in Colombia. 1 million people are now producing or are involved in cocaine, in a country that has 50 million people, I mean it’s just pretty extraordinary.

I finally reach the farmer’s village. However, to keep thing discrete, I’ve agreed to meet him at his plantation, which is a further 1.5 hours walk deep into the rain forest.

Coco leaves contain less than 1% cocaine. So the farmer has to pick around 500 kilos of the plant to make just one kilo of the drug.

Jose are you ever worried that you are going to get raided?

Of course. We are very scared because the authorities crack down on this kind of business. I am the father of four children.

And are you not worried because you have such a young family? What would the family do if you get busted?

I fear for them. It would be terrible if my children were left without me.

Like Jose, I have 4 children. I can imagine the responsibility to provide for them weighs heavily upon him.

But there are no other opportunities here in Colombia. This is good agricultural land, you can grow bananas, corn, yucca. But then transporting it to the market is difficult. As you’ve seen yourself, we don’t have bridges, the roads are bad. It is very difficult to survive just off agriculture.

Do you have any idea outside of this jungle, the devastation of what this is causing?

No, I am not aware, because I just grow it, process it, extract the drug and sell it.

The government have given up on the locals. They’ve made it more difficult for them to survive. You can’t harvest fruit, there’s nowhere near enough money to keep that family alive.

So the guy’s got no alternative. That’s not an excuse. He’s just talking from the heart in a way that this is it. He needs to get this done to get his kids through school, to get out of there. The devastation of being caught and what would happen to the family would be awful. They would be kicked out of the house, kicked out of the village, and sadly the whole family would be ripped apart.

You’ve got this humble farmer. He’s got no idea of the war, the violence, the killings.

In order to earn his $40 a week or roughly £30, Jose has to produce cocaine paste which he sells to the drug cartels. His lab, where it is produced, is another 45 minutes’ walk, hidden deep in the under growth. If he’s busted, he faces a 20 year jail term.

I mean there’s no wonder these little labs don’t get busted because we are going even deeper than I could ever have imagined. This is more remote than I have ever been.

Now I have reached the lab, I am about to find out just what goes into making this destructive drug.

Jose must extract the cocaine from the plant. A complicated process which involves many chemicals. First, he adds cement to the chopped-up coco leaves. He’s measuring out of the cup, cement powder.

After Jose finishes mixing in the cement, the next delightful ingredient is added, sulphuric acid dissolved in water. My eyes are burning.

When you see the bright white of that finished product, everyone thinks it looks classy, sophisticated, then they boast to show off to their mates the arrogance of taking it, I would just like to bring them here right now and show them the shit that goes on.

I am appalled of what goes into it. I mean, the cement was hard enough, but the sulphuric acid. This mixture is poured into a barrel and dowsed in gasoline. This is then left to marinade to draw the cocaine from the leaf. … The fumes and the smells coming off that is extra-ordinary.

Jose needs to separate the cocaine from the gasoline, using the next shocking addition to the mixture, battery acid.

That battery acid has helped separate the cocaine liquid from the gasoline, so basically the density is like oil and water. On top is the gasoline and underneath,10% of that water is cocaine water, pure cocaine water, which he is going to syphon out from the bottom now. This hose goes all the way to the bottom there. He is sucking it through and then he is going to sieve that through, the final process, so that is the clear cocaine water at the bottom of this barrel.

(Gordon Ramsey tastes a bit using his finger)
Very strong, very acidic, very bitter. Very very strong.

Next, in goes bicarbonate of soda, which helps get rid of the excess gasoline and battery acid. It’s given it a bit of a white colour.

Once the mixture is dried, it starts to resemble cocaine for the first time. But there’s still more work to do. We have to walk one hour back to the village for the next extra-ordinary stage of the process, and certainly the most risky for him. He needs to gently cook the mixture to take out more of the impurities.

All that picking, gathering and everything that he’s worked hard for, down to this little cup-full of liquid cocaine.

So he’s brought it up to the boil and now he’s skimming the top again, to make it even purer. So it’s almost like the toxic scum that has come off the powder. And the actual liquid cocaine looks so much more clear now. It’s like this syrup, like a treacle, almost like you are tempering it like you are tempering chocolate.

Jose spreads the liquid onto a tray and allows it to dry. It is this paste that is bought by the cartels who control the drug trade. Ultimately, they will turn it into cocaine-hydrochloride, after adding a few other chemicals to make it consumable.

From what we started first thing this morning, with that huge vat of leaves to this tiny bag. That’s incredible.

Jose will receive about £30 a week. This bag of paste will be worth roughly £5,000 on the streets of Britain.

