The LAPD may have just inadvertently released a list detailing the average prices of practically every illegal drug that is currently available in the city.
The list touches on every popular drug category, including stimulants, hallucinogens, narcotics, and prescription pills. According to the list, an 8-ball of coke could set you back $160, but a similar quantity of meth only costs $40 to $50. Adderall pills are also available for $4 to $10 a pill, but cops also discovered an array of fake pills passing as Adderall that contain fentanyl, methamphetamine and all kinds of other drugs, except pharmaceutical-grade speed.
The prices really highlight the profitability of fentanyl trafficking, especially when compared with other narcotics. A kilo of fentanyl powder costs between $13,000-$15,000, which is nearly twice the cost of a kilo of Mexican white heroin. Bulk fentanyl pills can be bought for as cheap as 30 cents a pill, though, and a dealer can resell these on the street for $5 to $10. In contrast, prescription narcotics like Percocet and Oxycontin cost anywhere from $14 to 25 for a single pill.
Oddly, the list also includes two different prices for MDMA, or “ecstasy,” capsules that cost $5 a pop and “Molly” that costs up to $13 per pill. There’s also an entry marked with a “NEW!” logo showing that a kilo of Molly costs $7,500.
That same bright-red logo is also placed next to the price of shrooms, which come in at $120 for half an ounce — although this price isn’t entirely accurate these days for a few reasons. One of which is the wholesale market price of a pound of mushrooms collapsed in July to $250 a pound, so $120 for a half ounce is not wildly inaccurate. Half ounces are extremely inexpensive right now, especially if you’re connected.
LA Taco
LSD is reportedly available for $400 a sheet, or as low as $3 a hit, which isn’t entirely accurate either. Most hits of LSD are between $6-$10. Be wary of any LSD sold to you at $3. It also cites a gram of ketamine as costing around $90 on the street, but most people are getting good ketamine for $60-$75 a gram.
The price list comes directly from the LA High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program (HIDTA), a 1980s initiative that Congress created to crack down on hardcore drug trafficking areas. The price list is reportedly based on undercover sting operations conducted by local law enforcement groups. LAPD officials sent the list to an LA Taco reporter earlier this month, but they may not have actually intended to share this “law enforcement sensitive” document with the press.
LA Taco received the list while investigating a story about whether the LAPD was intentionally inflating the price of meth seized during recent drug raids. Cops love to brag about drug busts on social media, and they often hype up these stories by citing the street price of contraband drugs instead of the wholesale price. But reporters noted that the LAPD was estimating the street value of seized meth at about $150 a gram, while actual meth users claimed they could buy it for as cheap as $20 a gram.
A reporter reached out to LAPD Chief Michel Moore about these valuations, and the chief CC’d the email to several officers on his response. LAPD Assistant Commander Lillian Carranza included the current drug price list in her response, but may not have realized that the press was also receiving a copy of the email. The list confirms that the average cost of meth in LA is indeed $20 a gram.
“Attached is the price list provided by HIDTA [the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program] as it relates to current trends,” Carranza wrote, according to LA Taco. “However, the street price is determined by many factors (purity, potency, supply, demand, wholesale, mid-level, distance to source etc.).”
