The biggest revelations from The Business of Drugs

Here are the biggest revelations from The Business of Drugs

In Netflix’s new docuseries, The Business of Drugs, former CIA analyst Amaryllis Fox, travels around the world trying to understand the economics behind the drug industry.

Fox was at Oxford University when the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks occurred. To understand how the attacks could’ve happened, she developed an algorithm that processed historical data in an attempt to predict the next attack. Her work caught the attention of the CIA, who brought her on as a field operative to assist in the War On Terror.

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Through her work with the CIA, Fox drew parallels between the War on Terror and the War on Drugs, both of which have cost an exorbitant amount of money and lives. In The Business of Drugs, Fox investigates illegal substances such as cocaine, MDMA, and even cannabis to learn why the illegal drug trade is so profitable.

Here are some of the biggest revelations from The Business of Drugs.

Customers don’t seek out the cheapest dealer but the most reliable

In the series premiere of The Business of Drugs, Fox investigates the economics of the cocaine business. According to the documentary, in 2017, almost 2,000 tons of pure cocaine was produced, which was a 25% increase from 2016.

There’s a growing market for the cocaine trade, with there being 18.1 million cocaine users across the country and the number of new American users doubling since 2013. The growth in supply and demand should be raising the price of cocaine; however, the price of a gram of cocaine has remained at roughly $100 for 25 years.

Rodrigo Canales, the Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Yale School of Management, explained to Fox that this is because customers seek out the most reliable dealer who won’t constantly hike up the price.

Canales, likening the cocaine trade to the videogame industry, said that once prices are set, consumers will reliably come back because they’ll know from the beginning where prices stand. Still, consumers are willing to pay high premiums because they realize the risk involved in producing and smuggling cocaine into the country.

MDMA was developed to assist individuals in therapy

In the 1970s, Dr. Sasha Shulgin began his research on how to synthesize and relax the properties of MDMA so that it may be effectively used in psychotherapy treatments.

However, it quickly found its way into underground recreational use in the 70s and 80s, which prompted the Reagan administration to step in and classify it as a Schedule 1 drug, a drug classification that stipulates a drug has no therapeutic value. This move essentially prohibited MDMA research. However, Sasha and his wife Ann continued their research into psychoactive drugs and published their findings in a book titled PIHKAL in 1991.

Unfortunately, since the book contained detailed instructions on how to replicate his experiments, Shulgin would find his lab being raided and shut down by the FBI in 1994. Still, he would go on to publish a sequel, titled TIHKHAL in 1997 and with the invention of the Internet, Shulgin’s work would go on to be instantly accessible to the masses.

Cannabis still largely operates on the black market

According to The Business of Drugs, there are an estimated 200 million cannabis users in the world. Although California produces the largest quantity and highest quality of cannabis, in the United States, only 20% of businesses within the cannabis market are licensed. A contributing factor to this problem is that cannabis is legalized at the state level but not at the federal level.

As a result, individual states and local governments can stipulate their own licensing regulations for the sale of cannabis.

For example, in California, cannabis business owners must pay local and state licensing fees, state compliance fees, distribution fees, testing fees, extraction fees, and taxes.

On top of that, cannabis business owners are unable to write-off expenses that have to do with the sale of cannabis and cannot recover depreciation. Also, since cannabis is classified as a Schedule 1 drug, cannabis businesses must operate as cash-only businesses, which makes it harder for the government to track the money, and the start-up costs alone make it hard to even enter the market.

Have you watched The Business of Drugs? What facts surprised you the most? Let us know in the comments.

The Business of Drugs is currently streaming on Netflix.