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Discussion => Philosophy, Economics and Justice => Topic started by: bluedev1 on August 10, 2013, 12:55 pm

Title: Which illegal drug has the largest global market in terms of $ spent annually?
Post by: bluedev1 on August 10, 2013, 12:55 pm
I would guess cannabis but maybe I'm wrong?
Title: Re: Which illegal drug has the largest global market in terms of $ spent annually?
Post by: sellitall99 on August 10, 2013, 12:58 pm
id say your right with weed, but 2nd place would be hardest to guess. pain killers or coke
Title: Re: Which illegal drug has the largest global market in terms of $ spent annually?
Post by: isallmememe on August 10, 2013, 03:15 pm
yeah weed for sure. like somebody said, second place would be hard to judge, either heroin, coke or phets.

edit: actually i'm gonna go for heroin coz it is so much higher value. a gram of pure heroin is worth $300+ compared to just $10/20 for a gram of weed. so it probably far exceeds cannabis on market value.
Title: Re: Which illegal drug has the largest global market in terms of $ spent annually?
Post by: isallmememe on August 10, 2013, 03:39 pm
well apparently its coke

Quote
Spending on illegal drugs - sources and methods

The value of the illicit drug market is extremely difficult to estimate. The few serious attempts which have been made have resulted in widely varying figures.

A United Nations publication of 1998, "Economic and Social Consequences of Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking," states that:

"With estimates of $100 billion to $110 billion for heroin, $110 billion to $130 billion for cocaine, $75 billion for cannabis and $60 billion for synthetic drugs, the probable global figure for the total illicit drug industry would be approximately $360 billion. Given the conservative bias in some of the estimates for individual substances, a turnover of around $400 billion per annum is considered realistic."

there's a meter on this site showing dollars spent in realtime on illegal drugs this year. quite interesting to watch it going up and up, lol.

http://www.worldometers.info/drugs/ <<<CLEARNET WARNING

i wonder how much of that is thru sr
Title: Re: Which illegal drug has the largest global market in terms of $ spent annually?
Post by: metacontxt on August 10, 2013, 04:14 pm
Quote
i wonder how much of that is thru sr
hehe probably about 0.01%? The site is a market for niche, high-information buyers and sellers. The means of exchange makes high value trades prohibitive, too.
Title: Re: Which illegal drug has the largest global market in terms of $ spent annually?
Post by: GotGas on August 11, 2013, 11:06 am
Can't believe nobody mentioned ice (methamphetamine). At least in Australia there's tonnes of it going around. Not just about grass and beer anymore.
Title: Re: Which illegal drug has the largest global market in terms of $ spent annually?
Post by: spectrum on August 11, 2013, 09:03 pm
Spending on illegal drugs - sources and methods

The value of the illicit drug market is extremely difficult to estimate. The few serious attempts which have been made have resulted in widely varying figures.

A United Nations publication of 1998, "Economic and Social Consequences of Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking," states that:

"With estimates of $100 billion to $110 billion for heroin, $110 billion to $130 billion for cocaine, $75 billion for cannabis and $60 billion for synthetic drugs, the probable global figure for the total illicit drug industry would be approximately $360 billion. Given the conservative bias in some of the estimates for individual substances, a turnover of around $400 billion per annum is considered realistic."

That makes sense, because although there are more cannabis consumers, cocaine costs a lot more, and cocaine users spend a lot more money.
Title: Re: Which illegal drug has the largest global market in terms of $ spent annually?
Post by: Sir William Wonka on August 13, 2013, 05:12 pm
heroins demand is almost completely inelastic prob why so much is spent on it.
Title: Re: Which illegal drug has the largest global market in terms of $ spent annually?
Post by: Baraka on August 14, 2013, 08:08 am
My guess would also be heroin. Afghanistan is the money laundering capitol of the world for a reason.
Title: Re: Which illegal drug has the largest global market in terms of $ spent annually?
Post by: spanky loc on August 14, 2013, 09:05 am
I'm a little surprised. I think it's important to note that all the numbers mentioned are estimates (or guesses). I would guess the cocaine trade is far more than $130 billion annually, but I have no idea.
Title: Re: Which illegal drug has the largest global market in terms of $ spent annually?
Post by: Hungry ghost on August 16, 2013, 08:40 am
I'm a little surprised. I think it's important to note that all the numbers mentioned are estimates (or guesses). I would guess the cocaine trade is far more than $130 billion annually, but I have no idea.

