Cocaine in Mexico made its debut via 19th-century medical use. Although its prohibition was on the books by the 1920's, Mexican authorities were mainly concerned about the opiates and marijuana. The consumption of cocaine locally has never come close to that in the United States, not even today. Mexico's commerce in cocaine had from its start the specific aim of satisfying United States demand. The most prominent of traffickers after prohibitions have come from the Mexican northwest, an area that has long cultivated illicit substances. Their transformation and diversification in the 1970's toward non-national products such as cocaine resulted from clear geographic advantages, the relative profitability of cocaine, decades of experience in local drug smuggling and established networks of political protection, transport and distribution in both countries. Colombian traffickers' mounting obstacles to funneling cocaine through their traditional Florida route was cause for them to reach mutually beneficial accords with their Mexican counterparts. The United States considers the fortunes made in the process the most dramatic in the global world of drugs. Primary sources, notes