ium, to discuss possible solutions to the opium problem. Resolutions were passed which sought to restrict the international opium trade and these resolutions were adopted by the U.S. government as part of its national policy (Department of State, 1912).
The international drug only grew, however, during the Twentieth Century. It was controlled by a few wealthy individuals, mainly Europeans, who gained some celebrity as a result of their work. These traffickers supplied heroin, cocaine, and marijuana to Europeans and Americans throughout the middle decades of the Century, earning huge profits. Even then, the major traffickers were secretly accepted in society in the United States, in spite of the efforts of law enforcement officials to eliminate their trade (Anslinger, 1961, pp. 3-9).
During the 1930s and 1940s, however, the narcotics trade in the United States was taken over by organized crime entities, particularly the Sicilian-originated Cosa Nostra, or mafia. Initially restricting their activities to illegal gambling, prostitution, and protection rackets, the leaders of the mafia quickly recognized that drug trafficking was potentially more lucrative than all of their other activities combined. Salvatore "Lucky" Luciano consolidated his power over the individual mafia "families" largely through his consolidation of drug trafficking activities in the United States and Europe. While separate criminal organizations cultivated and sold narcotics to the mafia in the Near East, virtually all distribution in the United States was controlled by the mafia (Anslinger, 1961, pp. 3-9; President's Commission on Organized Crime, 1984).
This situation began changing in the 1970s, when organized crime groups from South America began exerting more control over the distribution of their home-grown products in the United States. Columbia produced 75% of the cocaine sold throughout the world and the Columbian producers sought to coll...