All language subtitles for National.Geographic.Drugs.Inc.S01E01.Cocaine.720p.HDTV.DD5.1.x264-DON_EN

Cop: Police.

Search warrant.

Narrator: Cocaine is
a global business.

From Coca farmers
in Colombia,

to trafficking
cartels in Mexico,

crack houses in Miami to
cocaine dealers in London,

the supply chain of
cocaine stretches around

the world.

For some, cocaine
is a way of life.

Chronic: It wasn't no
silver spoons for me.

It was plastic spoons and dope.

Narrator: Cocaine brings
vast wealth to a few.

Eddie: $5 million to get 1,000

kilos from San
Diego to New York.

Narrator: And
misery to millions.

Loco: The future
holds nothing for me,

death or the penitentiary.

Narrator: But they're all
a part of the $300 billion

global industry that
is, Drugs Incorporated.

Miami, Florida, is
America's cocaine capital.

Since the 1970s it's been
a point of entry for

traffickers and a large
population of dealers call

it home.

One of these dealers
goes by the street name

"Chronic."

Crack: This here what
we call crack cocaine.

I love it, for real,
because this pay the bills

right here.

I could get rid of these
4 pieces right here.

I get rid of that for
$200, you hear me.

And I only pay
$50 for this.

Yeah, that's, that's how
we get our money out here,

man, you now.

Just a way of living.

This what we call
the American way.

Narrator: Cocaine is a
powerful stimulant that

produces feelings of
intense pleasure.

It's used in two main
forms: Cocaine powder is

snorted predominantly
by the rich.

Many believe it's
non-addictive and can

enhance both
work and play.

Crack cocaine is sold
in rock form and smoked

mainly by the poor.

It delivers an intense
high and offers an escape

from the reality
of their lives,

if only for a brief while.

28 year-old Chronic was
destined to be a crack

dealer.

His mother, an addict,
abandoned him when he was

a child and he was raised
by his gangbanging,

crack dealing brother
in Miami's poorest

neighborhood.

Crack: It wasn't no
silver spoons for me.

It was plastic
spoons and dope.

I grew up in
a foster home.

So it wasn't nobody else
for me, but my brother,

my brother was like my
daddy and my mamma.

So he brought me up
in the gang basically,

he taught me just, just
a way of getting money.

Narrator: Crack cocaine
first emerges in 1984.

Up until then, cocaine,
costing $100 a gram,

is seen only as a
rich man's drug.

Crack revolutionizes
the cocaine business by

offering a cheap, yet
intensely powerful high

for only $5.

It soon sweeps through
America's inner cities.

Within a year, 5.8 million
people are addicted.

Chronic never uses
crack himself.

He just preys on the
addicts who come to him to

feed their habit.

Chronic: I like to tell
them to put the whole

thing on (bleep) because
if they put the whole

thing on there, then they
going to smoke this whole

(bleep) up and they
come right back.

They spend 40
more dollars.

That's how I like it.

Quick money.

Quick flip.

Narrator: His product is
so addictive that Chronic

sometimes has to
fight off customers.

Chronic: You've got
some crack heads, man,

that'll tell
you straight up,

they not leaving till
they get their (bleep),

you know what I mean?

I mean they sit down and
fuss with you and then,

you then have to beat
their (bleep) before they

leave your premises.

Police did catch
up with me (bleep),

I could say I smoke this
(bleep) and get off like

that.

Instead of them trying
to send me to prison,

(bleep) send me
to a drug program.

Narrator: In a good week
Chronic pulls in $4,000,

but holding onto the
cash isn't always easy.

Drug dealers are often the
target of armed robbers.

Desperate crack heads know
the people with the most

money on the streets
of Miami are the dope

dealers.

Chronic: It's so
scary out here, man.

And one day, you know, a
dude snuck up and jumped

in my brother car, and,
when my brother got back

in the car, you know, they
already had the pistol to

his head.

Told him don't move.

You just give me all your
jewelry and all your

money.

They shot him, man, and
got my brother paralyzed

right now.

And we live rough
down here, man.

This (bleep) is no
(bleep) is no joke.

Narrator: Chronic's not
looking to make a fortune.

He just wants to survive.

Chronic: If you're making
enough money to survive

out here of (bleep)
like this here,

then I'd rather
stay like this here,

'cause I feel like
it's not about,

it's not about the person
who makes the most money,

it's about the person
who lasts the longest.

