Documentary style show that explores in depth how drugs in modern day society are sold, processed, and how police are cracking down on it.
Genre: Documentary, Crime
Cast:Mike Secher , Alex Cameron Dimez , Derrick Hesselein , Huey Morgan , Lilith Astaroth , Chris Crayzie
A dealer makes a drop at a Hollywood red carpet event; a family hustles paste through a Peruvian forest; a US Customs stealth plane tracks an aircraft landing on a Guatemalan beach; a Border Patrol Agent makes his way through a tiny tunnel under the US-Mexican border as oxygen levels drop. At every step the price goes up, and the risks grow greater. Drugs Inc. reveals the international supply chain of a drug more valuable than gold: cocaine.
In Montana's wilderness, man poses the greatest threat to drug smugglers crossing the Canadian/American border. Long winters, boredom and isolation, fuel addicts' urgency for drugs.
A fireside chat takes place for a group in Oakland while tripping on ecstasy.A gay clubber in San Francisco.A San Diego dealer.A Cambodian conservationist battles denudation of sassafras oil-producing trees.A cook/trafficker in Amsterdam.Border officers in Vancouver, Canada search shipping containers and air parcels.A dealer in Southern California used to make $20,000 weekly.A psychotherapy patient heads to a secret west coast location to use E therapeutically.A Miami paramedic deals with someone having a bad trip at a music festival.
A center in the Amazon jungle in Peru supplies ayahuasca to tourists seeking healing.A University of San Francisco expert weighs in. A San Francisco undercover narcotics agent, who plies the LSD triangle between Santa Cruz, Berkeley & Haight-Ashbury, suffers brain damage after inadvertent exposure to a high dosage.A New York heroin user turns to ibogaine to kick his habit, and now treats others who want to quit their addiction in Canada (where it's legal).A Texan, suffering from cluster headaches, uses psilocybin (magic mushrooms).A LSD therapist in Switzerland helps a cancer patient overcome her fear of death.
The gambling mecca Sin City plays host to 40 million tourists a year. In storm drains beneath the Las Vegas strip, homeless addicts get high on crack in underground shanties, while in half-built suburbs, police battle marijuana gangs for control of the city's slump-hit homes.
Alaska has a dark secret : it has one of the biggest drug problems in America. We'll get a firsthand look at the effects of heroin and the withdrawal symptoms involved in using the drug.
In Hawaii, which has one of the highest rates of crystal meth users in the nation, National Geographic Channel cameras follow along on a raid to a drug trafficker's house to discover a woman who continues to deal crystal meth while her husband is in jail.
New York City is in the grip of a heroin epidemic, as a new generation of middle-class suburbanite dealers hooked on prescription pills switch to heroin, and venture down the Long Island Expressway Â- dubbed the Heroin Highway into urban Brooklyn and Queens to get their fix.
The devastating consequences of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana resulted in a wave of small-scale drug dealers taking over the streets of New Orleans. As a means of coping with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatized locals have turned to cocaine.
Mexican and Canadian drug gangs compete for terrain in Montana. Officers patrol the region hoping to slow them down.
Los Angeles is one of the biggest drug hubs in the United States. Prescription pharmaceuticals, heroin and cocaine are all in abundant supply.
The local drug scene casts a dark shadow on the sunny lifestyle of Puerto Rico, a place where addicts roam the streets in search of their next fix. For Dr. Panelli, treating abusers for jungle rot, a ghastly condition that comes with using injected drugs, can be an overwhelming task.
The most dangerous city in the USA, Detroit, is a perfect mark for today's growing drug industry. Dealers are learning cater to inner city clientele by selling smaller amounts of hard drugs like heroin and cocaine for single-digit prices.
Gangs in the Dominican Republic have become key players in the transhipment of cocaine. With unprecedented access to a cartel boss' network of traffickers, mules, and dealers, and the customs officers dedicated to stopping them, an entity known as New York's 'Dominican cocaine connection' exposes every level of the DR supply chain to America, giving us rare access to the ruthless, secretive, and highly organized Dominican drug underworld.
San Francisco, the epicenter of The 60s Psychedelic Revolution-- is notorious for drugs. But in the new millennium, the city, especially the gay community, is struggling to recover from a meth epidemic. The enabler of this situation is the Asian Cartel, who has been poisoning San Francisco with high quality meth for almost 25 years-- but the Mexican Cartels are intent on taking over. Nat Geo goes inside one of the worst drug ghettos in America--the heart of the drug trade.