That guy is living on a knife edge. But the sad news is if he’s caught with that bag of paste at the end, that’s 20 years banged up…The guy earns $150 a month. The saddest news today was that the government have given up on him. You know they are not repairing any bridges, they are not giving him any sort of funding, and so these guys have no option but to work their arse off locally and produce that cocaine paste to stay alive.

Jose is just one farmer struggling to make a living for his family. Most of the industry is controlled by the cartels. They are powerful criminal gangs causing misery and death and responsible for bringing this drug to the UK. (28)

A celebrity chef has used his high profile to alert us about a very important drug that is ‘spiralling out of control’. He tells us that no one wants to talk about it and we all know why that is.

In this two part documentary we get an insight into the world of cocaine and this is much needed to educate ALL of us about the demand and supply of a potent drug that destroys the human frame.

White powder that can pass as icing sugar in a fine dining restaurant but how does it get to that form when it starts off as leaves from a plant in Colombia, South America?

In the past cocaine was associated with the rich and famous but not now. Across the UK it has become a popular drug of choice, regardless of the fact it is a Class A drug. Britain consumes 30 tonnes every year and that is the highest cocaine consumption in Europe.

We have seen extraordinary levels of violence, gang crimes, shootings and stabbings – all of which are linked to the cocaine trade.

Are we paying attention to what Detective Kevin Southworth is telling us here?

Cocaine is not just arriving on our doorstep like a pizza delivery – it has come with ‘extraordinary levels’ of crime and that in itself requires us to Stop and consider.

It can’t get more Real than being told that the presenter’s brother was a cocaine addict and that he had to take him first to a dealer’s house to get his fix, so that he could attend their father’s funeral.

Next – the presenter is aware that in his line of business Cocaine use has long been the industry’s dirty little secret. 

Again, another dose of real life – head chef of my flagship restaurant dies as a direct result of taking cocaine.

Are we aware of the excessive long hours that the hospitality industry works and if we are not equipped to keep up, then it would make sense that we look for ways to stimulate us so we stay alert or awake. We may start with Caffeine but if we are not coping, then chances are we will seek something stronger to keep pushing and neglect our body – the very vehicle that can support us through shift work and long hours working on our feet, without the need for stimulants.

Interesting that the restaurant industry is rife with cocaine use and yet we all like nice fancy diners and eating out, but how many of us can discern if our chef and waiters are in an altered state of being, while dishing out our dinner because of their cocaine habit?

Next – The cameras go to a town in England where both men arrested for cocaine were on the school run. How serious is that?

Driving with cocaine in the body – where is the responsibility as a parent?

Where is our responsibility dear fellow citizens and parents with kids at the same school?

Where have we gone off track that we don’t bother to take note that a guy at the school gate is off his head on cocaine?

Does it suit us to say Nothing, as we don’t want to get involved?

Are we up to the same thing ourselves, so it’s a blind spot in us?

Are we hoping that the whole thing will disappear and go away?

Have we been so busy with our own life that we take no note of what is going on out in the world?

Next – when a user tells us they do cocaine for confidence because it gives them a buzz and they enjoy it, we need to be reminded this is a mind altering drug, so we know it is a FALSE confidence.

If a person enjoys the buzz, they have no intention at all to stop taking cocaine.

The reason is they had ‘problems in the past’ and suddenly snorting a white powder erases those problems. But does it really or is this user seeking a band-aid Solution for a bullet wound? In other words, the problems need to be addressed and using cocaine to cover up and get the false state of being will keep the issues buried further. Is this making sense?

Cocaine use has gone up 400% and coke related deaths have increased 4 years in a row to stand at an all time high.

WHY have we not got billboards across the country alerting us to these facts?
WHY has this not become front page news headlines every day for a month?

WHY are we not questioning how on earth has cocaine use had a steep rise and WHY are deaths at an all time high?

What is going on in daily life and how are we living that we need to take mind altering substances?

We are busy fighting and campaigning for the War on Drugs but no one seems to be asking WHY there is such a high demand and what is behind that?

In other words, we need to find out what makes someone seek Drugs in the first place – what is missing that they want to numb out, escape and check out from life’s responsibilities?

We have police on the ground dedicating a 30-year career to this war against drugs but the demand is so great, it is like a losing battle. Yes they have intelligence that means big seizures, but we all know there is so much more to the underworld of the drugs industry. How they operate and move is front foot and that means they are a few steps ahead and nothing stops them getting what they want – profit.

…the reality is this country demands high volumes of coke. Organised criminals take advantage of that…
it’s the public’s attitude towards cocaine. It is part of society; gangs on the streets, brothels, young people with guns…

So we have the reality that the UK demands high volumes of cocaine and the suppliers will deliver. It is us (society) who accept this and Do Nothing or we talk about Slavery and the exploitation of children in other parts of the world, then go off and snort our cocaine.

