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Article: Street Value
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Drugs, Alcohol, and Addictive Behavior
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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STREET VALUE
When drugs are seized by a police or interdiction agency, the significance of the seizure is often measured in terms of its street value, that is, the revenues that would be fetched if each gram were sold at the current retail price. Such measures are routine among police and customs service agents in the United States and in most other nations, although large price fluctuations can occur from one area to another and within short time frames.
The use of the term
street value
is potentially misleading when it is intended to convey the significance of the seizure as a loss to the traffickers. The price of drugs rises steeply as they move down the distribution chain from point ...