Narrator: While Chronic's
business is booming in the

ghettos of Miami, on
the other side of the

Atlantic, in the UK, crack
cocaine has never really

become popular.

The British prefer powder
cocaine and use more than

any other nation
in Europe.

Adrian: Every day people
are doing it now.

It certainly the, the
choice of drug that

everyone's doing nowadays.

Narrator: In the 1990s the
demand for cocaine in the

UK skyrockets.

It's seen as a glamorous
drug that allows users to

work and play
harder and longer.

Cocaine becomes the drug
of choice for Britain's

middle class.

42 tons of cocaine are
consumed in the UK each

year.

Adrian: It's
going everywhere.

I mean especially
like you know the,

the stock market boys
and the city boys,

they all use because
they've got to perform

with their job really
hard so it keeps them all

going.

Narrator: Chronic believes
his business would suffer

if he smokes crack,
but this dealer,

known by the alias "Adrian,"

started out as a user.

Adrian: You
start doing it,

then your mates start
asking you to get them

some, and, oh, can you
get me a bit of gear,

and eventually you
go: you know what,

I might as well just buy a
big lump and sell it off

to them and that way I'll
get a bit of coke and a

bit of money for myself.

Narrator: Finding a
supplier of high quality

cocaine isn't hard,
Adrian comes from a long

line of British gangsters.

Adrian: My family are
quite well connected in

the underworld as it were,
so I just get it straight

from them.

Narrator: Adrian's cocaine
comes from the other side

of the world.

From Colombia the cartels
ship their product to

depots in Guinea
Bissau, West Africa.

Then the cocaine is
trucked to Morocco.

From there it's shipped to
Spain where it's sold to

British gangsters who load
it onto trucks sent to the

UK by ferry.

Adrian: They stick it
in about say 10 trucks.

But you don't stick your,
all your eggs in basket

you know, and, er, out
of those 10 trucks they

expect at least 2 of
'em to get caught.

Narrator: The trucks that
manage to clear the border

head to London.

The cocaine is then
delivered to a central

distribution point.

Adrian: It's taken
straight over to,

you know, a warehouse or
a basement somewhere like

that.

And soon as it comes
through then they start

breaking up and it all
gets split all over London

everywhere.

Narrator: Adrian receives
the cocaine in bulk which

he then breaks down into
retail sized packages.

Adrian: Weighing it up
individually on these

digital scales and then
putting it into me little

packets.

Narrator: Adrian buys his
cocaine for $25 per gram

and sells it for $75.

He boosts his profits by
skimming 20% off every

gram he sells.

Adrian: Nobody gets a gram
anymore so there's point 8

in there of a gram.

Otherwise it's just not
worth your while anymore.

Narrator: In a good week
Adrian sells 100 grams and

makes $6,000 in profit.

He meets his regular
customers in a London pub.

Adrian: I tell 'em, what
time that I'm going to

meet them at the pub.

We go down there and we
sit down for a little

while, have er, a little
drink and whatever,

and then we just, er, sort
of pass cigarette packets

around to each other, if
you know what I mean.

They get, they go to the
toilet and get their gear.

They put the money in the
cigarette box and then

when they come back
and see me later,

they pass the
cigarette box over,

deal done.

There's so much
competition out there,

you know, anyone can sell
you a bit of rubbish gear.

So you get a reputation
for selling good stuff,

and that's how your
clientele book as it were,

though we don't,
keep books,

starts climbing
all the time.

Narrator: Adrian has been
dealing cocaine his entire

adult life.

Unlike crack
dealers in the US,

he's not worried about
being robbed or even

busted by the police.

Adrian: I don't think the
police are too bothered

about it.

They, you know, you're all
having that fun time in

the pub.

It's not spilling out into
the streets and it's done

behind closed doors.

I think they actually,
they let a lot of people

get off with it.

They're, they're not after
the little boys that deal

in the pubs anymore.

They're after
the big fish.

Narrator: Around the world
there are two million

cocaine dealers.

It's a good living but
few can make a fortune.

The big fish are the
traffickers who supply the

dealers with the 1,000
tons of cocaine produced

each year.

Drug traffickers are
the real winners in the

cocaine business.

