Cocaine

Cocaine, both powdered and crack, poses a significant drug threat to Vermont. According to the 1999 and 2000 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), the percentage of Vermont residents who reported having abused cocaine at least once in their lifetime (1.8%) was statistically comparable to the percentage nationwide (1.6%). Cocaine-related treatment admissions in Vermont decreased slightly (4%) from 310 in FY2000 to 298 in FY2001, according to ADAP. (See Table 1 in Heroin section.) In addition, the Vermont Office of the Chief Medical Examiner reported that 7 drug deaths in Vermont in 2001 involved cocaine.

Powdered cocaine is readily available throughout Vermont, while crack cocaine primarily is available in the metropolitan areas of Burlington, Brattleboro, and Rutland. FDSS data indicate that federal law enforcement officials seized 2 kilograms of cocaine in 2002. The number of cocaine arrests in Vermont increased from 134 in 2000 to 208 in 2001, according to the Vermont Crime Information Center. USSC data in FY2001 indicate that cocaine-related sentences accounted for 26.7 percent of the federal drug-related sentences in Vermont; nationwide, cocaine-related sentences accounted for 42.5 percent of federal drug-related sentences. In Vermont in FY2001 there were nine federal sentences for powdered cocaine and three federal sentences for crack cocaine.

Cocaine prices vary throughout Vermont. The DEA Boston Division reports that in Burlington, powdered cocaine sold for $1,200 to $1,800 per ounce and was typically less than 50 percent pure in the fourth quarter of FY2002. A gram of powdered cocaine--typically 30 percent pure--sold for $80 to $100, three to four times the price of a gram of powdered cocaine in New York City, where it sold for $20 to $30 per gram. Crack cocaine usually sold for $50 per rock in Vermont in 2002.

Caucasian local independent dealers are the primary transporters of powdered cocaine into Vermont; they also are the primary retail distributors. These dealers usually travel to Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York in private or rental vehicles and purchase ounce to kilogram quantities of powdered cocaine for distribution at the retail level in Vermont. According to state and local law enforcement authorities, many of the private vehicles used to transport cocaine are equipped with hidden compartments. Small quantities of powdered cocaine also are smuggled across the U.S.-Canada border via private vehicles. Most of the crack cocaine available in the state is converted locally and distributed by African American local independent dealers; however, these dealers occasionally transport crack into Vermont using private or rental vehicles.

Retail quantities of powdered cocaine typically are sold in nightclubs and bars. Retail quantities of crack typically are sold from apartments and motel rooms.

Cocaine, particularly crack, often is associated with violent crime in Vermont. In October 2002 a Burlington man bludgeoned and stabbed a friend to death after they had smoked crack together. He and his girlfriend then went on a shopping spree with the victim's credit cards. The man was charged with first-degree murder and is awaiting trial. 

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