Drug Availability Rises in U.S. as Mexican Cartels Expand Operations

Mexican drug cartels now operate in every region of the U.S., and availability of heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine has increased as a result, federal officials said this week.

The new National Drug Threat Assessment 2010 report, released by the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Drug Intelligence Center, also identified misuse of prescription drugs as a growing problem.

In one bit of good news, the report said cocaine shortages in the U.S. remained in many areas of the U.S.

Federal officials said that cheaper and more potent heroin can be traced to increased production by Mexican drug cartels, which more than doubled between 2007 and 2008. Mexican cartels are also producing alternative precursor chemicals for methamphetamine production to get around government bans on substances traditionally used to produce the drug.

The Mexican cartels have established trafficking alliances with local street gangs in the U.S. to expand their retail operations, and smuggle millions of dollars in drug money across the U.S.-Mexico border each week, according to the report.

The report also found that 10 percent of local law-enforcement jurisdictions now name prescription drugs as their top drug threat.