They earn millions of
dollars smuggling large

shipments of drugs across
international borders.

Eddie, a 48 year old
father of three,

used to traffic cocaine
from Colombia to America.

For six years, Eddie,
worked as a drug

trafficker with
the Arellano-Felix

Organization, a drug
trafficking cartel based

in Tijuana.

For the first time, he has
agreed to tell his story.

Eddie: Gus and I ended
up being partners and,

and then we started
bringing over on a regular

basis you know quite
a bit, and you know,

I had a good job, I was
making $40,000 a month.

Narrator: First, his
partner travels to Colombia.

Then he buys the cocaine,
and packs it onto a boat.

Eddie: Gus's crew
would go down and he'd,

he'd sit on the boat.

you know with them when
they left Columbia.

And he stayed with 'em all
the way until they took it

as far as Baja.

Narrator: Once the
shipment arrives

in Baja, Eddie takes
control of the boat.

Eddie: I drove the boat
And then we had guys meet

us there.

And then we brought
it up to Tijuana,

to our safe house.

Narrator: Eddie then has
to smuggle his cocaine

across the heavily
guarded US Border.

Since 9/11 the US
Department of Homeland

Security has strengthened
its border with Mexico by

building hundreds of miles
of fences and installing

license plate readers
at all points of entry.

It also increased border
patrol units on land, sea,

and air.

But Eddie sneaks in under
the security radar.

He bypasses the major
border crossings and ships

his cocaine out to small
American fishing boats

waiting off the
Mexican coast.

Eddie: I had my guy who
was an excellent fisherman

so he would take off, at
four in the morning and go

fishing, they would ferry
everything out to him on

jet skis.

And he'd put it in the
cabin area of the boat and

then he would go fishing
for four or five hours,

and then when everybody
start coming in from going

fishing, he would go in
with them at the same

time.

Narrator: Posing as just
another recreational

fisherman, Eddie's boat
arrives in San Diego

harbor.

The cocaine is taken from
the docks to a safe house,

where it will be prepped
and distributed to

different cities.

New York usually brings
in the big money.

Eddie: In LA it was like
13 million and New York it

would be like 18 million.

So, $5 million to get 1,000

kilos from San
Diego to New York.

Narrator: Eddie's crew
drives the cocaine across

the country in
inconspicuous vehicles

carrying 200
kilos per car.

He makes sure his drivers
look like regular Joes.

Eddie: They had to have
the look, you know,

that would pass for what
we called the 30 second

test, which is when a
policeman pulls a car

over, they got 30 seconds
to determine whether that

person that they pulled
over is a threat, is, er,

is worth interrogating or
they're just gonna give

them a ticket
and let them go.

Narrator: Once
in New York,

Eddie and his drivers
leave their vehicles in a

parking lot.

Eddie: I would, um, meet
somebody in an area and

leave the keys in the
ashtray and then they

would pick the car up.

Narrator: Two weeks later
Eddie returns to New York

to pick up payment
for the shipment.

Traffickers make
approximately 25% of the

retail price of cocaine.

That equals a worldwide
total of $50 billion per

year, but danger
is always present.

Eddie: You'd pick up the
backpack with a quarter of

a million dollars in it
and you're walking away,

you could feel the bullet
going through the back of

your head 'cause you know
that guy could kill you in

half second, and say
you never showed up.

Narrator: Violence is a
fact of life inside the

cartels.

Mexican recruits must
prove their loyalty by

killing.

Eddie: Blood in,
blood out is when you,

you come into an
organization,

usually you kill
somebody or you,

you're to prove yourself
worthy of being part of

the organization, the only
way to get out is to blood

out means you
die, you know.

You kill someone
coming in,

you get killed to go out.

Narrator: Eddie's fate is
sealed if he betrays the

cartel leaders.

Eddie: They would pick
them up and torture them

to see if they, what
they knew or said.

If the guy wasn't a snitch
or an informant they'd

still kill him but they
would say well at least he

was a good guy.

Narrator: Through
the 1990s,

the cocaine trade wreaks
havoc on countries around

the world.

Cash from the sale of
cocaine finances coups in

Bolivia, fuels guerrilla
wars in Nicaragua and

Colombia, and threatens
the stability of the

Mexican state as a wave of
violence spreads through

Northern Mexico.

The drug cartels fight
each other for control of

the cocaine trafficking
routes into the US.

The Mexican drug wars cost
the lives of 20,000

people who are shot, macheted,

or even beheaded, often
after being brutally

tortured.

In 2006, everything
changes when Felipe

Calderon is elected
president of Mexico.

He pledges to defeat the
drug cartels responsible

for plunging Mexico's
northern cities into

anarchy.

Calderon dispatches state
police and troops to

crackdown on the cartels.

The boss of
Eddie's cartel,

Eduardo Arellano Felix, is
one of the many leaders

arrested and imprisoned.

The leadership vacuum left
behind sparks a war for

control of the drug
smuggling routes into the

US.

Eddie: Everybody wanted to
be the top dog and because

they didn't really have
the experience or patience

that some of us had,

they just started
killing everybody.

Narrator: The war is brutal,

in the three years
following Calderon's

election another 15,000
people are gunned down.

But the deaths don't deter
people from entering the

business.

Hundreds of poor Mexicans
are eager to step into

Eddie's shoes and take
over his trafficking

routes by undermining
his position.

As an American
working in Mexico,

he's under constant
suspicion.

Eddie: I was the only
white guy at my level and

every time something
happened everybody would

look at me first.

Narrator: Eddie's
partner and friend,

accuses him of
being an informant,

and demands a
meeting in Tijuana.

Eddie: I wasn't
that stupid,

I brought my crew with
me, so, he had his crew,

you know, armed crew and I
had mine too and he didn't

want a big blood bath so
we just left it at that.

Narrator: Eddie realizes
it's time to leave Mexico;

he leaves behind
everything he owns and

escapes to the US.

Eddie: I'm one of the
lucky guys that got out.

There's not, there's
a lot of guys,

there's a whole cemetery,
not even a cemetery,

there's a whole, you
know, fields in Mexico,

you know, just full
of dead bodies,

unidentified bodies that
didn't make it out.

Narrator: Despite the
on-going violence in

Mexico, 51 billion dollars
worth of cocaine still

floods across the border
into the US every year.

Narrator: The Mexican
cartels purchase their

cocaine from Colombia
where over half of the

world's cocaine
is produced.

While the cartels earn
millions of dollars

smuggling cocaine; the
peasant farmers who grow

the coca plants are lucky
to earn enough to survive.

28 year-old Andres Varela
is one of the tens of

thousands of farmers who
grow the Coca that will

become cocaine.

Andres Varela: In
the good times,

yes it gave me good
monthly return.

You could get a profit of
a million pesos ($500),

it depended on
the harvests.

That was enough for you to
pay for clothes, for food,

to be able to
sustain yourself.

Narrator: Andres prefers
to grow food crops,

but he knows cocaine paste
is where the money is.

Andres Varela: My father
and mother cultivate corn,

yucca plants,
and other crops,

and they couldn't afford
to send me to school.

Narrator: Colombian
farmers sell yucca plants

for 40 cents a kilo, but
cocaine paste sells for

$750 per kilo.

More importantly, there's
constant global demand for

cocaine, unlike
corn or yucca.

But growing coca
isn't without risk.

Andres is constantly
under threat.

Andres Varela:
The government,

regard us as big
drug traffickers,

big mafia guys.

They regard us
as terrorists.

Narrator: Every day
Colombian special forces

enter the jungle looking
to eradicate illegal coca

fields and arrest farmers.

Eight months ago
Andres' farm is raided.

Andres Varela: They caught
us at about four in the

morning, they surrounded
the house and laboratory.

They burnt the
whole plantation,

all the fruits
of my labor.

They were going to
take me to prison,

but they said they
wouldn't take me if I

handed over everything.

I even had to give them
money so that they'd let

me go.

Narrator: To feed
his family of five,

Andres's only option is to
replant his coca fields.

Andres Varela: The
planting takes a lot of

work.

It takes between 8 months
and a year before it

starts to produce leaves.

Narrator: Once the
fields are planted,

Andres waits for
his crop to grow.

After 8 months he returns
to harvest the coca

plants.

It takes Andres two days
to pick his one acre of

plants.

He's eager to get
back to his famil y .

Andres Varela: When I
get home, the first

thing I feel happy because

my daughters welcome
me with happiness.

Narrator: The next morning
Andres walks five miles to

the makeshift lab he's
built deep in the jungle,

hidden from the
Colombian army.

