With medicinal and recreational marijuana available in over half of the Unites States, profits have plummeted for Mexico’s Cartels. As a result, it is being reported that the importation of heroin and methamphetamines has increased. While some are labeling it an epidemic, others believe it may be the key to weakening the Mexican Drug Cartels’ power.
Most American-grown marijuana is of much higher quality than that produced in Mexico. The average THC content of American weed is usually between 10%-20%, whereas Mexican weed is only around 5%-8%.
With marijuana legal for medicinal use in many US states, and some states even decriminalizing marijuana completely, higher-quality American weed is now easier to obtain and in higher demand. Many marijuana farmers in Mexico are switching to opium poppies.
In an interview with NPR’s John Burnett, one farmer stated:
“Two or three years ago, a kilogram [2.2 pounds] of marijuana was worth $60 to $90, but now they’re paying us $30 to $40 a kilo. It’s a big difference. If the US continues to legalize pot, they’ll run us into the ground.”
The Washington Post reported last April that heroin has flooded areas of the US most prone to prescription painkiller abuse, replacing the pharmaceuticals for a cheaper alternative, and according to Drug Enforcement Administration figures, 90% of the meth on US streets is cooked in Mexico.
A couple facts that aren’t mentioned, however, is that aside from alcohol and tobacco, marijuana is the highest drug in demand in the US, well above heroin or meth. And according to a report from ArcView Market Research, legal marijuana is the fastest growing industry in the Unites States, with 74% growth in 2014, meaning as legalized American weed crumbles cartel profits, the American economy gets a boost. Neither heroin nor meth made the top-twenty list of most used drugs in America, however it should also be taken into consideration that this list includes stimulants such as energy drinks and caffeine tablets.
Because illegal drugs generate a lot of money for Mexico and because law enforcement agents there are weak and corrupt, accurate charts for drug costs are hard to produce. Even still, with the information we have now, it would seem marijuana is a major source of revenue for drug cartels.
Here is a chart from Information is Beautiful, an organization that collects various statistics from around the world. According to rough estimates, a square kilometer of marijuana is worth approximately $47.6 million:
By destroying the Mexican-American weed market, we can strike a blow to one of the drug cartels’ main sources of revenue. This will, however, most likely open the gate for other ventures, such as pushing different substances, as we know, and even human smuggling.
No matter what, the Latin American cartels are not going away anytime soon. It’s speculated that if American-grown weed can completely knock cartel-grown weed out of the market, the cartel’s profits from marijuana would drop by 85%. By legalizing marijuana we will severely deplete the value of one of their most profitable products.
Sources:
Head Editor. Marijuana Stocks. Dec 15, 2014. (http://marijuanastocks.com/american-pot-legalization-mexican-cartels/)
McKay, Tom. Mic. Dec 2, 2014. (http://mic.com/articles/105510/11-months-after-marijuana-legalization-here-s-what-s-happening-to-mexican-cartels)
Miroff, Nick. The Washington Post. Apr 6, 2014. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/tracing-the-us-heroin-surge-back-south-of-the-border-as-mexican-cannabis-output-falls/2014/04/06/58dfc590-2123-4cc6-b664-1e5948960576_story.html)
The ArcView Group. Yahoo! Finance. Jan 26, 2015. (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/report-legal-marijuana-fastest-growing-180803888.html)
Here it says just the opposite
http://disinfo.com/2015/01/price-legal-medical-marijauna-makes-black-market-stronger/
That’s just some guys opinion who smokes a lot of weed. It isn’t backed up by facts/sources/anything at all. It makes sense, if it’s legal then just buy from a dealer for cheaper, but that’s not whats happening.
Those drug cartel’s can go to the US government and complain about lost revenue and our government will more than likely give them compensation. Governments are the largest drug cartels of all. The money flows up stream. after it has been thoroughly laundry all illegal drug money finds it way into political hands.
peggy, are you that stupid? US government is the major stakeholder in illegal drug business, why the fuck they have prohibited drugs and created dea on the first place?
