Black-Tar Heroin: A Glimpse of California Before Decriminalization

The first thing you want to do is take a look at this graphic, "Interactive: Black-Tar Heroin."

Then, the full article, "THE HEROIN ROAD: A Lethal Business Model Targets Middle America":

Immigrants from an obscure corner of Mexico are changing heroin use in many parts of America.

Farm boys from a tiny county that once depended on sugar cane have perfected an ingenious business model for selling a semi-processed form of Mexican heroin known as black tar.

Using convenient delivery by car and aggressive marketing, they have moved into cities and small towns across the United States, often creating demand for heroin where there was little or none. In many of those places, authorities report increases in overdoses and deaths.

Immigrants from Xalisco in the Pacific Coast state of Nayarit, Mexico, they have brought an audacious entrepreneurial spirit to the heroin trade. Their success stems from both their product, which is cheaper and more potent than Colombian heroin, and their business model, which places a premium on customer convenience and satisfaction.

Users need not venture into dangerous neighborhoods for their fix. Instead, they phone in their orders and drivers take the drug to them. Crew bosses sometimes call users after a delivery to check on the quality of service. They encourage users to bring in new customers, rewarding them with free heroin if they do.

In contrast to Mexico's big cartels -- violent, top-down organizations that mainly enrich a small group -- the Xalisco networks are small, decentralized businesses. Each is run by an entrepreneur whose workers may soon strike out on their own and become his competitors. They have no all-powerful leader and rarely use guns, according to narcotics investigators and imprisoned former dealers.

Leaving the wholesale business to the cartels, they have mined outsize profits from the retail trade, selling heroin a tenth of a gram at a time. Competition among the networks has reduced prices, further spreading heroin addiction.

"I call them the Xalisco boys," said Dennis Chavez, a Denver police narcotics officer who has arrested dozens of dealers from Xalisco (pronounced ha-LEES-ko) and has studied their connections to other cities. "They're nationwide."

Their acumen and energy are a major reason why Mexican heroin has become more pervasive in this country, gaining market share at a time when heroin use overall is stable or declining, according to government estimates.

The Xalisco retail strategy has "absolutely changed the user and the methods of usage," said Chris Long, a police narcotics officer in Charlotte, N.C., where competition among Xalisco dealers has cut prices from $25 to $12.50 per dose of black-tar heroin. "It's almost like Wal-Mart: 'We're going to keep our prices cheap and grow from there.' It works."

It's long, but the piece confirms my sense that should marijuana decriminalization proceed further in California, this model of the entrepreneurial Mexican heroin pusher is just a glimpse of things to come. Pay attention to the key part one more time, where it notes, "Using convenient delivery by car and aggressive marketing, they have moved into cities and small towns across the United States, often creating demand for heroin where there was little or none. In many of those places, authorities report increases in overdoses and deaths."

Then, compare that to the argument at Mary Grabar's piece, "Libertarians Need to Rethink Support for Drug Legalization":

The position on the legalization of marijuana provides the point of departure from the traditional libertarianism of Barry Goldwater. In abandoning the duty to enforce social order, today’s libertarians have made a devil’s pact with the pro-drug forces of George Soros and company.

My libertarian friends like to say, “I’m a libertarian, not a libertine.” But though many of the advocates of libertarianism lead socially conservative lives, their agendas promote libertinism — especially when it comes to legalizing drugs. They forget that the moral order they have inherited is put at even further risk as laws change to allow more destructive behavior.

The libertinism Mary rejects is precisely the soft underbelly of vulnerability that black heroin pushers of Mexico will exploit. But drug decriminalization proponents will continue to say "no one has ever died from smoking marijuana," blah, blah ...

Surging death statistics will be along shortly ...

Just keep close tabs on your kids. Some gentlemen from Xalisco are looking for them.

See also, "Black Tar Moves In, and Death Follows," and "The Good Life in Xalisco Can Mean Death in the United States."

RELATED: FrontPage Magazine, "Marijuana and Conservatism Debate."

UPDATED: David Swindle at NewsReal links with a discussion, "Stumbling Down the Slippery Slope: First Legalized Weed Then Prescription Smack?"