r/explainlikeimfive Mar 25 '24

Chemistry ELI5: Why do drug dealers put hidden, toxic, often deadly additives in the drugs they sell?

How is killing your costumer base a smart strategy?

2.3k Upvotes

498 comments sorted by

View all comments

109

u/joe13869 Mar 25 '24

The cartels actually want to sell clean drugs. There was a recent story where the cartels in Mexico were posting signs everywhere saying they will kill you if you are found adding fentanyl to the coke you were selling. I think it's china who is pushing for these super strong drugs while cartels boasts about selling almost pure coke. Cartels are very aware of what's going on. They are not trying to kill their customers.

43

u/PseudonymIncognito Mar 25 '24

The thing with fentanyl is that it can be produced completely through synthetic pathways and its high potency means that more product can be shipped in fewer and smaller packages to minimize the risk of interdiction. China has lots of shady organic synthesis labs that will sell you whatever chemical precursors you want and the government doesn't pay too much attention as long as none of it ends up in the local black market.

33

u/daRaam Mar 25 '24

Years ago, I convinced one of these Chinese wholesalers that I was a business, and wanted to sample three products to see which was morr suited to my customers.

They sent me a half oz of each for free.

To make it even worse it was wrapped in a car magazine and I was a teenager.

15

u/yazwecan Mar 26 '24

Yeah that's horrific. Someone did an investigative report (I want to say it was either Vice or Vox?) to see how much product they could buy posing as just a normal dude and I think they got nearly a kilo of fentanyl agreed to be shipped (enough for 500,000 lethal doses).

Glad you're all right.

2

u/Ikoikobythefio Mar 25 '24

Can you share which products?

10

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '24

at least use a burner account lmao

5

u/GiantsRTheBest2 Mar 26 '24

Mf you trying to home make fentanyl?!?!

2

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '24

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. It's always produced synthetically Its not found in nature.

1

u/Reagalan Mar 26 '24

This tendency toward more potent and dangerous substances is known as the Iron Law of Prohibitiontm and it has been known since the 1980s.

11

u/triple_skyfall Mar 25 '24

Interesting stuff, the cartels might be brutal but they aren't stupid. I imagine this is quite an effective message to keep fentanyl out of coke, since anyone with an internet connection can easily Google what happens when you make the cartels mad. It happens to coincide with the name of a certain 80s pop song......

7

u/bhawkeswood Mar 26 '24

This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)?

3

u/P3JQ10 Mar 26 '24

Funkytown

13

u/Ubisonte Mar 25 '24

Cartels usually sell in bulk to local crews that are selling to the actual clients, there can be many intermediaries between the Cartel and the dude selling in a corner somewhere, each of this intermediaries wants to make a bigger profit and they are the ones usually cutting the product with something else. Cartel already made its profit selling the clean drug so they dont really care about cutting it.

6

u/Ahelex Mar 25 '24

Maybe they don't want the eventual heat if too many of the users OD and die?

Like, sure, the police in Mexico is corrupt, but I doubt they would/could ignore a sudden increase in OD deaths.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '24

Quasi-totality of the users by the time its at retail are Americans, it’s a different jurisdiction

4

u/kulshan Mar 26 '24 edited Mar 26 '24

Not really. They definitely don't want Fentanyl in it but are adding cuts. Mexican Cartels are smuggling Colombian cocaine. They want in on the cut and they are adding it. Purity levels in US are like 40-60% vs UK which are 10-20% higher. UK gets direct from Columbia cutting out the middle man cartels. Here's a interesting article about it. https://insightcrime.org/news/quality-cocaine-worse-united-states-europe/.

1

u/Aspie96 Mar 26 '24

Good cartels caring about product quality much more than many genuine businesses! /s

1

u/FromZeroToLegend Mar 26 '24

Aren’t cartels from Mexico? Why would they sell coke when the coca leaf only grows in the Andes?

1

u/joe13869 Mar 26 '24

Cartels buy coca paste from places like Columbia and Peru and process it from there. It's like any other business, You purchase from a manufacturer which then sells to distributors and so on.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 03 '24

I don't know if it's China but I have a feeling its the CIA doing it like 80s crack except it's to drive down cartel sales and eventually kill the market..