They have just subscribed to the very thing they find abhorrent
Says the Head of Drugs Intelligence at the National Crime Agency.

£3.7 billion drug industry and that is just the UK, what is the total for the whole world as this is a microcosm, let us not forget that.

Billions of pounds – this is big business and it exists only because those who want to alter their natural state demand it.

Will our crime agencies and all the Intelligence₂ we have, gain control from this never ending struggle mentioned in this documentary?

Look at the resources we fund to counter the drugs industry?

The police, the justice system, border control, treatment, researchers and there are probably a lot more, to tell us what we know.

We even have a secure lab that tests Drugs after they are seized in Britain, which started off with 8 people and today they employ 70. We are paying for this, so let’s add that to the drugs’ industry ledger and then add the loss of working hours because of addiction or not being fit for the job because of cocaine or other drugs.

Back to the documentary commentary…

How creative are those who supply with smuggling techniques to get the product to the destination, that most of us could not even imagine? Example in a bottle of rum, which weighs heavy and then it gets extracted back to powder form.

Gets worse…

Swallowing cocaine pellets before a flight. Holding 2 kilos and filling the entire human cavity. Yes it passes through the digestive system and those pellets are picked out when they pass as poo the other end.

So that white powder snorting that goes on after in a fancy restaurant may not be the glamourous picture.

Let us be reminded yet again – cocaine is big money and that means huge profits.
A kilo at wholesale is £35,000 and sold on the streets, the worth is £100,000.

If we join the dots and keep it Simple.
You can triple your money literally overnight because the demand is great, so you are guaranteed of making mega bucks. We could say it is a form of Gambling because the ‘house always wins’ and that means those that run the show never lose – in this case the supplier. Yes it comes with risk but these guys are prepared, as guns and violence are part of the job spec for cocaine supply and distribution.

We are being informed that there are numerous smuggling routes and techniques and bringing Drugs into the UK is coming in everywhere. We have unseen levels of cocaine now and we the customers who demand this drug are the reason for this.

Colombia is a £40 billion cocaine industry and our demand has made this happen.
1 million people in this country are producing or are involved in cocaine.

Drug gang killings are TV news but we never see those farmers that risk everything to produce cocaine. They live in fear and their job is to pick 500 kilos of the plant, which then makes one kilo of the drug, then it is a complicated process for it to end up as a white powder. The following are used to extract and ‘cook’ the mixture:

• Cement
• Sulphuric acid
• Gasoline
• Battery acid
• Bicarbonate of soda
• Other chemicals to make it consumable

The farmer gets paid £30 a week. The bag of paste will be worth £5,000 on the streets of Britain.

Most of the Colombian cocaine industry is controlled by the cartels.
We may view them as powerful criminal gangs but let us be reminded that they exist because we put them there – all of us that subscribe and align to cocaine.

Now I am continuing my journey travelling South West to the epi-centre of a new booming cocaine production supplying Britain. I want to witness first-hand the extraordinary deadly war on drugs. So I am joining the country’s elite counter drug squad, the Antinarcóticos.

These are the military at the forefront of this whole drug war. Their job is intense, they are finding the cartels, they are locating these crops, destroying these crops, identifying the labs, taking the labs out. These guys here are responsible for stopping cocaine coming into the UK. The war they are fighting on a daily basis is huge.

Trained by the British SAS, this unit has been fighting cocaine production and the cartels for nearly 30 years. They encounter fierce resistance and have suffered serious losses.

Today they have identified a plantation of coca leaf, the plant that is used to make cocaine. They plan to destroy the crop with chemical spray.

We are flying 90 minutes up to the north of the jungle and both helicopters will land the troops there and they will make the ground safe. Then we will fly in with the sprayers. Hopefully when we land, the ground is safe.

There is a possibility we will come under attack, and there’s two guerrilla companies out there, one of them has handed their weapons in, one is still on the loose. Also these farmers get agitated, so they set up snipers, also potential land explosives left to upset the police.

In this area, police are sometimes kidnapped by coca growers. and recently one was shot dead. This unit is on high alert and I have no idea what will happen next.

We reach the target. Below are industrial sized coca field, all believed to be cartel controlled.

I can’t believe how much is here. It is very thick and dense.
The dog detects explosives in the area.

The men have to spray each plant by hand, a painstaking process. If they did this by air, it would destroy the forest. They are also up against the plantation’s employees who may be armed.

They appear through the bushes to defend the business. A warning shot is fired in an attempt to disperse the workers.

The farmers have started to kick off and they are getting angry.

…I can see the farmers and the labs used to turn the leaves into cocaine. Hundreds of tonnes of the drug are produced in this area. From here it starts the clandestine journey to Britain, through countries like Brazil, Venezuela and Honduras.

