Least capitalized on drug markets

Lately I've been thinking about the drug situation in Australia and it seems the VAST majority of drug use is made up of cannabis, ecstasy and methamphetamine (generally in its most impure form A.K.A 'speed') with very limited use of pretty much all other illicit substances.

What I have been thinking about is WHY this is the case. Why is it that drugs like ketamine, LSD, crack cocaine etc. are so underused when compared to the 3 mentioned 'mainstream' illicit drugs even though the less used ones aren't neccessarily worse for the body or mind? Edit- Availability discussions are not allowed

Finally, what drug market do you think has been the least capitalized on in a sense of what drug do you think could be up there with the more common ones if it was more available or marketed well? why? could posters please include their location?

My answer would have to be cocaine as the least capitalized on drug market. Cocaine because it definately has a glamour associated with it that can't quite be said about any other drug imho. Because of this it would take off with all the people who take drugs in an effort to be cool and be huge in the club scene if higher quality coke were available at a slightly more affordable price. I personally think cocaine *could* become as socially acceptable as it is in the UK if some smart kingpins get to work.

Anyway, thanks to anyone who read this long ass post and even more to anyone who takes the time to reply, peace.

Mods, to clarify, I felt this topic belonged in ADD because obviously drug markets are subjective to location and I am interested in the answer to this question specifically to Australia and its regions. Furthermore, this is not an availability discussion as I am not only asking about how available they are they also have to have potenital to be introduced mainstream (mainstream refrring to being in say top few illicit drugs used, not mainstream society.).

Edit- lil angel15

We are an island. Its hard smuggeling drugs in.

Cocaine is definitely popular here, maybe just not so much in the same circles as the ones that distribute meth/ecstacy. You also forgot heroin, opiates in general and other prescription drugs. LSD is huge, look at how many pages are in the LSD discussion thread.

In regards to the reasons why certain drugs are more popular than others, I think there are many causes. The effects, why people are using it, and how the drug is perceived in the population would be the main factors. Price and availability would also be a factor, as would peoples awareness of the existence of the drug.

static_mind said:

We are an island. Its hard smuggeling drugs in.

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An insland with a huuuuuuge coast line.

It's true what static mind said, "we are an island."

I also think that LSD is up their with mainstream drug use cocaine would be up their as well but not as high I don't think.

More of the less mainstream drugs I think would be DMT, PCP, 2c-x compounds all the weird ones. Most of the other drugs are pretty mainstream you just have to have the right hook ups or know the right circle of friends.

Also in places like America and Europe and stuff, things are made over their in large clandestine labs and it's all pretty connected not much water to cross a lot more land to have to cover to detect everything in forth means easier to smuggle drugs. Look at the prices of somethings over their to compared to here and the quality is usually better.

I think the reason coke is so underused is that its more expensive than other places, and lacks the quality of other places. If they lowered the price abit, and stoped being so greedy and cutting it so much, i recon it would make a huge comeback and they would end up making more money due to the increased demand, alas, coke goes through so many hands i recon to get to aus that it'll never be as pure as other places. Altho i do know of rly good coke goin round (i think 70-80%?), but at pretty ridiculous prices.

Most other drugs cant really be capitalised on more because they cannot be taken in most situations, like, some ppl may like doing lsd at clubs, but most wouldnt. You can easily take e n go rampaging the city etc, or go chill at a mates, or do a wide range of things, with lsd etc, you can be pretty restricted on what you can do on it.

RC's cant be because they are not well known enough and most people would either fear them or not take them because they are unknown, altho this is changing with 2cb with it becoming know, like i think its the blue v's which are 2cb (according to pill reports), and i know some ppl that rly like em n want more.

and DMT just scares the SHIT out of most ppl after you tell them what youve experienced on it

Flinch said:

.... Altho i do know of rly good coke goin round (i think 70-80%?), but at pretty ridiculous prices...

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{*cough*} bullshit {*cough*}

coke in australia is expensive because the demand is high and the supply is limited......the law of supply & demand!

i think it's also a matter or social acceptance. i can't speak for anyone but young people in my area, but i know that the use of LSD, ecstasy and pot are much more socially acceptable than say, heroin or coke. in the group of people i know, you can be a fun girl if you do acid, ekkies, or smoke pot with friends, but you're a druggo or too hard into drugs if you touch the other stuff.

that's just my opinion anyway. and for us, its much easier to get hold of some things, cause everyone knows here to get them, but its harder to find a supplier for anything else, so theres a 'why bother?' mentality..

drug_mentor said:

Also why are pharms so much less available on the black market than in say America where they are prevalent?

