The uncomfortable truth about America and Britain involvement in profiteering from pharmaceutical, fentanyl and other hard drugs

When discussions about the drug crisis emerge, the narrative often focuses on cartels in Latin America, street gangs, or the addiction epidemic sweeping through U.S. communities. 

What rarely gets told—what they don’t teach you in schools, media, or official history books—is the deep involvement of American elites, corporations, and politicians in shaping, profiting from, and sustaining the global drug trade.

From the 19th-century opium connections to Cold War covert operations, and from pharmaceutical profiteering to the modern fentanyl crisis, America’s fingerprints are all over the story of drug trafficking.

This article explores those hidden truths—before and now.

I. The Forgotten Beginnings: Opium, Empire, and Early Trade

Before the U.S. became the global superpower it is today, it was already entangled in the drug trade. While Britain waged the infamous Opium Wars in China (1839–1860), American merchants and shipping families quietly joined the trade. Prominent U.S. dynasties—including the Astors of New York and the Perkins family of Boston—amassed fortunes from opium imports into China. These fortunes later helped bankroll banks, railroads, and elite universities.

• Astor Legacy: John Jacob Astor’s wealth from the opium trade helped establish what became the American Fur Company and seeded the family’s empire. The Astors later became one of New York’s richest families, with deep ties to finance and politics.

• Pharmaceutical Beginnings: Even in the 19th century, early American pharmaceutical firms experimented with morphine and cocaine, laying the groundwork for “legal drugs” as profitable commodities.

This history is rarely acknowledged, but it established a recurring pattern: drugs were not just illicit contraband—they were big business.

II. The Cold War Era: Drugs as Tools of Power

During the 20th century, particularly in the Cold War, drugs became more than business—they became instruments of geopolitics. America’s CIA and its allies often used drug trafficking as a covert funding mechanism to wage proxy wars without direct accountability.

The Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia)

In the 1950s–1970s, the CIA backed Nationalist Chinese militias in Burma and other forces in Laos and Vietnam, many of whom were directly tied to the heroin trade. The infamous Air America airline, backed by the CIA, was accused of ferrying opium shipments under the guise of supplying anti-communist fighters. Heroin then flooded U.S. streets, devastating soldiers and inner-city communities alike.

Latin America and Cocaine

In the 1980s, U.S. intelligence agencies turned a blind eye—or worse—to cocaine trafficking. The Iran-Contra Affair revealed how American operatives allowed cocaine to flow into the U.S. to fund anti-communist militias in Nicaragua. Investigative journalist Gary Webb’s “Dark Alliance” series later exposed links between CIA-backed groups and the crack epidemic that destroyed countless Black communities in Los Angeles and beyond.

This dark chapter highlights a cruel irony: while politicians launched the “War on Drugs” at home, they were complicit in fueling the very trade abroad.

III. Big Pharma: The Legal Drug Lords

When people think of drug cartels, images of Pablo Escobar or Mexican kingpins often come to mind. What is less discussed is how American pharmaceutical giants became some of the most powerful “cartels” in history—legally sanctioned, yet equally destructive.

The OxyContin Scandal

• Purdue Pharma, owned by the Sackler family, aggressively marketed OxyContin in the 1990s and 2000s. Despite knowing its addictive potential, they pushed it on doctors and patients as a “safe” painkiller.

• The result was catastrophic: millions addicted, communities devastated, and over 500,000 overdose deaths linked to opioids in the U.S. since the crisis began.

• The Sacklers amassed billions in wealth, funding art museums, universities, and philanthropic projects—much like the opium dynasties of the 1800s.

Lobbying and Political Cover

Pharmaceutical companies poured millions into lobbying and campaign donations, ensuring weak regulations, light penalties, and continued access to markets. Politicians—Republican and Democrat alike—looked the other way as addiction rates soared.

In many ways, Big Pharma became the modern face of America’s role in drug trafficking—this time wearing suits, not smuggling gear.

IV. Politicians and the Hypocrisy of the “War on Drugs”

The “War on Drugs,” launched by Richard Nixon in the 1970s and intensified under Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, was presented as a moral crusade. Yet beneath the surface, it was riddled with contradictions and hidden agendas.

• Targeting Communities: The crackdown disproportionately targeted Black and Latino neighborhoods, with harsher penalties for crack cocaine (associated with Black users) than powdered cocaine (associated with white users). This deliberate disparity fueled mass incarceration.

• Private Prisons: The prison-industrial complex, backed by corporate donors, profited from this surge in incarcerations. Cheap prison labor became another economic engine connected to the drug war.

• Politicians’ Double Game: While condemning drugs publicly, some lawmakers quietly benefited from donations from pharmaceutical firms, alcohol lobbies, and corporations tied to incarceration or drug-related enforcement.

In effect, drugs were both a political weapon and an economic opportunity.

V. The “Now”: America and the Global Drug Trade in the 21st Century

Today, the story continues. The U.S. remains a central player—not just as a consumer market, but as a driver of the global drug economy.

Fentanyl Crisis

• China and Mexico are often blamed for fentanyl flooding American streets. But investigations show that U.S. pharmaceutical companies helped normalize synthetic opioids before illicit networks took over.

• Meanwhile, weak regulation and corporate lobbying delayed meaningful interventions, deepening the crisis.

Cannabis and Hypocrisy

• While countless Americans—especially Black men—languish in prison for minor marijuana charges, cannabis has been legalized in many states. Corporate giants, often backed by wealthy investors, now dominate the “legal weed” market.

• Those who profited from prohibition now profit from legalization, while those punished remain marginalized.

International Reach

American banks, too, have been implicated. HSBC and Wachovia admitted to laundering billions in cartel drug money through their systems—yet faced little more than fines. Wall Street’s role in sustaining the global drug economy is seldom addressed.

VI. The Hidden Costs: Who Pays the Price?

The fallout from America’s entanglement with the drug trade has been immense:

• Communities of Color: Decades of targeted policing, incarceration, and addiction have torn apart Black and Latino families.

• Global South: Countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa continue to be destabilized by drug wars, with weapons and policies often tied back to the U.S.

• Ordinary Americans: The opioid and fentanyl crises have left a generation struggling with addiction, broken health systems, and economic despair.

Meanwhile, corporations and elites often walk away with billions, shielded from accountability.

VII. Conclusion: The Story They Don’t Tell

What they don’t teach you about America and the drug trade is that it has never been just about shadowy cartels or “bad apples.” From the earliest days of opium profits to Cold War covert operations, from pharmaceutical empires to political hypocrisy, America has been deeply entangled in the machinery of drug trafficking.

The tragedy is not only in the lives lost and communities destroyed, but also in the deliberate silences. Schools don’t teach it. Politicians don’t admit it. Media rarely confronts it head-on. And so the cycle continues.

If we are to break free from this destructive legacy, it requires more than law enforcement or treatment programs.

It requires acknowledging the uncomfortable truth: that some of the world’s most powerful institutions—corporations, banks, and governments—have been, and remain, the biggest players in the drug trade.

By John Uju-Ikeji