The drug industry in the States – both legal and illegal – has long been a battle for power.

But now, since acquiring prescription drugs has become a little more difficult, heroin has become “so pervasive in cities such as Cincinnati and so profitable for the cartels that supply it” that even local cops have admitted the few arrests they make have very little effect.

Bloomberg journalist Jeanna Smialek spoke to Cincinnati detective Brandon Connley about the situation and he casually explained that:

[Arrests are] really not going to make any impact out on the street.

Everybody and their mom sells drugs these days. There’s always somebody right there to pick back up.

But why?

Well, painkillers are to blame.

The millions of Americans who got hooked on pain pills having nothing other than heroin to turn to, as “states have tightened monitoring and doctors have reduced dosages,” reports Smialek:

[I]t’s become harder for addicts to get prescription painkillers, driving many to get their fix off street drugs. Mexican cartels and big-city gangs have capitalized on the shift, extending networks of dealers across the U.S. and flooding the market with cheap heroin, according to law enforcement.

But it gets worse:

Cartels have begun lacing heroin with synthetic opioids including fentanyl, making a dose more addictive and cheaper to produce. Overdose reversal shots are helping addicts survive, often to use again, giving dealers a steady supply of repeat customers.

With persistent demand and increasingly wide profit margins, 2017 is shaping up as the most profitable year ever for the U.S. heroin trade.

And heroin sales have gone through the roof:

Police also told Smialek that dealers are getting creative with their business, texting customers specials, like two-for-one Sunday deals.

Some dealers have scheduled business hours. Others throw “testers” wrapped in paper slips printed with their phone number into passing cars, hoping to hook new business.

The fentanyl found in the heroin is only making matters worse – read the full article and find out why here.

Smialek reports on the life of users and how the synthetics being introduced into the heroin are killing people en masse – some using with the hope to die while others are just too hooked to do anything else.

Scary stuff, drug addiction.

[source:bloomberg]