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Availability discussions are not allowed here, im surprised this thread hasnt been closed. But since it hasn't, here's my 2 cents. Pharms are definately available on the black market here. Keep in mind the black market does include dodgy practitioners who are happy to hand out scripts often in clear contradiction to the PBS. Not only that, people do buy, sell and trade pharms. Maybe not as much as in America, but still quite a bit.

from what ive seen from working in the field for a while the effect that non problematic drug users seek is different to that of the problematic drug user,
Most people who used substances use them recreationally, and have lives built around the rest of life rather than one built around substances.

i believe that the mainstream used substances are mainstream because a few main reasons-

functionality -the effects that they produce and the social desirability of using said substance & to a degree economics

people take substances for desired effect and that effect usually has to not have a larger cost than that of the high that it produces..... like a night on pills with a few days of feeling shitty and less functional afterward may be worth the cost of using it.

Socail desirability is how accepted or potentially acceptable status that a substance could attain in the public at large, each substance has a culture bound definition. eg peyote and the american indians, pituri and the indigenous australians, Khat and coca to other tribal populatiuons.

look at heroin - it has a huge culture bound story of stigma as a dirty drug that attracts bad people or turns people bad (junkie criminal ect) which has been constructred mainly around the IV use.

MDMA like substances took off in the 90's because the functional effect was good, the social desirability was good and once these two conditions were met there was a place for developing a market fot the substance.

for a drug to have a great run at the general population it i think it must meet these three criteria or be legally available but not nessasarily so.

i would have put my money on that natural plants would have become popular and with the recent scheduling and further rescheduling of plants that contain psychoactive substances within them- i think the government had that idea too......

bloody plant police................

it depends on how & where it used - also availabilty. Iv use is looked down upon as with the smoking of methamphetamine - i put this down to both being difficult to consume while out (the same could be said with ketamine & other hallucionogenic drugs). Basically club drugs have become more socially acceptable cos they are taken in a social setting Not sure about coke hard to fine decent stuff in Aus but would put that in the same category as ecstasy & speed

almost all powered drugs in oz are close to same price..this is talking street pirce...no good connection

i think the price has just been fixed so nearly every powered drugs goes roughly for that price.

i think dealers know they can sell it for that so they will.

we are a footstep from asia.
Herion, speed/meth, e are produced in masses their, as well as the chemicals to produce it.

the prices in australia are bullshit.

as i said i think the prices have just been fixed (iwont mention price but u all know the rough price).

People will buy it for that much so dealers will sell it for that much.

i think its a joke when u see other western countries drug prices.

i wont mention the prices but in some cases oz is a 200% mark up for certain chems.

One good thing about aus is the laws. maybe thats the price we pay. U get busted with 10 pills in the states ur life s fucked. here u will get a slap on the wrist and some meetings.

filenet said:

{*cough*} bullshit {*cough*}

coke in australia is expensive because the demand is high and the supply is limited......the law of supply & demand!

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yeh, LOL. Doesn't everyone say that?! "it's almost pure"

I would say psychedelics would be the type of drugs that are the least capitalized on. Not to say that the same laws of supply and demand and profit don't apply to them, unfourtunately...

En_warp said:

One good thing about aus is the laws. maybe thats the price we pay. U get busted with 10 pills in the states ur life s fucked. here u will get a slap on the wrist and some meetings.

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thats a really good point sometimes we miss the good things about this country, the laws are not yet as punitive as america or some other asian countries.......

mind you when china starts to take the position of america and tries its hand at political and economic influence to change things here ..........now that should be interesting to watch ???

I'm always dismayed to hear about the situation in some other countries - people arrested over a joint in America, people sent to jail for one poppy seed in the middle east, or people executed over pot in certain Asian countries, to name a few. In this sense, we've certainly got it much better in this country.