Here he turns his coca
crop into cocaine paste,

the base material from
which the drug cocaine is

refined.

Only one half of one
percent of each coca leaf

is cocaine.

So Andres first chops
the leaves into smaller

pieces.

This makes extracting the
cocaine from the rest of

the leaf easier.

He breaks down the leaves
with an inexpensive

mixture of cement powder
and liquid fertilizer.

Andres Varela: Now I'm
going to use liquid

fertilizer.

It does the job of
softening the leaf.

Narrator: He places the
softened leaves into a

drum and adds gasoline
to extract the cocaine.

Andres Varela: This is the
gasoline that we add here,

we'll leave for
a few minutes,

it will bring out the
merchandise (cocaine).

Narrator: After four hours
the cocaine is extracted

from the leaves and is now
infused in the liquid in

the drum.

To separate the leaves
from the liquid,

Andreas uses a press.

He squeezes out every
last drop of the

cocaine-infused fluid.

Andres Varela: We do a
test to see how the yield

is going to be.

If this water
is very bitter,

and numbs the lips, the
tongue and the mouth,

well, that means we're
going to have a good

yield.

So I'm going to try it.

It's a little bitter.

Narrator: Andres is happy
and he sets off on the

long journey home.

There he completes the
process of producing his

cocaine paste.

He adds soda crystals to
the liquid mixture which

act as a
neutralizing agent.

Then he heats it on a
stove until all the

remaining liquid
evaporates.

He then lets the
paste dry overnight.

The next morning, the
cocaine paste has dried

into a crumbly texture.

Andres is eager to
discover how much paste

he's produced.

Andres Varela: I'm hopeful
that I will get about 130

or 140 grams out of it.

The yield wasn't
very good.

I have 120 grams.

It was not a good yield.

Narrator: He'll be lucky
if he makes 100,000 Pesos,

or about $50, for
all this work.

Andres will sell his paste
to the Colombian cartels

who will turn it into high
grade cocaine powder.

Andres never uses cocaine
himself but he knows he's

an accessory to the global
cocaine trade that brings

misery to millions
of addicts.

Andres Varela: For me it's
something really hard,

It's very sad.

It's a vice which brings
them nothing but death.

But we never do this with
a bad intention of making

people into addicts.

Narrator: Coca farming is
the only way Andres can

provide a better
life for his family.

Andres Varela: I would
like to give my daughters

all the education that
they deserve and I would

really like them to
have a good future.

Narrator: For Andres and
the other peasant farmers,

growing and producing
cocaine paste for the

international drugs
trade is a tough choice.

They receive a mere 5 cents
for every gram of cocaine sold

on the street.

But growing any other crop
only condemns them to

poverty.

Narrator: The cocaine
produced by peasant

farmers in Colombia
is smuggled across

international borders
by traffickers.

It's sold on city
streets by dealers,

and snorted and smoked by
1.9 million Americans.

360,000 of these are
hard core crack addicts.

And one of these addicts
is 49 year-old "Loco."

Loco: I first started
using cocaine when I was

like 15.

One day I was down in the
basement with my uncle,

and I see my uncle
doing something,

and I got curious and I
wanted to know what it

was, so I tried it.

I tried it and I liked it,
and I've been using it

ever since.

Narrator: Smoking crack
has diminishing returns.

The euphoria delivered by
the first hit from a crack

pipe is always
the greatest.

Then users continue to
smoke in an attempt to

recapture the impact
of that first hit.

Loco: Once you get high
with the cocaine once,

you basically high as
you're going to get,

that first hit.

What you're doing is
chasing that first hit

over and over and over and
over, which you never,

never get.

Narrator: Loco smokes at
least 10 crack rocks a

day.

At $10 a rock his habit
costs him a small fortune.

Loco: If I get $200 today,
I'm gonna spend $200 today,

whatever I have, that's
what I'm gonna use.

It'll take me four or
five hours to smoke that.

Narrator: Loco quickly
develops a crack addiction

and falls in with the
notorious Chicago street

gang, the Conservative
Vice Lords.

Loco: I could've been a
professional boxer but I

choose drugs and
gangbanging.

Crack cocaine, it used to
make me just want to rob

everybody I come across,
you know what I mean.

I became very aggressive.

