Where are the biggest margins in the drug trade?

[Jabberwocky]

At each stage of getting your DOC from manufacturer to you there are various people putting up capital to purchase an amount which they may then cut or not before dividing into smaller amounts for the next level down of distribution. My question is at which level do you think the most percentage profit is made? Not the absolute dollar amount, just the % return on capital investment.

Say you have a chain something like this:

Manufacturers to importers to national wholesalers to regional wholesalers to professional dealers to street dealers?

Obviously things vary by drug and country but I’m interested in what people know or think. For example in Australia street dealers of coke might cut what they get by 50% which is a pretty high return on capital invested, but I have no idea what the importer might be making in percentage terms.

 

[Joey]

Meth. Think how in like LA you can pay like $40 for a ball. I know I'm breaking the pricing rule here sorta... But I'm not telling you my price I'm making comparisons. Think how expensive that is for you @Atelier3 like 2000 or some probably at some points right?

even more... Pharmaceuticals. No explanation needed.

 

[tweakerguy]

Methamphetamine is the most profitable by far. It costs next to nothing to produce and takes almost no time at all.
Compare that to cocaine marijuana or heroin which require more land, more middle men, more workers, more supplies, and TIME.

 

[Deru]

I would think, if we're strictly looking at the point in the process with the highest percentage return on investment, it would almost certainly have to be street dealers that are able to cut their own product with a high degree of flexibility and maintain their clientele in the process.

Although something specific to methamphetamine is interesting, but does that factor in costs for manufacture, labor, procurement and for the knowledge to be able to do so successfully and sustainably?

 

[Jabberwocky]

Meth may be very cheap to manufacture in Mexico but there must be very large bribery costs to import the precursor chemicals. In the case of Asian meth the transportation costs are pretty high for the people at the top of the chain.

A recent bust found a few hundred kilos in some earth moving equipment worth several hundred thousand dollars itself. That must eat into profitability as it’s hard money up front for the importers.

I think my back-up supplier who is basically street level but well-connected makes at least a 50 % profit on every gram sale based on the cheapest price he could give me if I switched up from buying grams to buying half-ounces at a time. That’s why he hardly ever agrees to sell bulk.

 

[Gormur]

Meth is risky (and hard to make). I think marijuana profits are high in places where it's illegal. Marijuana is all about quality and people seem willing to pay just about anything. It's kind of ridiculous. I know it's hard to grow and to grow something worthwhile, but still

 

[Snafu in the Void]

That time I was about 20 years old and some highschool kid tried to sell me a gram of weed. I invited him over to my apartment. I can't remember where I met him or why I was asking weed from him.

He got to my door and I was like "come on in". He suddenly got visibly nervous. Whatever.

I invited him in, gave him the money and he gave me a very low weight baggie. I immediately got my scale out.

At this point he RUNS out the door.... I was like wtf?

Then I weigh the "1g" he sold me and it's 0.6g.... never showed his face again...

PROFIT MARGINS

 

[4meSM]

I guess it depends on the drug and on the distance between the market and the source.
The guys running coca and opium plantations must have super high margins, the seeds cost nothing and they pay people absurdly low wages to harvest the crop.
But those guys earn nothing compared to drug traffickers who move the stuff from producing regions to the main consumer markets, that's where the real money seems to be. I think their margins can be pretty high, may not always be the highest but that's how every major drug cartel has made most of their money. It's pretty much the hardest part of the operation so it obviously requires a lot of skill. I wonder how much it costs to ship a ton of drugs across the world, including bribes of course.

For instance a kg of cocaine costs around 2000-2500$ at the source and by the time it reaches North America it's easily 10x-20x the price. And according to google a kg costs around 200k in australia so that's 100x more even at the wholesale level. I suspect something similar applies to heroin.

 

[4meSM]

Gimme a sec. Will check my financial records and get back to you.

Thanks bro, once you've been in the game long enough you don't even think about those trivial things anymore. You just take a couple of politicians on free helicopter rides to your private island once in a while and maybe throw some spare change to finance their political campaigns. Life's much easier when your shipments have a diplomatic seal.

 

[Jabberwocky]

That time I was about 20 years old and some highschool kid tried to sell me a gram of weed. I invited him over to my apartment. I can't remember where I met him or why I was asking weed from him.

He got to my door and I was like "come on in". He suddenly got visibly nervous. Whatever.

I invited him in, gave him the money and he gave me a very low weight baggie. I immediately got my scale out.

At this point he RUNS out the door.... I was like wtf?

Then I weigh the "1g" he sold me and it's 0.6g.... never showed his face again...

PROFIT MARGINS

Slightly off topic, but it is my own thread. I would never insult my suppliers by trying to weigh a gram or so before paying. I’d take it on faith and weigh it at home. I reckon my longstanding suppliers would also take it on faith if I subsequently put in a claim for the shortfall. With someone I didn’t know I’d still feel kind of funny demanding to see it weighed or whipping out my own scales over a gram. I’d just never use them again if it turned out to be short. On average the unders and overs have always evened out for me and I’ve always let my suppliers know if they were over and thanked them for their generosity.

