Rehabs in California

Rehabs in California

Rehabs in California

Introduction

After a decade and a half of skyrocketing drug arrests and imprisonment rates at a cost of billions of dollars, California now suffers the highest rates of drug abuse deaths in our history, and there has been no discernible impact on California crime rates is observed. This finding confirms a recent United States Department of Justice drug policy study that concluded: igher rates of arrests, stricter laws, and more aggressive sentencing policies do not deter many drug users exposed to these penalties. This leads to a revolving door scenario in which drug-involved offenders appear repeatedly before the courts. One study found 60 percent of opiate-dependent Federal parolees were reincarcerated within 6 months of release -- virtually all for narcotics-related crime -- at an incarceration cost of more than $27,000 per person, per year

Current Drug and Alcohol Addiction Situation:

Because of California's location, diverse population and unique location, the drug situation in California is complicated. The majority of drugs are smuggled from Mexico, but marijuana and methamphetamine are locally produced in large quantities. San Diego and its neighboring counties remain the major source of transfer of drugs smuggled from Mexico. The cocaine brought in via Mexico is originally from Columbia but the Mexican traffickers control the cross border smuggling. alifornia-based law enforcement agencies primarily seize Mexico black tar heroin throughout the state and Mexican brown tar heroin to a lesser extent. Mexican black tar heroin is usually smuggled into the U.S. in amounts of five pounds or less, but occasionally law enforcement seizes larger amounts. In addition, Southeast Asian, Southwest Asian, and Colombian heroin seizures periodically occur throughout the state. The increased availability of high purity heroin that can be snorted allows a new, younger population to use heroin without a syringe and needle(www.southcoastrecovery.com).

Methamphetamine is the primary drug threat in California. Mexican organizations continue to dominate the production and distribution of high-quality meth, while a secondary trafficking group operates small, unsophisticated laboratories. Clandestine laboratories can be found in any location: high density residential neighborhoods sparsely populated rural areas, remote desert locations in the southern portions of California, and the forested areas in northern California. As the supply of pseudoephedrine from Canada has diminished after successful law enforcement operations, there has been a noticeable increase in pseudoephedrine and ephedrine seized that originated from China.

Mexican trafficking organizations, working closely with Colombian suppliers, dominate the wholesale cocaine trade. However, the Mexican traffickers continue to specialize in cross-border cocaine transportation by air, land and sea. Based on consistent seizures by U.S. Customs personnel (BICE), the majority of the cocaine destined for the U.S. continues to enter the country by land conveyance through the Ports of Entry along the California/Mexico border.

Los Angeles based gangs dominate the street level distribution of crack cocaine throughout the Los Angeles and San Diego metropolitan areas. Cocaine bought by the gangs is “rocked” or converted into crack cocaine in the Los Angeles area and then sold locally or distributed to other cities ...