Where Did Narcotics Originate From?

Because there are so many different definitions of narcotics, it is hard to answer exactly where narcotics originate from. However, if the question is about illegal narcotics and where illegal drugs originated from, in general, most illegal drugs come from one of four sources:

Amateur production
Professional production
Theft
Importing

Narcotics Produced on an Amateur Level

This refers to the creation or growing of drugs or drug ingredients at home, done by the producer or dealer (or the user himself). Methamphetamine, for example, is often produced or "cooked-up" at home from ingredients in cold medicines.

Narcotics Produced on a Professional Level

The growing of plants or production of chemicals in greenhouses or other large-scale operations goes on quite often in the U.S. – more often than you would think, considering how large some of these operations can truly be. There are, for example, some professional marijuana growers. Many of these operations claim they cater to the medical marijuana market or to "pot clubs" in states where marijuana has been decriminalized.

Narcotics Diverted from Another Destination

Some narcotics are stolen. This refers to prescription drugs that are used in illicit manners, and other technically-legal substances that are used instead as narcotics. Codeine is an example of a commonly stolen prescription. However, even things like glue and spray paint can become a narcotic when it is sniffed in a practice called "huffing."

Narcotics Which Are Imported

The things considered illegal in the U.S. are not illegal everywhere, and many, many narcotics or ingredients for them come into the country from other countries where the substances are not prohibited.

In modern society, those are the four main sources from which narcotics originate. In fact, these same four sources have largely been the source of any illegal drugs for quite a long time back into history, although some of the sources, such as importation, have become a much larger percentage of the problem than they used to be.

Physical Sources of Narcotics

What about the actual physical sources of narcotics? Where did narcotics originate from in this sense? The answer here, too, varies according to the type of drug in question.

Most people are aware that many drugs come straight from basic raw plants such as coca leaves, poppies, and marijuana plants.
Still others are chemically-based and are synthesized from available ingredients.

Drug Trafficking

There are various levels of illegal narcotic trafficking; in some cases only the ingredients or raw materials for the drugs are sold illegally, while in other cases the finished product is transported, sometimes across the borders of countries.

Typically any plant-based narcotic is transported in dried form.
Some narcotics which are fairly complex to produce, such as cocaine, tend to be produced entirely within the small regions where the ingredients are sourced, simply because transporting the volume of ingredients a long distance is considered riskier than transporting the drug itself.

So, now you know where narcotics originated from and where the drugs come from.