Three Distinctive Features Of Illegal Drug Market

Before starting the report it is important to study three distinctive features of illegal drug markets. These are:

1. The role of imperfect and wrong information- it is true that sellers and buyers are unaware about the quality and quantity of drugs in a transactions,

2. Epidemics and contagion- the sudden speed with which drugs use can increase and the fact that it spreads through social contact,

3. The role of enforcement in affecting the price of drugs and the manner in which they are distributed. Simply it is related the law which opposes the drugs and their use.

On the basis of addiction, someone might said that drug demand is relatively inelastic or unresponsive to price. But the price elasticity of demand varies across drugs (heroin,

The analytical emphasis of the supply and demand model is on prices and quantities, but this analytical emphasis does not mean that price is the most important empirical demand influence. The demand curve shows the relationship between quantity demanded and price keeping all other factors constant. When these factors change, then whole demand curve will shift. For example demand-side public policies, such as antidrug media campaigns, law enforcement measures that target users, changing attitudes toward intoxication and self-control, and economic factor like income and employment opportunities. Under the conventional view that drug demand is drug demand is relatively price inelastic, changes in these other influences are likely to be important explanations for observed variation in drug market over time and across geographic units particularly since some of them, especially tastes, can change rapidly. Demand-side policies seek to shift the demand curve down (left). All else being equal, such policies shift the equilibrium down the supply curve, resulting in a lower equilibrium price and a lower quantity of drugs consumed. If social harms associated with illegal drug use are positively related to the dollars spent on these substances (since these are criminal incomes), demand-side interventions are especially attractive because they induce favorable price and quantity effects, while supply-side interventions

It was most powerful cartels in past.

La Familia Michoacana- It is based in the Michoacan state.

Los Zetas Cartel- It is comprised of former members of the Mexican military. Initially they worked as hit men for the Gulf Cartel, before becoming independent.

Sinaloa Cartel- It is know as the dominant drug trafficking organization in Mexico. It is headed by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

Tijuana/ Arellano Felix Cartel- It is based in Tijuana. Most of the Arellano Felix brothers have been killed.

How they work

There cross border flow of money and guns into Mexico from the U.S. has enabled well-armed and well-funded cartels to engage in violent activities

From December 2006 through July 2010, the Mexican government reported almost 30,000 deaths in Mexico resulting from organized crime and drug trafficking, with 9,635 murders in 2009 alone. In its fiscal year (FY) 2010 to FY 2016 strategic plan, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) reported that Mexico’s drug traffickers have turned aggressively to the United States as a source of guns and routinely smuggle guns from the United States into Mexico. There is fighting between several cartels. In short they work on killing people and acquiring the power over the