The coca plant was almost like vineyards, they were spiralling out of control in the way that they were so dense. Now you start to get a grip of how big a problem it is. The job for the Antinarcóticos now is way bigger than I thought. It’s intense. There’s an outright war going on.

I now have a sense of the size of this business, the enormity of the coke production in Colombia, which has gone up by 52% in just 12 months.

Britain imports £2 billion worth of cocaine every year, more than any country in Europe.

I’ve found a contact with criminal connections in the South East of England and set up a covert meeting with a top cocaine dealer. He’s a major player.

Where is the main source coming from?

Comes in from the sea.

Bought a boat, 80 foot fishing boat and we go and get it, launch it in the water. We get a phone call; it will be like the shit has landed and then we go and get the boat and we go out. We could get 4 or 5 kilos, 6 kilos. We sell a kilo of that for £60,000.

If someone nicked that what would you do?

If I caught them, the toys come out to play. Well, I’ve got firearms and things like that.

How big a demand have you seen in the last 10 years? How much is it in demand now?

Everybody’s on it. Everybody comes: doctors, police officers, lawyers, everyone.

It does mess people up. Do you have any guilt on that?

No. I don’t feel guilty. I’m not putting a gun to their head and telling them to come and buy it, am I? We sell to adults.

If you get caught, you’d be banged up for life.

Yes I know that, I know the consequences. There is a lot money there for us, the more people want it, the better it is for us, we have more money.

Cocaine is a dangerous game. The production boom in Colombia means cheaper wholesale coke here. More people are competing to get into the trade, meaning violence is on the rise, putting ordinary people at risk.

Here in London alone we see extraordinary levels of violence, gang crimes, shootings and stabbings, all of which are linked to the cocaine trade, which of course anyone who uses cocaine is contributing to, by driving that demand in the first place. Driving that trade which draws young people into it.

We’ve seen record breaking seizures of firearms over the last 2 years. Over 700 lethal barrels have been seized each year for the last 2 years. That’s 2 a day. It’s true to say that over 70% of those weapons that we do recover in those circumstances are also found with a stash of drugs, and usually cocaine or crack, which indicates just how closely the gun supply in this city and gun usage in this city sits with the cocaine and crack cocaine supply.
Detective Chief Superintendent Kevin Southworth

Now I want to meet customers who buy cocaine. Without them this insanely dangerous trade would not exist. Finding someone who is willing to speak however has been very very difficult.

One lady has very bravely agreed to meet me because this lady’s life was destroyed by cocaine.

Rachel is 38 years old and used to have a well paid job in finance.

How did your cocaine addiction start?

I’d say it was like early twenties with my mates, it was a laugh a social sort of drug and then we were taking it all the time, like every single day, every single night. But I was still doing my job a good job, I was like a management accountant…

But how do you hide it from work.

I was doing it at work; have one about 10 o’clock in the toilets, have one at lunch time, just sort of get through day cause obviously you have been up late the night before and I’d say to myself ‘That’s it I’m not doing it no more’ and then next day I would do the same thing again.

How quick did you get it?

It was like ordering a take-away. You could never not get it.
I never had a time in that 12 years where I could not get it. It was always available.

What were you spending per week?

At the beginning probably about around £800 a week.

So that’s £3,200 a month on average, £40,000 a year and that’s been for 10 years?

12 years. I could have been a millionaire maybe.

Well there’s half a million. Half a million. 

Spending all our money on coke, nothing else.

When I started out we had a mortgage, new car and at the end of it with nothing but a TV to my name but I’ve been two years clean now…

She is your typical user. If you saw her in the street you would never imagine she would have a habit. The way she talks, the way she presents herself, she is a normal hard working girl that has a bright future.

I want to find out exactly how tonnes of cocaine get from South America to the shores of Britain, so people such as Rachel can order it like a take-away. My contact at the National Crime Agency has already given me some intel on how cocaine is smuggled here.

In the UK, we’re an island nation. It’s an almost 360 degree target. Cocaine comes to us from all corners of the plant basically. Production is here. Largely in Colombia.
Tony Saggers – National Crime Agency (NCA)

Traffickers use an extra-ordinary web of secretive routes to get it from Colombia to our shores.

You’ve got this Latin American coastline which enters the Caribbean Sea. That’s really important, because the Caribbean Sea is a gateway not only to West Africa, but to the UK as well.

Countries that get exploited through this, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras. These countries are generally less developed, they are vulnerable, and they are exploitable. These are the places where bad things happen.
Tony Saggers – National Crime Agency (NCA)

If I am to understand the Cocaine trade, I need to track down the multi-billion pound trafficking business. I’ve been told my best chance of meeting a major smuggler is in Honduras. Honduras, is one of the most dangerous countries in the world.

