How exactly is the drug trade so profitable?

supply and demand

that simple

Are you guys serious? The Cartel Bosses and those who are in the high echelon live in beautiful Luxurious houses, drive the most expensive cars, and live like kings...

IN THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES! Countries that are lucky to have services like electricity, mail, paved roads, sewage systems, and policemen. A middle class couple in the USA has the ability to retire to a country like this and live a higher lifestyle than is possible here.

The illegal drug trade makes a great deal of money, but the LEGAL drug trade makes chumps of the Cartels. In America we don't use the word Cartel, instead we use the word "companies". Titles of the high echelon in America are called CEO, Director of finance, Corporate President, Research advisor, instead of Campo, Henchmen, or muscle. The men running the Drug "companies" are living in the kind of opulent luxury few people ever achieve. The trade they run is legal, but these people have every bit as much ruthlessness and unconscionable morality as the worst of the Cartels.

These people don't think twice about the millions of their fellow citizens who can not afford to pay for the drugs they need. Drugs to relieve pain, to maintain health, to treat mental illness, to slow down a progressive disease, or to enable them to function normally. They are unconcerned that some people are cutting pills in half, because it's all they can afford.

It is the drug companies who conduct the medical research and who determine the diseases of their studies. If the company is already making a great deal of money from selling a drug that treats the symptoms of a disease, why would they choose to spend money on research that could lead to a cure of that disease. If a drug company has a patent on a drug, they can make a HUGE amount of money prior to a Generic release.

American Drug companies are so powerful that they are able to run this Country. How else is it that the USA, the most powerful government on the planet, is the only advanced Country that has not been able to create a Health-care system for it's citizens.

It' all boils down to people who are so stupid they stink using illegal drugs and a bunch of bacteria feeding off of this.

Depends on who you're talking to.

Lots of people want to buy the product on a regular basis and they have very high profit margins.

No taxes

Judges, Lawyers, and such also make a killing!(no pun intended)....LOL

when the thugs have the police out gunned.plus some police are on the take.

Something no one seems to think about eh, miles2go.
With the economy being in the condition that it is in, more unemployed... guess what... even more people are going to try to get into the business. More people out of work, and stressed out means more potential customers. Pay the right people off to look the other way and Blam! You can get away with almost anything.

This applies to both the legal and illegal pusher.