›› Virginia: Drug Climate

The availability and abuse of major drugs continues to increase in Virginia. The main stay drugs in Virginia continue to be cocaine, meth, and marijuana.

• Cocaine
  Cocaine is widely abused and available throughout Virginia. Crack cocaine continues to plague inner city settings, particularly in Richmond, Roanoke, and the Tidewater area. Mexican drug traffickers based in North Carolina who have been supplying increasing amounts of cocaine to Virginia.
• Heroin
  Heroin is widely available in Virginia's urban areas, but is less prevalent in rural counties of the Commonwealth. In the Richmond metropolitan area, heroin is not only an inner city phenomenon, but has gained popularity amongst white young people from upper middle class suburbs.
• Meth
  Meth has become the drug of choice in certain Valley towns such as Harrisonburg and Staunton. The user population in that part of the state is largely white, rural, and uneducated. By contrast, the user population in the Richmond area consists of white college-aged young people involved in the rave scene.
• Club Drugs
  Ecstasy is available throughout Virginia's urban areas and is sold largely in dance clubs and raves where young college-aged young people congregate. Ecstasy is rapidly encroaching on the mainstream drug trade and cuts across all categories of race, age and socio-economic status in Virginia.
• Marijuana
  Marijuana is widely available throughout the Commonwealth, and is imported into Virginia from a number of diverse trafficking groups from many different source areas.