Honduras is an international staging post for wholesale cocaine. Here no one is safe from the cartels and criminal gangs who control the trade. I’ve been in some vulnerable situations in my life, but I have never been into something as grim as this. (Gun shots heard).

Honduras, one of the world’s most dangerous countries outside a war zone. This nation serves as a clandestine port for Colombian cocaine, before it is trafficked to the UK and across the world.

It is known as the world’s warehouse for cocaine. They say there is up to 300 tonnes a year of cocaine out of Honduras, with a street value of close to £10 billion a year.

I’m going to be spending time with the country’s most famous crime reporter, Orlin Castro.

Orlin has covered over 430 murders in the last two months alone. The majority linked to the cocaine trade. I am hoping Orlin can get me access to the criminal underworld and give an insight into the violence that is consuming this country.

My driver fills me in on the current state of play.

Cocaine comes here first. This is the bridge, the hub.

Cocaine comes from Colombia. The whole country is filled with cocaine.

The crime is escalating an all-time high.

We can easily have 6 bodies a day. I wish that I was wrong but probably you’re gonna find someone here that has been violently killed. They’re basically fighting for territory to sell more cocaine. 

Some neighbourhoods you have to scroll your windows down. Especially these kinds of cars with the tinted windows, because you can get shot at easily.

WHY?

They’re gonna kill you because they don’t know the car. They don’t know who is in the car. So the gangs are shoot first, ask second.

Suddenly we hear that someone has been assassinated in rush hour traffic, up ahead.

(Gordon goes to the crime scene)

I find Orlin already at the scene. Orlin believes this is a hit by professional killers.

I am s***ing myself with this cocaine warehouse. It is such big business, how do you slow this thing down?

In Honduras it’s very difficult.
The gangs and the cartels have grown in power.
That causes more and more bloodshed, murder after murder
Orlin Castro, Crime reporter

(A gang member from one of the largest gangs in Honduras is arrested.)

He deals in coke, racketeering and extortion.

Orlin tells me this man is a foot soldier. Big time cocaine traffickers are rarely captured.

This is surreal, I mean he looks about 18, look how young he is.

In Honduras, all is not what it seems. By day, the cities are bustling with everyday life, but thousands of people are secretly employed in the international cocaine business.

Orlin has agreed to introduce me to people in this underworld. He is taking me into one of the most violent neighbourhoods to meet Sicarios, freelance hit men hired to eliminate anybody who stands in the way of the cocaine business.

These assassins charge as little as £50 to murder somebody.

How many people have you murdered?

Between 80 and 110

Do you ever think that you want to stop this?

Many times we have wanted to quit, but we can’t, because what is the point of one small group stopping? The gangs, the narco traffickers, the corrupt government ministers won’t stop. Because corruption starts at the very top.

That is the most intense situation I have ever been in. Just the fixation of his eyes, it’s cold, really cold. Everything is reverted back to business. Everything is about the money, everything is about coke, everything is about the survival and what this powder has created.

Honduras’s Caribbean coast – the cartels use this area to store up to 300 tonnes of cocaine before shipping it out.

I’ve been informed that Carlos the smuggler I’m about to meet does business directly with the Colombian cartels. He made his first deal aged just 17.

How does cocaine hit the streets of UK coming out of Honduras?

For Europe we use mules. We hire two or three models. We pack the cocaine in bags, each girl takes three bags. Friends in Spain meet them and do photo sessions as if they were models. Afterwards they go by train to Italy and then from Italy to London.

That first transaction, how much money did you make on that?

In Colombia they will sell you a kilo for $5,000. Here you can sell that for $15,000. In the US that goes up by $30,000. In Europe you can sell it for $40,000 to $45,000 more than you would here.

So the multiples are incredible. Big business for you.
Dealing with so much cocaine is a very dangerous job. Are you confident that you are going to stay alive?

From the moment I started this I knew I was going to die. We understand this, but we all have families. There’s lots of unemployment here, the people in this business are not educated.

How do you manage to stay alive for so long?

Paying people off, paying the police, because if you don’t pay the police you can’t do business.

So you’ve been paying people off to protect your interest and keep yourself alive. Have you made a lot of money?

Yes lots.

Carlos uses a legion of extraordinary smuggling tricks. Private planes and secret runways to fly the cocaine in from Colombia; human couriers, boats and even submarines to transport it across the world.

He was paying off the police, paying off the military to stay alive. He has outsmarted the system. He has kept his neck above the water.

I’ve been shocked to learn how people in this business use bribery and murder to protect the distribution of cocaine worldwide. And I’ve learned how the war on drugs is seemingly unwinnable when the UK’s demand for cocaine is so high.

And I’m concerned about the shit that’s coming to my restaurants. And the shit that is happening to get it to my restaurants.

