Wow! I'm really excited to be here. Or perhaps it's the two Adderall tablets I popped backstage 20 minutes ago talking. (Pause) Of course, I'm joking.

We've all been there. Left all our reading and working on important term papers until the last moment. Now, you need a boost and maximum concentration to pull a couple all nighters. So you call Tim for a little bag of those nice alertness boosting tablets. $200 is a fair price for what they contribute to the success of the semester, isn't it?

We never really think about how Tim gets his supply of these miracle tablets. For almost all of us, the illicit drug trafficking supply chain is an abstract concept. We don't think about the mechanisms and all the risks involved in bringing that little bag to our work table.

So it surprises most people when we find out the drug trade essentially uses the same supply routes, sometimes even personnel as our most purchased items.

For context, over 32 tonnes of illicit narcotics were intercepted and seized at ports in multiple countries by Interpol across a five week period in 2022. The relevance of figures like this is shown in the fact that only a small fraction of the drugs that pass through these regular entry and distribution channels are detected and/or intercepted. This is despite massive improvements in the technology and measures employed in the detection of prohibited drugs and substances. Border control in most countries have also seen significant increases in their manpower. 

Now, this talk is only aimed at showing you an angle you have probably never considered.