Narrator: Powder cocaine
users tend to have

lucrative jobs that enable
them to fund their drug

use.

But crack cocaine users
are predominantly poor and

live in the inner city .

Many turn to crime to
fund their habit s .

Loco: I take what you got,
with whatever I had, guns,

knife, stick, because if
I had it I would use it.

And if you didn't give
me what you had you were

gonna see I was
gonna use it.

And that's the way
I kept my habit up.

I've been in the
penitentiary six times.

Narrator: Loco manages to
stop smoking crack just

once.

Loco: I stopped using
cocaine on my own for like

18 months, I didn't
have it for 18 months.

That was the best
feeling in my life.

My mother passed away
and I was going again.

Narrator: Loco desperately
wants to stop smoking

crack but he's in the
grip of addiction.

Loco: If I could just
stop being high today,

I think I'd be the
happiest man in the world,

but it's not easy.

The future holds
nothing for me,

death or the penitentiary.

Narrator: The United
Nations World Drug Report

declares there are up to
20 million cocaine users

worldwide.

The majority of these
users snort cocaine.

People like the drug
because it creates intense

feelings of pleasure
without a loss of control.

Unlike heroin and
methamphetamine,

powder cocaine users don't
fall into a stupor or

hallucinate.

When a user snorts a line,
it enters the bloodstream

through the
nasal membrane.

The drug races to the
pleasure centers of the

brain where it triggers
a massive increase in

dopamine, the
neurotransmitter that

signals euphoria.

30 year old Christophe has
been chasing this euphoria

for the past 15 years.

Christophe: I started
when I was 13,

14 smoking spliffs, then
went on to ecstasy and

stuff when the rave
party time was on, er,

and then when I, moved on
to cocaine quite quickly

because, um, it's pretty
much my favorite drug.

Narrator: Today Christophe
works in London in the

television industry where
cocaine use is rampant.

Christophe: We've about
50 or 60 people in my

company, I know that
more, more than 40 people

probably use it,
in this industry.

A lot of people
like partying,

a lot of people like
drinking and lot of people

like taking drugs, cocaine
being one of their

favorite ones.

Um, I use a
lot of cocaine.

Narrator: Christophe goes
through 7 grams a week.

Christophe: Which
is quite a lot,

and I think
I've reached my,

sort of high level
of consumption.

Narrator: His habit costs
over $500 per week.

Christophe: It is quite
a lot of money, yeah,

but I'm lucky I've
got quite a good job.

Um, I wouldn't spend that
much if I wasn't making

that much money, er, it's
a bit of a vicious circle.

Narrator: Christophe
doesn't see himself as an

addict like Loco.

Christophe: I think
there's two different

cultures.

There's, you've got the
druggy people that will

use cocaine or crack
cocaine and then you've

got all these other people
that have a bit of money,

er, work every day,
er, are married,

have got kids, they've
got kids, they've got,

they've got sort
of a normal life.

Narrator: He believes
his use of cocaine is no

different than
drinking beer.

Christophe: It's like
going to the pub at some

point.

You'll have a beer.

Or you'll have a
couple of beers,

you'll have a
line of coke,

you'll have another beer,
then another line of coke,

and then you go home, and
go to bed and wake up at

7.00 in the morning
and go back to work.

Narrator: But he wants to
stop taking the drug to

concentrate on bringing
up his young family.

Christophe: I've
got two kids,

they're growing older,
and they notice things,

whereas before, I mean,
it was, it was easy,

I could be on coke and
still doing stuff.

But I don't want
them to notice it.

Narrator: Giving up
cocaine may be harder than

he thinks.

New research shows cocaine
addiction grips snorters

just as tightly
as crack smokers.

Narrator: 25% of Americans
who have used cocaine in

the past year will
develop a problem.

Some will end
up in prison.

Many will seek
help for addiction.

At the Brookhaven National
Laboratory in New York,

a set of remarkable
experiments is being

conducted to discover the
true nature of cocaine

addiction.

Mexican-born Professor
Nora Volkow is one of

America's leading
specialists on drug

addiction.

She's on a personal
mission to understand the

cause of addiction,
driven by memories of her

alcoholic uncle.

Nora Volkow : My uncle,
who I loved dearly,

was an alcoholic.

And, and to me it was very
painful to see this man

who I adored, basically be
rejected by the system.