After what I’ve seen, I can’t just Do Nothing. The size of the problem is immense. Yet I am just one man, so what I can do is put my own house in order.

I’ve spent my entire career surrounded by cocaine and have now discovered evidence of cocaine use amongst my current employees. My ambition is to rid my restaurants of cocaine permanently. So I’ve gathered together my senior staff. My industry has been turning a blind eye for years. Time to confront this dirty secret head on.

Has anyone been in a situation when you have been with your mates and they have said come on, we’re going to do this, take some? I have first off, let’s get that right. Anybody else? I respect your honesty. It’s not just us, it’s a problem across the industry. There’s about 5 of you in the room that was with me when we lost David Dempsey. I had no idea that he had a cocaine habit, I was totally oblivious. If only I knew David Dempsey was on it, do you think I would be sat having dinner with him the night before he died? He’d be in rehab immediately. Honestly from what I’ve seen and what I’ve witnessed, to lose somebody else now is not an option. That’s not going to happen.

My first instinct was to drug-test staff and fire anyone who tested positive. But I feel responsible toward these guys. So instead I’m rolling out a plan to tackle cocaine use on the job.

We need to stick together. We need to help to stop our industry losing talented individuals. So here is what we set up. We have a system in place that is there to offer support and help. So you are not isolated.

My managers will be trained to identify the signs of drug abuse. And staff will be offered professional confidential counselling and even rehab. I’m going to help those who want to be helped. Persistent offenders will be fired.

I need you to be strong and honest with yourselves because if you see it, hear it or maybe have indulged in it, there’s help there.

I don’t want coke in my restaurants anymore.

Customers taking side plates into the loos to snort cocaine off – how rude.  That shit has to stop. For every line of coke taken, the devastation behind the scenes is horrific. Deliver that message to that individual. Agreed?

I’m not going to change the world, but what I can make is a difference. And that difference needs to start somewhere. And it starts in here.

On this extraordinary journey, I have witnessed the devastation that cocaine brings.
The violence and even death.

How could it possibly be cool, when someone somewhere may well have paid with their lives. for the wrap of cocaine that you are about to shove up your nose?

While demand in the UK has rocketed, it has made dangerous criminals ridiculously rich. While the authorities struggle to get a grip on the problem.

Thousands think that coke is a bit of harmless fun. No one quite understands the damage it causes before you take it.

But if one person could stop using cocaine, knowing now what goes into it, job done. (29)

Hello – do we need to stop and do a rewind here.

Trained by the British SAS, the anti-narcotics military unit in Colombia have been
fighting cocaine production and the cartels for nearly 30 years.

Is there something to learn if after 3 decades we are not able to stop the
extraordinary deadly war on drugs?

Are we aware that our Solutions to destroy cocaine crops and take out the laboratories have not worked?

We are not ahead of the game as the cartels run the show. Our efforts with daily combat are failing and we do know that.

How serious is this – the farmers have snipers, land explosives and kidnap the police? We should be asking how is this possible, as it makes no sense at all.

Attempting to destroy industrial sized coca fields by hand, as each plant has to be sprayed because doing it by air would mean the forest would be destroyed.

How are we ever going to get ahead when there are armed men and guerilla organisations on the ground all controlled by the cartel?

Britain imports £2,000,000,000 worth of cocaine every year.

Hello – what could this country do with that amount of money?

Imagine if we spent some of this on real education about cocaine and did some research studies to confirm that it has more public benefit than snorting it in the name of a Lifestyle Choice.

Time to wake up – it is not the people you reckon are the ones taking cocaine. We have the untouchables in our world snorting the stuff like lawyers, doctors and police officers. They have status and we cannot touch them because we are told they are the good people and they don’t do Drugs. But the raw real truth is some do.

Can we re-read this again – yes you read correctly.

Those society deem as respectable law abiding citizens who have professional status are actually doing cocaine and that in itself needs to be exposed, so that we are not under any illusion that good people with good jobs and positions in society are somehow an elite class of people who behave differently from the masses.

Next –

Cocaine dealers have firearms and call them toys, which come out to play if anyone messes with their plots and plans.

The documentary quotes a dealer who is aware of the consequences of prison for life but the risk is worth taking, as they see the money that is made and they like the fact that the demand keeps growing as it gives them even more money.

In the UK over 700 firearms have been seized in the last 2 years.
70% of these weapons are found with Drugs – usually cocaine or crack.

So gun crime goes hand in hand with the cocaine business.

We have one consumer willing to share on camera about their cocaine habit.
It was like ordering a take-away – you could never not get it.
At the beginning spending around £800 per week.

£40,000 a year and that’s been for 12 years.
Spending all our money on coke, nothing else.