To make it make the price at street level as high as possible? Create jobs in enforcement, prisons and courts, etc.
Because keeping it illegal is what makes it profitable, dumbass. If it were legal anybody could do it and there would be no interest in it.
If “…US government is the major stakeholder in illegal drug business, why the fuck they have prohibited drugs and created dea on (sic) the first place?”
Because, as the article stated, if the supply is low (or ILLEGAL) and demand high, then profits soar. The legality of marijuana has nothing to do with the fact that it can be smoked to get “high.” The government IS the cartel, and they criminalized marijuana to increase their profit margin. The DEA and all those other enforcement agencies were created to ELIMINATE THE COMPETITION. The “War on Drugs” is merely a cute buzzword to keep the American people in the dark about what’s REALLY going on.
Anonymous: Now that we have the ball rolling on cannabis freedom we must conduct a legal campaign against Melinda Hague and Laura Duffy to resign their government posts for crimes against humanity. They were both instrumental in prosecuting cannabis users, Hague in particular was responsible for shutting down many cannabis dispensaries.
We need to start a campaign to remove Drug War Criminal Melinda Haag from office. This subhuman would have been at home in the Nazi regime. “Just Following Orders” didn’t work in Nuremberg and it’s not going to work for her. Let’s have her prosecuted for crimes against humanity in a European human rights tribunal. In the meantime, the city of San Francisco needs to create a grass roots movement to have Melinda Haag boycotted from all businesses, like the brave citizens of D.C. did to Rep. Andy Harris. The city of San Fran must BOYCOTT Haag in as many places as possible. Let’s get moving! Anonymous you have your next mission.
We need to start a campaign to remove Drug War Criminal Melinda Haag from office. This subhuman would have been at home in the Nazi regime. “Just Following Orders” didn’t work in Nuremberg and it’s not going to work for her. Let’s have her prosecuted for crimes against humanity in a European human rights tribunal. In the meantime, the city of San Francisco needs to create a grass roots movement to have Melinda Haag boycotted from all businesses, like the brave citizens of D.C. did to Rep. Andy Harris. The city of San Fran must BOYCOTT Haag in as many places as possible. Let’s get moving!
Anonymous you have your next mission.
Anonymous stands up for free speech and would never dream of censoring someone’s comment.
Agreed and approved.
Is anonhq.com an NSA psyops? Why are they censoring comments? Give us a reason cowards.
Sorry, Anonhq, I jumped the gun on accusing you of censorship. But maybe if you could manage to work out the kinks in your system, i.e.publishing comments when they appear instead of waiting a long time, this type of confusion and mishap would not happen.
Thanks.
We make the delay on purpose so everyone take his time thinking and writing his comment instead of spamming, in the end all comments will be approved, thanks.
And here is another prime example of the worlds leaders showing how numb they really are!
Deccriminalise the pot, people then go and buy it from the licensed shops, the profits of which go to the drug and medical services to treat and pay for the drug addicts to get clean. It cuts down on crime less drug dealers to bust so therefore saving the police forces money and there are fewer victims that have to be helped to over come the trauma of it all. Its a win win situation with the governments winning a war theyve been fighting since the mid 1900’s. Its so simple yet so far out of reach for a politician to think of
I’m Mexican This is really good Very acurrate, indeed if marijuana becomes legal, the cartels will go so down we won’t even see them haha but then why isn’t it legal yet? Well the Mexican government and the cartels are so close they make loads of deals so by them being allied, obviously the Mexican government will never legalize marijuana because it is their business too. Plus there are a lot of people that think that marijuana is bad for your health in Mexico wich is not the case but the goverment has influenced in that too, goverment is responsible for all the misinformation and ignorance , basically is a cicle.
And the us gov has many deals with Mexico so..
It just stands to reason that the more we legalize, the more we can control quality, and as the market becomes saturated with safe, high quality marijuana, the price will go down because of a reduction in demand.
At this point, the government should funnel money into abuse prevention to stem the predictable flow of heroin and meth into the country.