Narrator: As late as the
1980s many scientists and

politicians believed
cocaine was non-addictive.

Professor Volkow
believes they're wrong.

Nora Volkow: Take a group
of animals give them free

availability on
one side heroin,

and in another group give
them free availability of

cocaine.

Investigators did that and
then one month later they

came and they went and I
look at the animals that

were given free
availability of heroin,

which no-one will doubt,
is a very addictive drug,

and they were
happily over there.

The group of the
cocaine animals,

they were all dead.

They had actually
compulsively taken cocaine

to the extreme that
none of them survived.

Narrator: Professor Volkow
uses a PET scanner to take

pictures of human brains
under the influence of

cocaine.

Nora Volkow: What we're
trying to do is use

imaging to help us
identify the areas of the

brain and proteins in the
brain that get disrupted

by the use of drugs in
people that lose control

of their drug intake
and at the expense of,

of basically everything
else in their life.

Narrator: Her images
show cocaine changes the

brain's structure.

Nora Volkow: Repeated
exposure produces changes

on the way that the
brain gets connected and

functions that result in
pathological behavior,

and that's why it's
called a disease.

Narrator: Professor Volkow
scans hundreds of users

and ex-users.

W nix-rs noes

irregularity, whenever
they discuss cocaine,

their dopamine
levels rise.

At first she doesn't
understand why.

Then, it hits her.

Nora Volkow: You could
make a case that people

become addicted
to the lifestyle,

because their brain has
started to respond to the

lifestyle and that is
their environment,

their friends,
their situations.

Narrator: Her team sets up
an experiment to test the

theory.

Volunteers are placed
in a PET scanner,

and shown images of people
preparing and snorting

lines of cocaine.

Incredibly, the images
alone significantly

increase the dopamine
levels in the brains of

users.

Nora Volkow: When we
expose them with stimuli

that have been
linked with drugs,

what we observe is that a
significant increase in

dopamine signaling in
those areas of the brain

that drives the motivation
of your behavior.

Narrator: Dr. Volkow's
research is revolutionary,

it shows cocaine is so
addictive that simply

showing images of its use
is enough to increase

their dopamine levels and
lead them into relapse.

Nora Volkow: People can
go to a detoxification

program, they
do very well,

they go out into the
neighborhoods where they

are used to taking the
drug and they relapse.

And they relapse exactly
because of these effects

on the memory systems.

So they say, I'm not
going to take the drug,

I'm not going to,
I'm not going to,

I'm not going to, I'm not
going to and before they

even realize it, the
drug is already in their

mouths, or they're
smoking it.

Narrator: Law enforcement
treats cocaine users as

criminals rather than
people suffering from a

disease.

Over the past ten years,
the government has

repeatedly slashed funding
for drug rehabilitation

programs and increased
funding for prisons.

The result: a million
Americans are imprisoned

on drug related charges,
costing the American

taxpayer $12.5
billion a year.

Prof Volkow believes the
government's approach of

criminalizing and
imprisoning drug users

without proper
treatment is misguided.

Nora Volkow: When you
just take a person that's

addicted and push them in
jail and you don't give

them treatment, you can
guarantee that that person

will relapse within a few
weeks of actually leaving,

the jail, no matter how
long they've been there.

With no drug exposure, if
you don't treat they will

immediately relapse
for drug taking.

But very importantly,
they'll end up

re-incarcerated
pretty soon.

Narrator: Statistics
support her claim,

40% of cocaine convicts
and 77% of crack convicts

are re-offenders.

Cop: Police.

Search warrant!

Narrator: For the
past 25 years,

governments around the
world have been fighting a

war against cocaine.

In Colombia, the American
government is financing an

eradication operation to
reduce cocaine production

in the country by 50%.

These special forces are
preparing to destroy a

cocaine laboratory.

Major Quiroga
leads the mission.

Major Quiroga: The mission
we're going to carry out

today is to destroy
a laboratory,

which processes cocaine.

These laboratories in
this area of the country,

they could be producing
around 500 to 600 kilos

per week.

Narrator: Major Quiroga
is well aware of how

dangerous these daily
missions can be.

The Colombian cartels gun
down 400 of his colleagues

every year to protect
their cocaine profits.

Each man is fully armed
and wears body armor.

