Each episode features intimate first-hand street-level testimony from those who inhabit the front lines and back alleys of the drugs trade. Walking in the shoes of suppliers, dealers, addicts, police and medics we learn what each drug is, where it comes from, how it works, and why it has such a profound influence on so many people.
Drugs, Inc. features the big name narcotics such as Crack, visiting the Peruvian ‘Cocinas’ where Crack’s main ingredient, powder cocaine, is manufactured, and exploring the lives of dealers and users in Chicago. Hallucinogens charts the use of hallucinogenic drugs not only to‘turn on, tune in and drop out’ but as used by a new generation of doctors conducting underground experiments into their therapeutic properties. Hashish explores the re-emergence of this drug on the international scene: popular in the 60s and later squeezed out of the illegal drugs market by ‘skunk’ cannabis, Hashish is now making a comeback. The program charts the journey of a consignment from Morocco, through Spain to the UK Ecstasy reveals how a drug which swept the world during the 90s, and is now making a comeback; being used for recreational and medicinal purposes.
Drugs, Inc. also reveals relative newcomers to the international drugs trade. Pill Nation, or ‘hillbilly heroin’ reveals the devastating effects of this highly addictive prescription drug, which has swept like a modern day plague through poor, white, rural communities in the South and Mid-West. Ketamine investigates the use and side-effects of this horse tranquilizer, which in the last decade has been sweeping the club scene with the lure of the ultimate hallucinogenic ‘K-Hole’. ‘Designer Drugs’ charts the rise of potent computer-engineered narcotics that manage to stay just inside the law. Mephedrone, Benzo-fury, MDAI and MDAT are just a few of the hundreds of new compounds sold openly over the internet as ‘research chemicals’ or plant food, bath salts and pool cleaner – all labelled with a wink and a nod, ‘Not for human consumption’.
Followed by Underworld, Inc. – Grand Theft Auto. Every year there are more than a million motor vehicle thefts across the US, costing the citizens of the United States over $8 billion annually. Stolen cars are used in drug trafficking or to provide drug dealers with the cash to buy weapons. In Los Angeles, ‘AJ’ - a car thief turned police informant – shows us how easy it is to steal a car no matter how sophisticated its alarm or immobiliser. Nearby, Jerry runs a ‘chop shop’. He specialises in dismantling stolen cars and selling the parts. Both men work to order. Rich buyers in South America or Eastern Europe will pay top dollar for particular brands – with no questions asked.
