Heroin Industry's Future Looks Rosy Under Trump!

[McCamy Taylor]

One industry is especially enthusiastic about President Select Donald Trump's plan to "Make America Great Again!"

In recent years, the heroin industry has had to deal with a glut of high quality, low priced product in the U.S. combined with unfair competition from legal pharmaceuticals---opiate pain medications prescribed by doctors. But all that is about to end. Under Trump, millions of Americans will lose their access to health care as they lose their ACA insurance. Fortunately for them, the heroin market will be there to satisfy their need for relatively cheap, effective pain relief that Congress can not take away with a stroke of the pen. And when the VA is privatized and the veterans, many of whom suffer from chronic pain and mental illness related to their military service are forced to seek care in the private sector, they will discover that there are few non VA associated doctors who are willing to treat chronic pain in those who also have mental illness. So, the veterans will become regular customers of the heroin industry. Last but not least, there are GOP plans afoot to stop Medicaid payments for opiate pain medication. Meaning that people who live in medical poverty due to debilitating chronic illness will also be forced to look to their local drug dealer for relief.

And Trump's foreign master, Vladimir Putin has big plans for Afghanistan, source of much of the world's opium. Putin is said to be courting the Taliban, who grow the poppies that keep the heroin industry going.

Afghan and American officials are increasingly worried that any deepening of ties between Russia and Taliban militants fighting to topple the government in Kabul could complicate an already precarious security situation.

Russian officials have denied they provide aid to the insurgents, who are contesting large swathes of territory and inflicting heavy casualties, and say their limited contacts are aimed at bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table.

(snip)

But a series of recent meetings they say has taken place in Moscow and Tajikistan has made Afghan intelligence and defense officials nervous about more direct support including weapons or funding.

http://www.newsweek.com/putin-russia-taliban-afghanistan-obama-trump-united-states-oil-529461

The Russia mob (that controls Putin who controls Trump) has good reason to want closer ties with the Taliban. Heroin is big business in Russia.

Russian mafia groups sit on the other side of the organizational spectrum from Yakuza. Their structure, according to Frederico Varese, a professor of criminology at the University of Oxford and an expert on international organized crime, is highly decentralized. The group is composed of 10 separate quasi-autonomous "brigades" that operate more or less independently of each other. The group does pool its resources, however, and the money is overseen by a 12-person council that "meets regularly in different parts of the world, often disguising their meetings as festive occasions," Varesi says.
It's estimated that the group claims upwards of 9,000 members, and that it's bread and butter is the drug trade and human trafficking. Russian organized crime in general is heavily involved in the heroin trade that originates in Afghanistan: it's estimated that Russia consumes about 12% of the world's heroin, while it contains just 0.5% of the world's population.

http://fortune.com/2014/09/14/biggest-organized-crime-groups-in-the-world/

With the ruble currently weak, Russians are struggling to pay for their much needed heroin. However, once Trump and Putin have raised oil prices and stabilized Russia's oil dependent economy, Russian addicts will find it easier to make their payments. And supply side does not work if the folks who buy your product can not afford it.

Across the ocean, the border wall between Mexico and the United States should allow Trump/Putin/ the Russian Mob to limit how much heroin gets across the border. This will help them control prices for their product in the U.S, which should see a huge increase in demand for the reasons I describe above.

Our new Attorney General Jeff Sessions can be counted upon to do his part. He has indicated that he wants to prosecute those who use medical marijuana in states that have made it legal. These sitting ducks (many of them are literally sitting in wheelchairs) will take up all the DEA's time, giving the heroin industry some much needed breathing space in which to grow. Plus, all those folks who have been treating their pain with legal weed will also join the ranks of potential heroin addicts.

Sessions has not shared his plans on marijuana enforcement, but if he chooses, he will be able to act decisively and quickly—more so perhaps than with any other of his top agenda items such as re-doubling efforts to combat illegal immigration and relaxing oversight of local police forces and federal civil rights laws. With little more than the stroke of his own pen, the new attorney general will be able to arrest growers, retailers and users, defying the will of more than half the nation’s voters, including those in his own state where legislators approved the use of CBD. Aggressive enforcement could cause chaos in a $6.7 billion industry that is already attracting major investment from Wall Street hedge funds and expected to hit $21.8 billion by 2020.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/12/jeff-sessions-coming-war-on-legal-marijuana-214501

Economic factors also affect people's drug use. If folks are desperate with no hope for the future they are more likely to turn to alcohol and drugs. So, take away their Social Security and Medicare. Tell them they will have to work in their grueling, dead end low wage jobs until they drop dead. Many of them will look for solace in a bottle or from a syringe.

If your heroin franchise has not been as profitable and you had hoped, don't close up shop yet. Heroin's fortunes are about to rise again as Trump makes America Great (for Drug Dealers) Again!

[Warpy]

1. Yeah, a lot of people are going to want to numb out and sleep

through at least the next four years. Gutting the ACA also means destroying all those rehab clinics advertising on TV and screaming about the "opioid epidemic." We don't really have one of those now but we will when Asshole gets in and the clinics have to shut down due to bankruptcy.

[McCamy Taylor]

2. Good point about no more drug rehab! More room for growth!