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Cocaine is an addictive stimulant made from the leaves of a coca plant found in South America. It was originally used by South Americans as medicine for over 2,000 years but has later been used for euphoric purposes.

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Although this drug can be used correctly and safely for medical purposes by healthcare professionals, recreational cocaine has been used improperly and dangerously. It is common for cocaine to cause immediate side effects for users. For example, increased body temperature, accelerated heart rate, loss of appetite, and more.

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Cocaine was first introduced around 1860 in South America, where it originated. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the U.S. saw an up-rise in cocaine usage. It had been labeled as the drug of the 80s and 90s due to its popularity. As of today, cocaine remains the second most popular recreational drug in the U.S.

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What makes cocaine addictive? Using cocaine stimulates the brain, leading dopamine to release. Therefore, creating positive reinforcement such as feelings of euphoria or excitement. In 2016, nearly 2 million individuals reported using cocaine.

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Although there is no medication to reverse cocaine addiction, there are other treatment options. Inpatient rehabilitation programs are one of the best options for fighting cocaine addiction. Rehab programs may include counseling, support groups, various types of therapy, aftercare planning, and more.

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Michigan law enforcement and economists have discovered a new tracking system to identify suspected cities producing and selling cocaine.

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Law enforcement authorities need to better understand trafficking patterns of cocaine in the United States to address one of the world's largest illegal drug markets, according to a Michigan State University researcher whose new methodology might help.

Siddharth Chandra, an economist, studied wholesale powdered cocaine prices in 112 cities to identify city-to-city links for the transit of the drug. He used data published by the National Drug Intelligence Center of the U.S. Department of Justice from 2002 to 2011, which field intelligence officers and local, regional and federal law enforcement sources collected through drug arrests and investigations.

"These data enable us to identify suspected links between cities that may have escaped the attention of drug enforcement authorities," said Chandra, director of MSU's Asian Studies Center and professor in MSU's James Madison College. "By identifying patterns and locations, drug policy and enforcement agencies could provide valuable assistance to federal, state and local governments in their decisions on where and how to allocate limited law enforcement resources to mitigate the cocaine problem."

Chandra analyzed prices for 6,126 pairs of cities for possible links. If two cities are connected, prices will move in lockstep. So if there's a spike in cocaine prices in the city of origin - or a source city, where the drug originates - that spike will be transmitted to all cities dependent upon that source. In addition, cocaine will flow from the city with the lower price to the city with the higher price. It takes a number of transactions for cocaine to reach its end price, and prices tend to go up as drugs move from one city to another, he said.

While cities in the north and northeast are destination cities for cocaine, Chandra found cities in the southern U.S. and along the west coast are source cities. In addition, cities in other regions, like Chicago and Atlanta, are major hubs for cocaine.

Chandra also created a map of possible drug routes, which he compared with a map produced by the National Drug Intelligence Center, and found that a number of his routes hadn't been identified.

But Chandra cautions that his methodology shouldn't be used in isolation. Instead, it is one piece of the larger drug trafficking puzzle. Individual bits of the publicly available NDIC data may or may not be accurate based on whether drug smugglers tell the truth. However, the combined data could lead to better drug enforcement.

Unfortunately, Chandra said, the NDIC was closed in 2012 and he's not sure if another agency is continuing to collect data. But his research shows the importance of doing so.

"As an economist, the big takeaway is that prices carry some valuable information about trafficking in illegal goods," Chandra said.

Two of Chandra's former students, Samuel Peters and Nathaniel Zimmer, who recently graduated, assisted with the research. The study is published in the Journal of Drug Issues.

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New cocaine tracking system could lead to better drug enforcement

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Law enforcement authorities need to better understand trafficking patterns of cocaine in the United States to address one of the world's largest illegal drug markets, according to a Michigan State University researcher whose new methodology might help. Siddharth Chandra, an economist, studied wholesale powdered cocaine prices in 112 cities to identify city-to-city links for the transit of the drug.

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Across the globe, many countries contribute to the serious cocaine epidemic by both distributing and consuming the addictive stimulant drug. These places vary from South America, the origin of cocaine, and Europe.

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United Nations : Office on Drugs and Crime

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The cocaine market presents a clear threat at global level. The current situation is marked by well-defined locations of production (in the Andean-Amazonian region of South America) as well as consumption, with close to four fifths of users to be found in the Americas and Europe. This in turn leads to trafficking routes from a circumscribed origin to specific, even if far-flung, destinations, while some parts of the world play a crucial role as transit regions.

The routes, modalities and networks employed by criminal actors however continue to evolve, diversify and become more efficient. Moreover, the current relative concentration of consumers presents a clear potential for expansion, and new markets threaten to emerge. The increasingly globalized, interconnected, digitalized and technologically sophisticated nature of society, as well as a growing affluent demographic in some regions where cocaine use has traditionally been low, can potentially catalyse and accelerate this expansion.

The UNODC cocaine research programme recognizes these realities and aims to read the trends with a view to painting a picture of potential future developments, identifying emerging threats and ultimately enabling a pre-emptive response implemented with foresight.

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The cocaine market presents a clear threat at global level. The current situation is marked by well-defined locations of production (in the Andean-Amazonian region of South America) as well as consumption, with close to four fifths of users to be found in the Americas and Europe.

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“Cocaine Drug Facts.” National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 19 Dec. 2022, https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugfacts/cocaine.

“Cocaine History, Statistics, and Legal Penalties of Using Cocaine.” DrugAbuse.com, 25 Jan. 2023, https://drugabuse.com/drugs/cocaine/history-statistics/.

“Drug Overdose Death Rates.” National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 8 Mar. 2023, https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates.

“Mexico, U.S., Italy: The Cocaine Connection.” Stratfor, https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/mexico-us-italy-cocaine-connection.

Parker, Kristen. “New Cocaine Tracking System Could Lead to Better Drug Enforcement.” MSUToday, 19 June 2014, https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2014/new-cocaine-tracking-system-could-lead-to-better-drug-enforcement.