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Arizona Drug Alcohol Addiction Recovery and Treatment Programs and Centers
Arizona is located north of the Mexican State of Sonora—a significant drug trafficker stronghold, which has experienced a substantial rise in violence related to drug smuggling over the past year. Arizona is mainly a drug importation and transshipment state. Drug smuggling and transportation are mainly handled by primary Mexican trafficking organizations. These groups are poly-drug organizations trafficking cocaine, marijuana, meth, heroin and precursor chemicals into Arizona.
The Phoenix and Tucson metropolitan regions are the main transshipment points for cocaine distribution from Arizona throughout America. Cocaine is smuggled from Colombia by air, land and sea to controlled areas in Mexico. It is then shipped to staging points close to the Arizona/Mexico border. Transportation groups affiliated with the primary Mexican cartels ship the cocaine into Arizona generally using commercial trucks, private vehicles, animal caravans and backpackers. Across the border, multi-ton amounts of cocaine are shipped on a consistent basis through heavily trafficked Ports of Entry and between these ports.
In Arizona, Mexican black tar heroin is the main form of heroin found. Heroin is shipped into Arizona mainly through Arizona’s Ports of Entry by pedestrians or within vehicles’ hidden compartments. Despite the fact that heroin is the least abused of all drugs in Arizona, its accessibility continues to grow as the demand and distribution networks throughout America rises.
Arizona continues to have a consistent rise in prescription drug abuse. OxyContin and oxycodone products are frequently prescribed to cancer patients, patients with severe back pain, and those recovering from surgery. OxyContin is the most heavily abused because it is available in high dosages and when consumed it gives a powerful high, like heroin. In the Phoenix metropolitan area high school students are converting to injecting or smoking heroin as a result of not being able to purchase or obtain OxyContin.
In Arizona, two types of methamphetamine are accessible; Mexican-produced and methamphetamine that is produced locally. Mexican-produced methamphetamine is encountered most frequently in Arizona and is often shipped across the Southwest Border where it transits through the state. The locally produced methamphetamine is derived from independently owned and operated labs that handle the distribution of small amounts for local use.
Marijuana remains widely accessible in amounts up to multi-hundred pounds, which are packaged for delivery. The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement often apprehend hundred pound amounts of marijuana between the Ports of Entry and those abandoned in remote areas along the border. Individuals referred to as “mules” smuggle a large portion of marijuana into America. Mules are paid to carry packages of marijuana on their backs through remote and frequently rugged wilderness areas.
Current investigations reflect that the diversion of oxycodone products (e.g. OxyContin and Percocet) and hydrocodone products (e.g. Vicodin) remains a substantial threat in Arizona. The main diversion methods are illicit sale and distribution by healthcare professionals and workers, doctor shopping, forged prescriptions, employee theft, and on the Web. In 2007, 42 incidents of thefts from pharmacies occurred, particularly for OxyContin type products. Benzodiazepines (e.g. Xanax), codeine, and methadone were also reported as being among the most frequently abused and diverted pharmaceuticals in Arizona.
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