• after ten years of service in the Royal Navy, the brig-sloop HMS Curlew became involved in the drug trade, and sold £330,000 worth of opium in China in 1833?
• Juan Garcia Abrego, in 1995, was the first drug trafficker to be listed on the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted List?

Facts on topics related to Illegal drug trade

Alcoholic beverage

• Christopher Smart's The Hop-Garden is a long 18th century georgic poem that teaches how to farm hops in order to produce alcohol?
• conservative State Senator Dan Morrish broke with the Louisiana Family Forum in 2009 by supporting a law which permits restaurants to levy cover charges for live entertainment and to sell alcohol?
• alcohol advertising is heavily restricted in some countries to avoid associating the drinking of alcoholic beverages with sexual success and physical attractiveness?
• Kickapoo Joy Juice was a fictional alcoholic beverage in a comic strip before it was produced in real life as a soft drink?
• using cocaine while pregnant is thought to be less harmful to the baby than alcohol?
• although it was not particularly well-known in Bulgaria until the late 19th century, today Bulgarian beer is one of the country's most popular alcoholic beverages?
• the Amethyst Initiative, signed by over a hundred college presidents, seeks reconsideration of alcohol drinking age laws in the United States?
• the L & N Railroad depot in Hopkinsville, Kentucky's commercial district was a popular stop on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad due to the fact that one could legally purchase alcohol there?
• the small mountain-top Aztec temple of El Tepozteco in Mexico, dedicated to the god of pulque, an alcoholic beverage, attracted pilgrims from as far away as Guatemala?
• while he was manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, Rip Egan once served alcohol to the opposing pitcher late into the night to keep him from playing at his full potential the next day?

Heroin

• gemstones and heroin are traded from Burma to China for motorcycles and household goods across the Shweli River, which forms part of the boundary between the two countries?
• psychiatrist Marie Nyswander, who developed the methadone treatment for heroin addicts, was herself addicted to cigarettes?
• Alliance for Open Society International, operator of drug rehabilitation programs for heroin addicts in Central Asia, sued the U.S. Government over the anti-prostitution pledge?
• Operation Show Me How was a major Interpol narcotics bust concerning the transporting of heroin within the covers of the children's book Show-Me-How-I-Can-Paint?
• the newly spreading practice in East Africa of flashblood, injecting oneself with blood of another heroin user to get high, has been called "the most effective way of infecting yourself with HIV"?
• the parents of Rachel Whitear allowed a photograph of her dead body to be used in a campaign against heroin?

Cocaine

• German chemist Albert Niemann became the first person to isolate cocaine in 1859?
• Pure Mule upset "a lot of people" and caused a politician to comment on the "ticking time bomb" of teenage sex, cocaine and sexual promiscuity in rural Ireland?
• an adrenergic storm can be caused by a cocaine overdose, use of the MAOI class of antidepressants, or a subarachnoid hemorrhage?
• best-selling author Laurence Leamer, author of The Kennedy Women, spent two years in Peru while researching the cocaine trade for his book Assignment?
• former KGBR disc jockey Tom Lyons advised his son against a career in radio by saying "Sell coke, run guns ... but don't ever go into radio."?
• former Eight is Enough actress Susan Richardson battled an addiction to cocaine after using the drug for weight loss following her pregnancy?
• the inmates of San Pedro prison run a hotel for visiting tourists and sell cocaine to the local community?
• three years after being arrested for dealing in cocaine, former quarterback of the Oklahoma Sooners Charles Thompson managed to win a national championship with Central State University?

Methamphetamine

• Ice is a highly addictive methamphetamine and that when it is smoked it causes a massive release of dopamine in the brain?
• rolling meth labs used for the illegal production of methamphetamine have been known to explode, endangering motorists and police officers?
• for his 2009 film Lucky Bastard, writer/director Everett Lewis drew upon his own relationship experience with a crystal meth addict?
• in 2005, Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed a bill making Oregon the first U.S. state to require prescriptions for cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient used to make methamphetamine?

Drug

• xenobiotic metabolism is the set of metabolic pathways that detoxify xenobiotics, such as drugs and poisons?
• from 1965 to 1999, Aubrey W. Young established a series of drug and alcohol treatment programs through the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals?