Traffic and illegal production of drugs in rural America.

This chapter provides an overview of nationwide trends in the illegal traffic of methamphetamine, methcathinone, cannabis, and crack cocaine. Methamphetamine and methcathinone, both powerful stimulants, are manufactured in clandestine laboratories located primarily in the western and midwestern United States, respectively. Marijuana is grown both outdoors, in small, widely scattered plots, and indoors, with the aid of sophisticated hydroponic equipment (two additional controlled substances derived from the cannabis plant— hashish and hashish oil—are in limited demand in the United States and are not produced domestically to any significant degree). Crack is cocaine base that is converted from cocaine powder using a cheap, safe, and efficient conversion process. All of these drugs are produced, distributed, and consumed domestically, often in remote rural locations across the country (although the cocaine available in the United States is imported from South America, virtually all crack is converted locally from cocaine powder; also, even though Mexican marijuana commands a large portion of the U.S. market, the domestic production of high potency (sinsemilla) marijuana has been increasing).