Wilmington is the county seat of New Hanover County and has a population of 101,350 people. The city was named in honor of Spencer Compton, the Earl of Wilmington, who was Prime Minister under England’s King George II.
Wilmington was settled on the Cape Fear River and has a historic downtown. In 2008, The National Trust for Historic Preservation named Wilmington one of its Dozen Distinctive Destinations. Wrightsville Beach is only a twenty-minute drive from downtown Wilmington.
Congress designated Wilmington “A Coast Guard City” and the city is the home port for the United States Coast Guard Cutter Diligence. Wilmington is the site of the USS Drug rehab in North Carolina, a battleship in World War II, and now a war memorial. Wilmington is the home of EUE Screen Gems Studios, the largest television and movie production facility outside of California. Movies like “A Walk To Remember”, “Blue Velvet”, “Cape Fear”, “28 Days”, and “Nights in Rodanthe” as well the television shows “Matlock”, “Dawson’s Creek” and “One Tree Hill” were all made in Wilmington.
The city has continued to grow and is a popular place for people to spend their retirement. This has only increased drug trafficking in the area.
North Carolina has had a marked increase in drug trafficking in the past decade. North Carolina has a largely rural area, as well as a large migrant population and mountainous areas, all of which contribute to the trafficking increase. Heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana are all available in North Carolina. As a result, law enforcement is working hard to control drug trafficking and addiction problems.
Cocaine is shipped from northeastern North Carolina into Pennsylvania and Virginia. Despite this, cocaine addiction has stayed static for the past ten years in North Carolina. In the past twenty years, heroin use has decreased, through the use of the drug is still popular in the cities.
The use of methamphetamine continues to grow in North Carolina, which has contributed to an increase in crime. Marijuana is a drug readily available throughout North Carolina. As in every state in the United States, prescription drug addiction is growing at an alarming rate, creating criminal, social and economic problems.