But at the same time, we're still lagging behind certain other countries in terms of our policies surrounding drugs. We don't allow medicinal cannabis, we're not experimenting with MDMA for use in therapy, we certainly don't have legal pill testing facilities and we don't prescribe heroin to those addicted to it. On the plus side at least we have decent needle exchange programs.

In regards to the 10 pills, while I have no doubt that you'd receive far worse punishment in America, there is some discrepancy between the individual states here for that amount. A few eastern states may consider that amount as personal use, while in other states, 3 heavy pills could net you a criminal charge as a dealer.

With so few willing to speak out publicly against the discrimination of drug users, I fear things will only get worse before they get better. During the 80's and 90's it seems as though there was some real progress for a fairer approach to drug policy. Now in recent times we've taken three steps backwards by decreasing personal possession amounts, increasing possession charges, banning pill testing groups, increasing charges for manufacture and distribution, banning paraphernalia, banning numerous ethnobotanical products (Salvia D, khat, kava, to name a few) and introducing saliva tests designed to identify drug users even after the main effects have worn off.

I wonder what further rights are going to be removed from us, and I fear how much worse the situation could potentially become.

Flinch said:

I think the reason coke is so underused is that its more expensive than other places, and lacks the quality of other places. If they lowered the price abit, and stoped being so greedy and cutting it so much, i recon it would make a huge comeback and they would end up making more money due to the increased demand, alas, coke goes through so many hands i recon to get to aus that it'll never be as pure as other places. Altho i do know of rly good coke goin round (i think 70-80%?), but at pretty ridiculous prices.

Most other drugs cant really be capitalised on more because they cannot be taken in most situations, like, some ppl may like doing lsd at clubs, but most wouldnt. You can easily take e n go rampaging the city etc, or go chill at a mates, or do a wide range of things, with lsd etc, you can be pretty restricted on what you can do on it.

RC's cant be because they are not well known enough and most people would either fear them or not take them because they are unknown, altho this is changing with 2cb with it becoming know, like i think its the blue v's which are 2cb (according to pill reports), and i know some ppl that rly like em n want more.

and DMT just scares the SHIT out of most ppl after you tell them what youve experienced on it

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U'll be lucky to have 10-20% coke. It goes through so many hands before it gets to u unless u have really good connections. Ive had good coke before in europe but i dont think it was that pure. The people who distrubute it cuts it with all sorts of stuff then presses it into a big block with a logo on it and then sells it by bulk and they usually think its pure stuff that they are buying. Then all the other people cut it. Its sad and thats how they make there money.

Oh and i also think that the prices here are unbeleivable compared to Europe. I mean for a pinger u can buy 10 hamburgers here in au?? Over in europe u can buy bout 2 hamburgers for a price of a pill.

Crack has never taken off in Australia, despite it's popularity in the US and UK. I know some people who freebase or bicarb crack their coke, but i don't think theres much selling of it. I hope with the price drop for cocaine in recent years in oz doesn't lead to crack heads. Messy.

Quite simply:

E/Speed/Marijuana - Cheap, congruent with today's 18-25 culture/music.

Heroin - There will always be junkies.

LSD - very limited, propaganda has won and everyone thinks they will die or screw their brains if they take it or simply are scared of the supposed intensity.

2cb/RCs - still very limited but increasing along the lines of the massive ecstacy boom.

Cocaine - way too expensive for the average purse.

So as someone said before: macroeconomics/willingness to pay and hence availability (supply lowering the price and so increasing demand and this phenomenon feeding upon itself and entering 'mainstream'), and then ofcourse the purely demand side or what was called 'social desireability'.

And then there are the outliers which are the benzos and opiates which via their addictive properties self-perpetuate demand no matter what and even though they are primarily shunned by society.

What is the most under-capitalised drug in Australia?

Answer: Your Mum.

Ketamine = largely unpleasant experience.

Benzos = popularish but with limited recreational value.

Cocaine = has to be imported.

Herion = unfashionable.

LSD = hugely popular within its niche market, but highly inappropraite for most recreational/social scenarios, not very proffitable to sell.

Mushrooms = popular but seasonal and regionally contingent.

2c-x = just the expected lag behind other parts of the world.

I have recently heard about people now taking DMT with MAOIs to lengthen the effects. I'm hoping that's not capitalised on. I think straight raw Opium could be pushed with success.