Carrying crates
of explosives,

the commandos lift off
from their base in

Mariquita and fly 45 miles
north to the eastern banks

of the Rio Magdalena.

Cartels go to great
lengths to hide their

activities.

The commandos march deep
into the dense jungle to

find the illegal
laboratories.

The ground troops are
provided air cover by a

chopper that constantly
searches for signs of

armed resistance.

After marching through
the jungle for an hour,

Quiroga's men discover
discarded barrels of toxic

waste, evidence that
the cartels are working

nearby.

Major Quiroga calls in the
chopper for backup in case

they're ambushed.

The men proceed
on high alert.

Quiroga's commandos follow
a trail of discarded

equipment leading them to
a recently abandoned lab.

The cartel's men have
fled without a fight.

Major Quiroga: This still
is for cooking the drugs.

They make blocks of
roughly a kilo and they

put them in the
microwaves to dry.

A medium sized lab
with a good production,

around 400 to 500
kilograms per week.

Narrator: The commandos
rig the entire laboratory

with explosives.

Once airborne, they
blow up the lab.

One victory in the ongoing
war against the cartels.

Major Quiroga: It was
a successful mission,

we are able to destroy
their installations.

it will be a great
loss for them.

Narrator: Since 2000 the
US Government has poured

$5 billion into
eradication missions,

but to little effect.

The amount of cocaine
manufactured in Colombia

is the same today as
it was a decade ago.

The majority of this
cocaine is smuggled into

America.

50 American law
enforcement agencies are

engaged in the
war on drugs.

And Austin, Texas is one
of the main battlegrounds.

Greg Thrash: Austin sits
in a perfect spot to be

used by the Mexican
cartels as a,

what we consider
a transit hub.

Narrator: 4 hours from the
border and with a hub of

highways going
across the country,

Austin has long been a
base of operations for the

cocaine cartels.

Greg Thrash has witnessed
a marked change in the

tactics adopted by
the Mexican cocaine

traffickers at the border.

Instead of shipping large
loads across the country,

they are forced to ship
smaller units due to the

success of the DEA
and Border Patrol.

But with the huge number
of cars crossing the

border and coming
into Austin,

law enforcement knows it
has no hope of stopping

every shipment.

Greg Thrash: All we, we
as law enforcement can

essentially do is
contain the situation.

Contain the, the problem.

Narrator: But even
containing the cocaine

problem is an
uphill battle.

Not only have the cartels
divided their shipments

between hundreds
of traffickers,

they now employ thousands
of dealers to sell their

product.

Greg Thrash: We have
multiple agencies, er,

assigned to the DEA
here, full time,

that do nothing but
coordinate efforts,

bring resources
together and er,

and target and attack the
infrastructure of these

cartels that are operating
in the Austin area.

Narrator: Greg Thrash
dispatches a unit in the

middle of the night
following a tip-off about

the location of
a crack dealer.

They approach the
house, guns drawn,

ready for anything.

Cop: Police.

Search warrant!

Narrator: After smashing
open the front door the

cops quickly overpower
the suspects.

They search every room,
but there's no sign of any

cocaine.

Then, one of the cops
finds a strongbox.

He uses a crow bar
to force it open.

Inside is a
package of cocaine.

Cop: Watch yourself, bro.

Sgt. Jesse Lopez: In the search
process we came up with

approximately 4
ounces of cocaine and

almost $1900 in
cash and some, some,

a few grams of marijuana,
that's what we got out of

the bust.

It was, er, what I would
term successful, er,

these are the type of
operations that my unit

does day in and day out.

Cop: So we're at four
and a half right now.

So 4.8, I've already taken
the weight of the lid out,

so it's 4.8, so that will
be a first degree felony.

Narrator: Last year,
American cops arrested

approximately 1.8 million
people on drug charges.

That's one arrest
every 20 seconds.

But no matter how many
dealers are arrested,

there's always someone
else eager to take their

place.

Greg Thrash: I don't think
we'll ever eradicate the

problem of drug
trafficking and drug

abuse.

Where there is a demand
there will be a supply.

We're actually
being invaded,

by an army of ants
trafficking cocaine.

Narrator: Today more
cocaine enters the US than

ever before.

And an army of dealers is
selling it to America's 7

million users.

The vast profits made from
cocaine will continue to

finance drugs incorporated
for the foreseeable future.