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Street Drug PricesIreland Gardai, the police force of Ireland, reported in January of 2010 that the street price for Cannabis by Gardai police was between EUR2.00 and EUR10.00 per gram. Cannabis has normally stayed consistent at EUR10.00 per gram on the street, but wholesale prices have dropped the total significantly. For heroin, sold mainly in EUR10.00 "bags," a quarter of a gram reportedly sells for around EUR40.00. Cocaine was once relatively exensive in Europe, but today its increased supply has made it available at rock-bottom prices in Dublin, selling at less than EUR15.00 per gram. Street prices for high-grade Columbian cocaine sell at EUR80,000.00 per kilogram, or EUR80.00 per gram. It was once EUR130 per gram for the same quality, due mainly to the increase in supply by the Columbian “Medellin” drug cartel. Ecstasy was valued at EUR5.00 per pill. However, more recently they reduced that quoted value by 50%, leaving ecstasy at EUR2.50 per pill. Because the law requires that all offenders in possession of over EUR12,500 worth of drugs get mandatory jail sentence of 10 years , the discrepancy between the different valuations means offenders already charged under the old valuation results serve a greater sentence in comparison to today’s offenders. For instance, the new 10-year mandatory sentence will apply for any offender convicted of possessing at least 833 pills of ecstasy. Finally, amphetamine sulphate is sold for roughly EUR10.00 a gram, available usually in paper satchets. The same mandatory minumum Ireland has put into effect applies to amphetamines, as well. Canada A study by the University of Victoria in British Columbia, entitled, The Price of Getting High, Stoned, and Drunk in BC, examined 1,600 recreational and hard-core users of drugs over the past three years and found that alcohol was still by far the cheapest of all drugs to consume. For example, it’s .58 cents for a strong beer, .62 cents for a dose of spirits, and .71 cents for a cooler. The daily maximum volume of alcohol recommended by the BC government’s low-risk guidelines can be consumed for less than $3.00 dollars per day. UK The average national street price for cocaine in England is £42 per gram. However, in Middlesbrough, a large town in the North-East of England with nearly twice the crime rate of the UK average, it is as low as £25 per gram. The survey was administered to 40 frontline drug service agencies by Druglink magazine and was published by DrugScope in 2005. Street prices for heroin in Middlesbrough were £10 per bag, or £50 per gram, while in Newcastle it was twice as expensive at £100 per gram. The lowest street prices quoted for ecstasy in the country were 50p. As an interesting side note, 89% of Europe's heroin is supplied exclusively by Afghanistan. Street drug prices are unstable and artificially low or high for the purposes of conviction and sentencing, prompting some critics to argue for sentences based on the weight, volume, or functional human dosage of the quantity of drugs in an individual’s possession. As reported in the Guardian in 2008, one ounce of skunk-type herbal cannabis costs approximately £131, which is approximately £8.2 per gram. This number has declined by £3 per gram since last year. Street prices for illicit diazepam, trade-name Valium and known as “vallies” or “blues” on the street, are approximately £1 per 10 milligrams, the typical therapeutic dose. Consequently, the drug is being used as a heroin substitute in many parts of England, often taken concurrently with methadone and alcohol (a dangerous combination), or as a “come-down” following the stimulant withdrawal of cocaine. Heroin in the UK had risen from £13,000 per kilogram to £17,000 per kilogram over the course of 2008. As of 2005, Gloucester was the number one-selling city for cannabis in the West of England, where the price of marijuana was approximately £40 per ounce. Birmingham was the only city cheaper than Gloucester, whereas in Bristol the price rose dramatically to £110 per ounce. Ketamine, a popular tranquilizer used in veterinary medicine and as a hallucinogen by recreational users, was selling close to the national average at £20 per ounce in Gloucester, £15 per gram in Nottingham, and £30 per gram nationally. Ketamine, also known as Vitamin K, Special K, K, or Kit-Kat, is often included in ecstasy tablets. Ketamine at 100 mg is the typical dose for providing energy rushes and euphoria, while 200mg can cause hallucinations. Higher or chronic doses can cause heart-failure, amnesia, and act as a sedative strong enough to be used as a date-rape drug. In England Ketamine grew in popularity among those in the gay clubbing scene. Ecstasy was running at £2.50 to £3.00 per pill in Bristol while in nearby Cardiff, the largest city of Wales, it is priced significantly lower as 80p per pill. Cheaper still is Portsmouth, where an ecstasy pill can be bought for as low as 50p. Here heroin sells at £50 a gram, and crack cocaine sells at £10 a rock. In Torquay ecstasy sells at £1.70 per pill and LSD at £1 per dose. In London, dealers sell bags of heroin for £10 bags and a bag of crack for £25, £15 greater than the national average. In Sheffield heroin is £25 a gram. China In Hong Kong, 3kg of dried cannabis would cost about $120,000 on the street, despite the fact that law enforcement inflate the process up as high as $400,000. Selling Cannabis resin in Nepal nets a maximum of $1,200 per ounce, despite the fact that law enforcement value the same amount at $2,835 per ounce. Most people agree that cocaine prices today are cheaper than they were during the 1980's. In Britain it is now the second most popular drug, with 6.5% of the population reporting at least once in their lifetime using the drug. In 2004, cocaine was selling on average nationally at £64 per gram, but in some cases as low as £28 to £44 per gram. According to the Home Office, Britons spend more than £1 billion per year on cannabis, consuming 412 tonnes in a year, and purchasing the drug at an average price of £4 per gram. The European Drugs Agency reported that the street prices of all drugs have decreased in recent years: ecstasy was down 47%, heroin was down 45%, cocaine was down 22% and cannabis was down 19%. United States Methamphetamine On the wholesale market in Arizona, to take one example, one pound of meth earns approximately $15,000 to $18,000, as reported by the Arizona Star. A typical dose would earn $80 to $125 for one-sixteenth of an ounce and over $200 for an eighth of an ounce. Cocaine In Florida in the mid 1980’s, drug smugglers could earn $750 million dollars for 1.5 million pounds of cocaine. But street drug prices in the U.S. have followed a similar downward trend to the rest of the world since then, falling rapidly since the early 1980's due largely to increased production and and more agressive distribution out of South America. Drug-related deaths are similarly at an all-time high. Ten years ago, in 2001, the retail price for a kilogram of cocaine was $110,000, or $110 per gram. This was slightly higher in Europe. However, both areas of the world have seen price drop significantly since then. Remarkable profits can still be made, however, considering the amount of coca leaf needed to produce a kilogram of cocaine costs only $400-600. The American Journal of Public Health reported in 2001 that between the years 1981 and 1996, hospital emergency department incidents of both cocaine and heroin use correlated significantly with the sharp decline seen on the street for both drugs. Specifically, the street price of these drugs explained over 97% of the steep rise in emergency department mentions. Furthermore, since 1980, US federal spending on drug enforcement has gone up 300%. Possibly as a result of this increase in aggressive drug enforcement, drug distributors have increased the potency of drugs to avoid detection and identification across border shipments. This has made overdoses and drug-related deaths easier. sources: "Gardai reduce value of ecstasy drug," 3 January 2010,
Sunday Tribune. |
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