In the 1980's, the Cartel decided to drive down the price of the drug as a strategy to increase demand (Adams 23). In this time period, Escobar and his Medellin drug cartel controlled as much as 80% of the multibillion-dollar export of Colombian cocaine to the United States (Rabasa 55). Producing strategies for the Medellin cartel to supply and sell large quantities of cocaine to the United States prove his enormous role in the drug trade in Columbia and the United States.
Cocaine is a stimulant that is also highly addictive. John Flynn, psychologist and author of Cocaine: an in-depth look at the facts, science, history, and future of the world's most addictive drug, notes that because of its chemical properties users rapidly build up a tolerance, and the drug often turns into an addictive habit (14). Users soon become slaves to their habits. By becoming absorbed in the drug's effects and obtaining it, users often loose interest in many things they once enjoyed. They often stop going to work or are fired because of excessive absences. It often causes relationship problems between users and their family and friends (Flynn15). Many times users will waste away their savings and earnings in order to obtain the drug. They then may be forced to resort to stealing and other illegal means of obtaining the drug. The chemical properties in cocaine make users aggressive, anxious, and depressed, which may lead to drug-related violence (Flynn 16). "Cocaine sales [in the United States] drive much of the country's drug-related violence as rival gangs compete for lucrative sales territory and addicts steal to feed their habit."" (Rabasa 19). Eventually, users find themselves devastated emotionally and economically. .
By creating an entrepreneurial organization of terror that supplied American users with ample amounts of cocaine that accelerated usage, Pablo Escobar contributed to the abuse of cocaine for personal economic benefits.