Next –

Honduras in Central America is known as one of the world’s most dangerous countries outside a War zone. The nation is a clandestine port for cocaine from Colombia on its way to the UK and the world. The coast is used by the cartels to store up to 300 tonnes of cocaine before shipping out.

The very fact that it is called the world’s warehouse for cocaine tells us there can be no surprise when we hear the majority of the 430 murders in just 2 months, are linked to the cocaine trade. Gangs and the cartels have grown in power – that causes more and more bloodshed, murder after murder says Orlin Castro a crime reporter.

Violent killings happen because of fighting for territory to sell more cocaine.
Gangs are shoot first, ask second if they don’t know who is in the car.
Assassins are cheap – £50 to murder somebody.
Freelance hit men hired to eliminate anybody who stands in the way of the cocaine business.

Once again we could say how creative does it get – hire mules, which means models who are met in Europe by friends, like they are doing a photo session, but what they are really doing is carrying 3 bags of cocaine each.

One Kilo of Cocaine

$5,000	Colombia
$15,000	Honduras
$30,000	United States
$40/45,000	UK

We are told that people in the business are not educated. They understand the risks but they are up against unemployment and the need to provide for their family.

They openly admit they make lots of money and they stay alive because they are paying the police, because if you don’t pay the police you can’t do business. 

Dear World

Our cocaine comes through private planes, secret runways, human couriers, boats and submarines. Bribery, murder, paying off the police and the military are part of the process for smugglers.

Cocaine brings with it devastation, violence and death.
It has made dangerous criminals ridiculously rich, while the authorities struggle to get a grip on the problem.

UK is becoming the “cocaine capital” of Europe

High-margin, high-supply of cocaine fuelling an increase in violence on the streets.
The ubiquity of smart phones and growth of encryption had increasingly cut out the ‘middle men’ when it came to international Drug dealing.

Young people have the ability to order drugs and gangs have the ability to have delivered to their door large packets of drugs from Albanian and Serbian drug gangs or from local drug gangs.

That has put real power into a system where at the same time the UK is fast becoming the biggest consumer of cocaine in Europe, so there is a high demand by the consumer.

Cocaine was no longer the preserve of the yuppie or the rich and its increasing use in rural communities was causing turf wars between different criminal gangs as they sought to enforce their so-called ‘county-lines’.

It is a high-margin, high-supply drug at the moment and that is fuelling increased violence.

With those serious organised criminals… they do not just put a 15 year old in a house or they ‘cuckoo’ the house; they provide a weapon to enforce the drug line.
And sometimes, if the 15 year old is not a willing participant, they will ruthlessly enforce that county line with violence and they will kill those people and they kill the local drug dealers if they get in their way.
MP Ben Wallace – Security Minister (2016 – 2019) (30)

Listen up – what Security Minister Ben Wallace is saying gives us a snapshot of what is actually happening. This is not on the screen, it is real life on the streets.

The very fact that violence goes hand in hand with cocaine distribution is deeply disturbing and it does not end there. Those in the way get killed and there are gangs that will not stop at anything when it comes to the supply of cocaine. We might think “yeah it goes on in Colombia and Mexico but not here in the UK” well it’s time to wake up, as it is all over the UK and they happen to be the biggest cocaine consumers in the whole of Europe.

Next –

Why have our Youth₂ of today and drug gangs got the knowhow, the skills and the means to order Drugs and deliver drugs and ‘put real power into a system’ that we could agree is working to supply cocaine to consumers because there is a known high demand?

Why has the UK with all its so-called academics and intelligent work force been unable to get on the front foot and be ahead of the game, so to speak?

What is stopping us from getting to the root cause of the cocaine addiction that is destroying and destructing not only the human frame but all those related to that one person who chooses this ill path in life?

We can blame the government, the police who lack resources and anyone else we want to but in truth we know that will change nothing.

We also know that those who take drugs need help and due to the addictive nature of cocaine it becomes difficult to navigate where one is at, as Lying seems to be normal for the majority of drug users.

Rise in London’s murder rate linked to the cocaine trade.

67 killings reported from January to May 2018
MP David Lammy (30)

2019 

UK has the highest prevalence of cocaine use in Europe found in age group 15 – 24.

3 million aged 15 – 24 are estimated to have used cocaine. (31)

Last year we were being told that around 3 million teenagers and young adults age 15 – 24 used cocaine.

How serious is this and WHY are we not stopping and asking how on earth is this going on in our world today?

What are these younger generations going to end up like if cocaine is being consumed whilst their body is still developing?

The World Health Organization defines youth as age 15 – 24 and it would be wise for the reader to visit our blogs on this website about our Youth.
https://simplelivingglobal.com/international-youth-day/
https://simplelivingglobal.com/international-youth-day-2017/

These presentations are to bring awareness about what is going on for our younger population soon to be our future adult generations.

