National Drug Intelligence Center   Ohio High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Drug Market Analysis 2009   April 2009

Strategic Drug Threat Developments

• Cocaine is the greatest drug threat in the Ohio HIDTA region. However, the availability of the drug is lower than in previous years. According to law enforcement officials, distributors are selling cocaine in smaller quantities in an attempt to stretch decreased supplies, and wholesale prices have increased in some areas of the region because supplies are insufficient to meet demand.
   
• The availability of Mexican black tar heroin and brown powder heroin has increased greatly throughout the HIDTA region because of increased distribution of the drugs by Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs), particularly in northern HIDTA counties.
   
• Heroin abuse is rising throughout the state, primarily among Caucasian teenagers and young adults, contributing to a 66 percent increase in heroin-related treatment admissions in the Ohio HIDTA region from 2004 through 2008.
   
• African American and Hispanic street gangs and criminal groups are increasingly distributing MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as ecstasy) in the HIDTA region, particularly in Cleveland and Columbus; treatment providers report that MDMA abuse is rising in Cleveland, Columbus, and Toledo.
   
• Methamphetamine availability and production are low in the Ohio HIDTA region. Methamphetamine laboratory seizures increased slightly from 2007 to 2008 after peaking in 2005. Most law enforcement officials in the region report that methamphetamine is encountered only sporadically in their jurisdictions.

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HIDTA Overview

The Ohio HIDTA region consists of Cuyahoga, Lucas, Mahoning, Stark, and Summit Counties in northern Ohio, and Fairfield, Franklin, Greene, Hamilton, Montgomery, and Warren Counties in southern Ohio. (See Figure 1.) These counties contain more than half of Ohio's population and encompass the nine largest cities in the state. The Ohio HIDTA region is linked to major drug source areas, including Chicago, Detroit, New York City, the Southwest Border, and Canada, by numerous interstate highways that are often used by drug traffickers to smuggle illicit drugs into and through the region. Ohio has the fourth-largest interstate highway system and carries the fifth-largest volume of traffic in the nation. Commercial truck traffic in Ohio has grown 90 percent over the last 25 years and is expected to further increase 60 percent by 2020. Large amounts of illicit drugs transported to the area are abused locally; however, some are transshipped to drug markets in neighboring states. Mexican and, to a lesser extent, Dominican and Jamaican DTOs are the predominant transporters of illicit drugs that are distributed in or pass through the area. Additionally, Mexican DTOs are expanding their wholesale and midlevel distribution of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana in the HIDTA region and in neighboring jurisdictions. Significant amounts of illicit drugs are seized annually from such traffickers by law enforcement officials through Ohio HIDTA initiatives. (See Table 1.)

Source: Ohio High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.
*Dosage units.
a. Includes only federally scheduled drugs.

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