Mexican cartels marketing heroin in St. Louis?

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As we wrote earlier this week, some have come to blame the rise in heroin production south of the border on legalized cannabis in the United States. It’s a bunk assertion, and the problem was created by an epidemic of pharmaceutical abuse… but either way, we’re left with cartels producing heroin to keep up with a growing demand in the U.S.
A Washington Post article this week reported on the rise of heroin coming into the United States and mentions Mexican drug traffickers’ “shrewd marketing strategy”: targeting areas where prescription-drug abuse is high, including St. Louis.


According to the story, drug cartels aren’t making as much money on marijuana, mainly because laws are changing in the U.S., and the need for Mexican weed isn’t as high as it once was. The cartels are still making money off of cocaine and human trafficking, but cartel leaders have mansions and tigers to pay for, so heroin is coming into the U.S. at a greater pace.
But the cartels aren’t just picking areas of the U.S. at random. Rather, they’ve decided to cut in on the pharmaceutical companies’ action:
DEA officials say the spread is the result of a shrewd marketing strategy developed by Mexican traffickers. They have targeted areas with the worst prescription pill abuse, sending heroin pushers to “set up right outside the methadone clinics,” one DEA agent said.
And St. Louis is one of the places mentioned where the illegal drug cartels are competing with the legal drug cartels.
The Riverfront Times has more.

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