Estimates and guesses are two different things. Why would your guess trump the UNs estimate, which is presumably based on good evidence and statistics?
      For instance, the fairground game where you have to guess the number of sweets in a jar. A guess is just that, whereas an estimate might involve counting the number of sweets in height of jar, and the number in a layer, and multiplying. The estimate is likely to be much more accurate.
Title: Re: Which illegal drug has the largest global market in terms of $ spent annually?
Post by: neplusultra on August 16, 2013, 06:20 pm
I've read that weed is a bigger cash crop than the top 5 biggest cash crops combined, of which corn is one, don't know the other four. But if that's true than DAMN! I can see why there's no interest in ending the war on drugs.
Title: Re: Which illegal drug has the largest global market in terms of $ spent annually?
Post by: CrazyBart on August 17, 2013, 09:52 am
Alcohol I'm sure takes the cake...Fuck Alcohol

But im not sure that qualifies as in the majority of the world it is not illegal
Title: Re: Which illegal drug has the largest global market in terms of $ spent annually?
Post by: Cher on August 17, 2013, 12:24 pm
i would think cocaine. it permeates all levels of society, whereas heroin is limited to a smaller percentage who generally end up as useless members of society. cocaine sales also cover crack cocaine too.
so i would think cocaine. it powers the economies of a whole continent.

to quote chapo guzman :

"I couldn't have gotten so stinking rich without George Bush, George Bush Jr., Ronald Reagan, even El Presidente Obama, none of them have the cajones to stand up to all the big money that wants to keep this stuff illegal. From the bottom of my heart, I want to say, Gracias amigos, I owe my whole empire to you."

 ::)
Title: Re: Which illegal drug has the largest global market in terms of $ spent annually?
Post by: Cher on August 17, 2013, 07:41 pm
i would think cocaine. it permeates all levels of society, whereas heroin is limited to a smaller percentage who generally end up as useless members of society. cocaine sales also cover crack cocaine too.
so i would think cocaine. it powers the economies of a whole continent.

to quote chapo guzman :

"I couldn't have gotten so stinking rich without George Bush, George Bush Jr., Ronald Reagan, even El Presidente Obama, none of them have the cajones to stand up to all the big money that wants to keep this stuff illegal. From the bottom of my heart, I want to say, Gracias amigos, I owe my whole empire to you."

 ::)

Molly has a much higher market share than coke nowadays.

what do you base this on??

most lawyers, doctors, sports people, celebraties, politicians, priests etc... ain't rolling balls every friday, they're sniffing lines of peruvian...
Title: Re: Which illegal drug has the largest global market in terms of $ spent annually?
Post by: Cher on August 17, 2013, 07:43 pm
oh and of course, cops :D
Title: Re: Which illegal drug has the largest global market in terms of $ spent annually?
Post by: Cher on August 17, 2013, 08:11 pm
thing is, with coke versus molly, that coke is a more-ish substance, highly addictive etc. molly isn't really, you can't roll too many times without serious side effects. with coke, you can just keep going. i suppose that's half it's appeal.
Title: Re: Which illegal drug has the largest global market in terms of $ spent annually?
Post by: Cher on August 19, 2013, 08:25 am
no argument, of course!

its a curious topic, i would love to know the actual turnover of all the various substances... but because of the illegality, we'll probably never know.
Title: Re: Which illegal drug has the largest global market in terms of $ spent annually?
Post by: GGGreenbud on August 19, 2013, 09:54 pm
  I'm pretty sure if you lump amphetamines and cathinones together, just the stimulant forms, not the psychedelic ones, the market is bigger than cocaine, because there are only maybe 1.5 billion people in the world who can afford cocaine, only about 100 million of which choose to do so, where amphetamine use in Asia, the middle East and Africa would be more than 200 million users.  This could be changing as more markets see cocaine being a viable alternative with a rise in standards of living.  These are from textbooks I have read, and UN reports, so it could be less.  Cannabis is a low-value high-use drug as well, extremely under-reported, maybe 700 million to 1 billion users(the book says 150mil) it could surpass amps and coke, although I suspect the amphetamine market is being splintered by the RC trade, so its apples and oranges.  Opiates, having so many legal channels, are relatively low-value, as the entire world's heroin market is only a few thousand metric tonnes, and production can be decentralized.
Title: Re: Which illegal drug has the largest global market in terms of $ spent annually?
Post by: Cher on August 19, 2013, 11:21 pm
yeah but bear in mind, of the potential 100 million western users, they're paying upwards of $60-100 a gram for, very often, highly adulterated cocaine. this is probably 50x more than an asian amphetamine user would pay for a gram of some locally produced substance.
the market cap is the case in point here, overall actual fiat $ turnover per annum.
Title: Re: Which illegal drug has the largest global market in terms of $ spent annually?
Post by: new dreams on August 20, 2013, 04:53 am
I don't molly out does coke these days. I'm sure in certain areas but on a global scale I feel it pales in comparison to coke