Illegal drug trade
The unlawful production, distribution, and sale of controlled psychoactive substances. It spans local retail markets and international supply chains.
Drug trafficking: The organized transport and distribution of controlled substances in violation of law. It connects production sites, transit routes, wholesalers, and local markets.
Drug prohibition: The legal prohibition of specified drugs and activities involving their production, distribution, or use. Prohibition defines which transactions make the trade illegal.
Opium Wars: Two nineteenth-century conflicts between China and Britain, followed by France, over trade and diplomatic relations. They show how state power and commercial interests shaped the history of narcotics trade.
Legal drug market: The regulated production and sale of medicines and other legally controlled psychoactive substances. It contrasts illicit supply with production and distribution authorized by law.
Drug cartel: A criminal organization that coordinates or controls parts of an illicit drug market. Some groups use centralized control to manage production, routes, and wholesale sales.
War on drugs: A broad term for government campaigns to suppress drug production, trafficking, and use through enforcement and policy. Enforcement campaigns have shaped the trade's risks, routes, and organization.
Harrison Narcotics Tax Act: A 1914 United States law regulating opiates and coca products through taxation and registration. It helped establish federal controls that pushed some transactions into illicit markets.
Pharmaceutical industry: The sector that develops, manufactures, and markets medicines under regulatory oversight. Licensed manufacturing follows quality and distribution rules absent from illegal supply.
Money laundering: The concealment of criminal proceeds by making them appear to come from legitimate sources. It helps convert drug-sale proceeds into assets that can be spent or invested.
Drug-related violence: Violence connected to drug markets, enforcement, or disputes over production and distribution. Competition and coercion can accompany efforts to control illicit supply.