News story

Revealed:
How much Cocaine Londoners are Taking Everyday
2019

23kg of this Class A drug taken everyday in London
£2.75 million street value – half million doses on average

People in London are consuming twice the amount of any other European city.
Forensic scientists at King’s College London University examined waste water in London and tested for benzoylecgonine (BE), the compound produced when the body breaks down cocaine.

8 TONNES PURE COCAINE – LONDON’S ANNUAL USE

Researchers found sustained cocaine usage across the week with only a slight rise at the weekend. That is in contrast to other cities where you see a very marked recreational use at the weekend and so cocaine is an everyday drug in London.
Dr. Leon Barron – Forensic Scientist | King’s College London (32)

The fact that London’s average daily amount of cocaine used is 23kg and represents pure cocaine and does not include substances which the Class A drug is cut with, usually anaesthetics such as lidocaine and benzocaine is revealing how serious life in the city is for many now.

£40 a gram with availability literally on speed dial, no different to ordering a pizza delivery, we can see how we are not going to suddenly see a downward turn as suppliers are finding a way and lockdown restrictions are obviously no deterrent for those who are involved in getting the drug from source to the doorstep at home, or in the office or on the streets.

Cocaine worth £25 million seized from Fake Medical Supplies Van heading to UK

285kg of the class A drug hidden among dry ice was seized.
£25 million street value.

260kg of cocaine was stopped at the same border crossing.
£20 million street value. (33)

Border Force seize a tonne of cocaine worth £100 million hidden inside a shipment of banana pulp.

1,060 kilograms of cocaine were found.

According to the Home Office, the concealed drugs were discovered as part of routine inspections at the London Gateway depot on 12 November 2020, hidden in a shipping container.

This discovery marks the 2^nd largest shipment of cocaine at the Essex port in 2 months.

1,155 kilograms found in a shipment of paper – September

The drugs, thought to be put in the cargo at Colombia, were intended to arrive in Antwerp, Belgium.

While the UK was not the end destination for either shipment, it is likely that at least a proportion would have ended up being sold on our streets.
The National Crime Agency is working with law enforcement partners in the UK, Europe and Worldwide to target the criminal networks behind drug trafficking and disrupt their activities.
Jacque Beer – Branch Commander | National Crime Agency (34)

This is hot news as it has just recently happened.

We could say – great news for border control officers that have done a grand job with the police and the law enforcement units across Europe and worldwide but is the actual amount telling us this has now gone to another level?

In other words, this is one shipment and it involves a whole tonne of cocaine and we all know there will be more, so much more that never gets exposed as we are not on the front foot of this game by far.

Banana pulp – who would have thought of that one?
Even our movie script writers seem to lack the creativity that seems to pour out of those involved in the production and supply of cocaine.

Our drug suppliers just keep finding illicit ways to deliver and it will never stop until we, the consumers who crave and seek it actually Stop.

Let us not Blame all those who profit, when we put them there in the first place.

 

Cocaine remains among the most commonly consumed drugs worldwide. (35)

 

Dear World

We like to call ourselves an Intelligent₁ species.

WHY do we have so-called Intelligent₂ people snorting cocaine?

What is Intelligent about that?

WHY have we got to the stage where we need the hit, the high, the buzz and the altered state of mind, which comes with the ‘not interested in the after effects or the come down’ attitude because there is always going to be a tomorrow, to get some more and do it all over again.

Have we bothered to stop for just one moment and ask ourselves:

At what cost?
Was it worth it?

 

References

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https://www.acic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-09/Illicit%20Drug%20Data%20Report%202018-19_Internals_V10_Cocaine%20CH.pdf

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https://documentaryheaven.com/how-drugs-work-cocaine/

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https://www.history.com/topics/crime/history-of-cocaine

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https://www.healthline.com/health/freebasing

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https://www.wsj.com/ad/cocainenomics

(12) (1992). Crack Cocaine. Documentary Heaven. Retrieved December 12, 2020 from
https://documentaryheaven.com/crack-cocaine/

(13) Baynes, C. (2019, January 3). US Vows to Help World’s Largest Cocaine Producer Curb ‘Deeply Concerning’ Rise in Cultivation. Independent. Retrieved December 7, 2020 from
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/colombia-us-cocaine-production-coca-leaf-mike-pompeo-ivan-duque-drugs-a8710131.html

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(15) (December 2018). Recent Changes in Europe’s Cocaine Market. European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.  p.4.
https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/system/files/publications/10225/2018-cocaine-trendspotter-rapid-communication.pdf

(16) Duncan, C. (2019, September 30). Taking Cocaine and Alcohol Together Produces ‘Deadly Combination’, Doctors Warn. Independent. Retrieved December 15, 2020 from
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