Kingston is in the hands of highly organized and warring drug gangs. They manage drug trafficking and distribution at all levels. With the patronage of politicians, they fight hard to protect their turf in a city where poverty and guns drive the drug trade.
Chicago, the biggest open-air crack and heroin market in America is at saturation point. The result: record levels of overdoses and homicides, as gangs fight over drug turf.
Houston's drug hub is the 'Bloody Nickel' - the Fifth Ward. Five square miles of 24/7 drug and party action. Gangs work across the ethnic divide to keep the drugs flowing; while cops and Cartels vie with each other for control.
Denver's legalization of marijuana may be the downfall of city's gang-banger dealers.
Miami - once America's cocaine capital; but no more. The War on Drugs has hit home. Today dealers and users play cat and mouse with the cops and live in dread of the Feds. And a new look drug scene has gone underground.
In Kensington north Philadelphia, heroin, crack cocaine and PCP are dealt from a hundred different corners. Kensington is a giant drug drive thru. But for the addicts and dealers it's a deadly trap that threatens to drive them literally insane.
Since the days of Kurt Cobain and grunge music, Seattle has been nicknamed Junkietown. The city's liberal laws and high demand for drugs is attracting gangsters and dealers looking to get rich. From the competitive crack business in Belltown to fashionable Molly users on the electronic dance music scene, National Geographic explores the highs and lows of Seattle's drug business.
Phoenix, Ariz., is the wholesale drug capital of America, under the control of one of Mexico's most powerful and ruthless drug organizations Â-- the Sinaloa Cartel. Almost 200 miles north of the Mexican border, the city has become the major stopping off point for the large-scale distribution and transshipment of marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine up from Mexico and out to the rest of the country.
Music and drugs go hand in hand in Nashville. For musicians who don't make it, drugs are the easiest way to make a living. National Geographic talks to a user and freelance cook who makes methamphetamine at home to cover his costs and get high. Then, learn how the 19th Judicial District Drug Task Force is faced with cleaning up after meth cooks' Â- operations that are both extremely dangerous and prohibitively expensive.
Salt Lake City is one of the safest cities in the U.S. behind its idyllic veneer, it's in the grips of a drug epidemic.
After being rocked by a corruption scandal and a budget deficit in the range of $58,000,000, the city's police department's staffing and morale are in bad shape. National Geographic follows an elite team of detectives who are trying to establish some control over the free for all drug market. Using their access to the dealers, users, and gang members at the heart of the problem, the National Geographic Channel gives us a inside look at the drug infested city and those who fight to clean it up.
Washington, DC was once "Crack City" and THE Murder Capitol of the US. But after 9/11, a massive hike in police presence made drugs scarce. Those that did reach the streets were of poor quality. Now, in parts of southeast DC, PCP is causing havoc.
Portland, the homeless mecca of US youth, attracts people who take advantage of the city's generous social services. These are the customers that fund the deadliest drug market in the US, based on Mexican heroin that is leaving death in its wake.
In Memphis, addicts are switching to heroin and dealers, flush with cash, are attracting deadly stick-up crews. Cops find themselves confronted by paranoid and trigger-happy dealers as they try to stop a heroin epidemic from engulfing the city.
Minneapolis and Saint Paul are home to some of the purest heroin in the US and police are turning to informants to find the dealers. With a unique insight into the life of a mobile heroin dealer and the cop on his tail, we follow the secret hunt.
For many, Atlanta's night life is fuelled by drugs and one of the hottest is 'Molly'. From raves to AK47-toting dealers, Molly is all over the city. In the hands of the new generation of drug slingers, Molly is changing into a deadly new threat.
Buyers are so desperate for quality drugs, they travel to Dallas from Chicago and Atlanta, giving local dealers the chance to make big money. Competition for a piece of the trade in Dallas is fierce and, for players, the drug game is a dangerous one.
Baltimore has one of the biggest heroin problems in the world. The area of Pennsylvania Ave. alone takes $10 million a year from heroin sales. The booming business is expanding outwards to the suburbs to meet the demand of a growing new drug market.
With unprecedented access to the Boston's dealers, users, and law enforcement, this revealing program shows how shadowy Dominican drug organizations are becoming more powerful and explores their relationship with dealers who act as their sales force.