Different story when I went to buy 10 grams for the first time today. I brought scales, a Marquis reagent kit, and a pipe to totally ensure I was getting what I paid for. And this from a supplier I have reliably dealt with nearly weekly for over a year and who extends me credit on grams for a few days if I really need it. She wasn’t insulted. I think she was happy to be dealing with another professional for once. However once I paid for the 10 I offered her a below cost price amount for another 4 which she accepted, so I’m pretty sure I’m still her favourite boy.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Sorry. Just remembered. Had to shred and burn the evidence after that Chinese fiasco in Australia!

Pisses me off though. Why is it so difficult to get 1kg from source at that price (which is pretty much on the mark), put a reasonable markup on it, and sell it uncut. For damn sure you'd put everybody else out of business. Although I suppose you'd end up with the same shit i.e. you'd be getting clients, being paid by dealers, to source direct from you, and then THEY would cut the shit and the whole thing starts over again. And while this may be slightly off topic: that's the hole I see in all of this decriminalization and legalization talk that seems to be in vogue now.

One thing I'd REALLY like to know though: surely to goodness there's indeed one or two BIG and PROPER players that are here lurking or monitoring. Hell. I'd settle for a metric ton of ground up and dried Coca leaves at this point (the rest I'll take care of). But even that's impossible and not viable given the cost. Just the other way was looking. Nearly $500 USD for 1kg of the shit and 5kg produces around 25g. So not going to happen. But there already is somebody that's making a HUGE markup on just supplying dried and ground Coca leaf.

Possibly part of the problem is the long tail of the distribution machine. The big guys put the maximum number of distributors and dealers between them and the consumer to ensure a bust cannot ever implicate them because each level is to scared to rat out the level above them (most busts are low down the pipeline really.) Australian jails are full of guys busted selling from a stock level of maybe an ounce or less and almost no guys wholesaling kilos or more.

Every additional step in distribution is either another mark up or another dilution/cut. Or in Australia’s case probably both.

 

[tweakerguy]

Vice is cringeworthy nowadays but every now and then something interesting pops up

 

[cosmic charlie]

Back in the day when 4-MMC/Methylone was 2,000 for a kilo it was commonly sold as "Molly" for 50 bucks a gram or more by unscrupulous dealers. The profit margins on that were amazing as are those of many of the psychedelic RC's when you buy in bulk. But the first wave of empathogenic cathinones to hit the scene were pretty epic just not in effect but price as well when dealing directly with the labs...

 

[Jabberwocky]

Vice is cringeworthy nowadays but every now and then something interesting pops up

I get a deep thrill from every news article that states meth is not as bad as its reputation suggests. So thanks for sharing that.

 

[tweakerguy]

I get a deep thrill from every news article that states meth is not as bad as its reputation suggests. So thanks for sharing that.

Did the video show up?
The presenter gets the dates wrong within the first minute lol, but otherwise i though it was a good watch.

 

[Gormur]

The people I deal with always weigh out product in front of me

 

[4meSM]

Just found this new documentary about Burmese meth in Australia. They say a kilo costs around 4000$ in Myanmar and around 200k by the time it gets to Aus.
I love watching these dramatic drug documentaries while stoned.
For some reason they always pay a blonde women to say: iT's aN ePidEmiC!!
That right there is my favorite part.

 

[Joey]

I get a deep thrill from every news article that states meth is not as bad as its reputation suggests. So thanks for sharing that.

Smaller amounts it's generally not too toxic. Generally people go overboard though. The majority of the damage people get is really from lack of self care, then the drugs are the clincher.

 

[jhjhsdi]

I agree with everyone saying meth.
In my past experience as a drug salesman, dealing with fairly small amounts, this is the profit I would make moving a single gram at full price in UK, around 2015.
(i hope discussing profit isnt against price discussion as I'm not stating what I paid for it or how much it sold for - mods delete if so)
Weed - £3.58
Speed paste - £7.20
Mephedrone - £18
Ket - £20-30
MDMA - £33
Coke - £51.78p
Meth - £130


Such a shame there wasn't more meth heads in my area, i could have been minted

 

[Joey]

I agree with everyone saying meth.
In my past experience as a drug salesman, dealing with fairly small amounts, this is the profit I would make moving a single gram at full price in UK, around 2015.
(i hope discussing profit isnt against price discussion as I'm not stating what I paid for it or how much it sold for - mods delete if so)
Weed - £3.58
Speed paste - £7.20
Mephedrone - £18
Ket - £20-30
MDMA - £33
Coke - £51.78p
Meth - £130


Such a shame there wasn't more meth heads in my area, i could have been minted

Very detailed specific list. I wonder what your vocation is?

Edit: ah past experience sorry I tldr’d