Widespread Cocaine Addiction in Miami started thirty years ago. Miami has been the major port of entry for cocaine in the United States for thirty years. Cocaine is responsible for the development of Miami as an International Banking Center. The influx of large amounts of money due to the illegal Cocaine Trade precipitated the necessity for a larger and more sophisticated banking network. Money was being flooded into all avenues of the Miami business district changing the landscape and skyline forever.
Cocaine was relatively inexpensive on the streets of Miami and the tri-county area of Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties. As this drug’s popularity began to spread from high society private parties to the streets, the insidious problem of drug abuse and associated crime started to rise.
As more people started to use cocaine, communities witnessed a rise in the crime rate. Braking and entering, muggings, auto theft and retail boosting were all on the rise. Cocaine offered a more intense “high” than other drugs being used during this period. Although the high was more intense the period of intoxication was shorter causing the user to increase the amount necessary to sustain the high. The need for more cocaine caused the need for more money and thus more crime.
The area also witnessed an increase in addiction or at that time they called it abuse of cocaine. Cocaine was not accepted as an addictive substance because withdrawal from this drug did not cause the severity of physical problems as alcohol or opiates had. Drug Rehab Centers did not believe it was necessary to detox those that used cocaine. The affects of psychological addiction of Cocaine was not something that treatment centers addressed at that time.
Today Miami and the state of Florida have some of the best Addiction Treatment Facilities in America. If the saying “necessity is the mother of invention” has credence then that would explain the expertise as a result of the thousands of addicts that have been treated for cocaine addiction in Florida over the past thirty years.