When heroin users across America began turning up at ERs with decaying skin and grotesque sores on arms and legs, doctors got worried. The symptoms looked like Krokodil - a home-cooked, super-strong opiate. It's stronger than heroin and more addictive. The average life expectancy for addicts: less than 2 years. National Geographic journeys to Georgia, Armenia and the Ukraine to reveal the true horror of this home-made drug.
With more than 4 million regular users in the United States alone, cocaine has become worth more than gold. Join Nat Geo Channel as we go inside one of the largest markets in the country, Los Angeles, Calif.
Industrial-style superlabs give Mexican suppliers command of the US crystal meth trade where ruthless hit men and Cartel enforcers trap dealers and users alike in a web of terror.
Stick-up crews; interstate traffickers; street corner slingers: the hallmarks of the hardcore drug trade now apply to a 'soft' drug: marijuana. In California, Chico and Red rob pharmacies of 'sour diesel' - a potent strain developed for medical use. The ultimate destination for this 'river of sour' is New York City where the price is high: $4,000 a pound. Now sour diesel is getting an upgrade, thanks to some dangerous chemistry.
In San Francisco, a new wave of dealers is finding a solution to the growing MDMA drought: synthetic Molly. Across San Francisco Bay in Oakland, synthetic Molly has replaced Crack as the drug of choice. Prostitutes take it to get through their working day. The clubbers' 'love drug' has now morphed into something much uglier - a sex drug.
The countdown to New Year's Eve in New York City has begun. With the biggest party of the year rapidly approaching, National Geographic Channel gets an inside view of drug gangs as they go into overdrive to capitalize on the enormous demand.
The heroin supply line begins with poppy fields and a game of cat and mouse between farmers and the Mexican Army. The game shifts to Arizona's Sonora desert where mules move product by pickup or on foot while sheriff's helicopters try to hunt them down. In the suburbs of America, DEA Agents run undercover stings in mall parking lots, where the price of getting discovered is paid in lead.
For the drug dealers of New Orleans Mardi Gras is their big chance to cash in on the tourist dollar, but dealers in fake drugs threaten to ruin the party for everyone.
For one month each year on the sun-drenched beaches of Florida, thrill-seeking college students and drug dealers collide with the long, tanned arm of the law to create a perfect storm of drug fueled mayhem.
Chicago is one of America's most dangerous cities, and for one weekend - the 4th of July - the violence goes into overdrive. On the streets, a disparate group of drug dealers ply their trade. Each has their own agenda; their own way of making money from the July 4th partygoers, or taking advantage of the chaotic firework celebrations to rob their rivals. On "Sindependence" Day, everyone needs a strategy to survive.
The culture of cocaine is deeply entrenched on Wall Street, and some will pay more than it's worth for the purest quality available. Dealers must compete to deliver first and close the sale while keeping up with changing Wall Street appetites. A new generation of brokers and traders are turning to a drug that keeps them performing at work. And police are coming down on a drug that they regard as Wall Street's dirty little secret.
Hip-hop, a billion-dollar industry, plays up to its links with another billion-dollar industry: drugs. In Oakland CA, wannabe rappers use money from dealing cocaine to pay for studio time. Hip-hop duo, the Hoodstarz, try to avoid the cops after narrowly avoiding a drug bust. In Vegas, a hip-hop promoter uses drug money to pay rappers. And prisoners sell drugs inside to pay producers to mix their songs on the outside, in the hope of making it big.
Drugs, Inc. delves inside the Los Angeles porn industry. The porn industry and drugs have a reputation for going hand in hand. But after HIV scares, porn sets are under more scrutiny than ever, and it's changing the way drugs on set are tolerated. This show features Ron Jeremy, Kacey Jordan (who survived Charlie Sheen's meltdown), meth addict Amanda Blow, and the former "world's hottest porn star" Brittni Ruiz.
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Two jails: one in California, the other in New Jersey. Both states have among the toughest drug policies in the United States. But still drugs find their way in. In Cali, crystal meth is the jail drug du jour, while in Jersey a deadlier drug rules: heroin. Two different drugs, two different kingpins, two different jails. It's officers versus inmates in a battle for ultimate control.
Gangs in the Dominican Republic have become key players in the transhipment of cocaine. With unprecedented access to a cartel boss' network of traffickers, mules, and dealers, and the customs officers dedicated to stopping them, an entity known as New York's 'Dominican cocaine connection' exposes every level of the DR supply chain to America, giving us rare access to the ruthless, secretive, and highly organized Dominican drug underworld.
Halloween in Detroit. Two tales of one city. Around the notorious 8 Mile Road, the street slingers are stocking up and looking for new opportunities downtown. In the suburbs, middle class dealers take party drugs into raves. Both groups have to dodge the Border Patrol and the suburban cops. For a frantic forty-eight hours over 'devil's night,' drugs, guns, money, busts, and bodies flood Detroit.
'Ghost' is a kingpin who moves huge amounts of heroin into Pittsburgh, PA. But the police are making it harder and now Ghost has competition from wannabe hustlers ready to muscle in on the market. There is a big market of pill heads out of town and Ghost thinks they are ripe for exploitation. But he hasn't figured in the most aggressive narcotics cops in PA: The Attorney General's Drug Task Force. And they are waiting for him.
There is a world where the norm is living from hit to hit. The dark side of drug use rears its ugly head when those who have fallen into its deadly grip can no longer see the reality of their problems. Addiction holds them in its clutches and the only life they know is feeding the hunger within. Like zombies, The Living Dead battle to get well by any means necessary.
Grim Reaper sheds light on the dark side of the drug trade. From the hit man, to the DEA, to the dealers and users, Drugs, Inc. examines the business of drugs when lives are lost.
J-Stax deals Mexican cocaine to the programmers of Silicon Valley. A cop crackdown is making life difficult and driving his clients to a locally-produced alternative: meth. But a meth habit is hard to hide. Get caught and you may end up like Michael: jobless, homeless and living in a shanty called the Jungle.
Heroin use on Staten Island is reaching epic proportions as young users leave prescription pills for dope. Meet the dealers, police officers and users overcome by the opiate.
Follow the rise in demand for narcotics during Mardi Gras, Spring Break, Independence Day, and New Year's Eve, through the eyes of dealers, law enforcement and users.
For the first time ever, 'Drugs, Inc' heads to Ghana and Nigeria to follow the supply of cocaine from Peru on a new trafficking route to Europe. West Africa is one of the world's most unstable regions. Its porous borders allow free movement of goods and people - making the region a drug trafficker's dream. South American suppliers send over 50 tons of cocaine to West Africa every year. But the law busts less than 1%.
Drug organizations capitalize on the freedom of those in their employ. It's law enforcement's job to take these drug dealers off the street. Unfortunately, some inmates find new life in the drug game while in prison. The cartels' reach stretches through steel and concrete and grabs the hopes and dreams of those continuing their Business Behind Bars.
For the first time ever, Drugs Inc. heads to Australia. With the price of drugs so high, Australians have turned to a cheap and dangerous stimulant, crystal meth - known locally as ice. Use of the drug has reached epidemic proportions, feeding the power of the biker gangs that control the trade. Public outcry is forcing the authorities to act, but as the 'bikies' fall some Triads are stepping in to fill the vacuum.
In Austin, Texas, thousands of artists and over a million fans flock to the "live music capital of the world" every year, and where there's live music and festivals, drugs are never far away. With so many potential customers, competition among sellers is fierce. The Sinaloa cartel uses a network of traffickers and runners to smuggle huge shipments of ice into Texas from Mexico, but the A.T.F. and Border Patrol are trying to cut it off.
Thanks to recently relaxed possession laws in Massachusetts, student dealers like Anubis, Kane, and Stiffler are ramping up their supplies. To fund their own studies, they are selling an array of narcotics to the booming student population in Boston. But with 'national weed day' around the corner, the police are also on the look-out.
Thailand is in the grip of an addiction epidemic that is spinning out of control, as a candy-colored meth pill called yaba overtakes every other drug used in the country. Yaba in Thai means 'crazy medicine,' and heavy use of the pill can trigger psychosis. The death penalty hangs over every dealer, but that does not seem to deter them. Dealers find many ways to dodge the cops and customs authorities to keep the profits rolling in.
Vancouver has been voted one of the best places to live in North America, but it has a darker side. In a wealthy suburb, two gangs are fighting each other for control of the local cocaine trade. Gang enforcement cops swarm the streets nightly to hunt down shooting suspects and stem the escalating tide of violence. But heavy police presence is pushing dealers to relocate downtown, and customers are gravitating towards them.
From the Silicon Valley to international cities across the globe, dealers balance the need to hold enough merchandise to make a profit with keeping the law at bay. But with the overwhelming demand for drugs, it's not just the cops chasing down dealers - it's the users too. Chasing the High sheds light on this perfect storm of supply and demand at the heart of a business we call Drugs, Inc.
