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GliderGuider

(21,088 posts) Fri May 9, 2014, 02:45 PM May 2014

Grand Closing: America’s Pot Farmers Are Putting Mexican Cartels Out of Business

Grand Closing: America’s Pot Farmers Are Putting Mexican Cartels Out of Business

For the first time in generations, farmers in central Mexico have stopped planting marijuana.

Due to ample supplies up north, courtesy of medical and recreational cannabis legalization, cartel farmers can’t make any money off pot anymore, they told the Washington Post this week. The price for a pound of Mexican marijuana has plummeted 75 percent from $100 per kilogram to less than $25.

"'It’s not worth it anymore,'" said 50 year-old Rodrigo Silla, a lifelong cannabis farmer. He also told the Post he couldn’t remember the last time his family and others stopped growing mota. “'I wish the Americans would stop with this legalization.'”

For several years we have been writing about how researchers think that domestic cannabis legalization will seriously hurt Mexican drug cartels — who have murdered something like 60,000 people in the last decade. We've reported on how California cannabis has cut Mexican cartels out of the Golden State. That garbage goes east now. Researchers estimate legalization would cost the cartels billions, and a think tank in Mexico said that legalization in just one US state would cut cartels out of the US pot industry. Those days appears to have arrived.

Well would you look at that!

5 replies

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Grand Closing: America’s Pot Farmers Are Putting Mexican Cartels Out of Business (Original Post) GliderGuider May 2014 OP

...is a bit of an overstatement. Comrade Grumpy May 2014 #1

Pot IS a gateway drug! Cooley Hurd May 2014 #3

Well we all knew it would be esp. those making $$$ on the war on drugs all these years lunasun May 2014 #2

They'll turn to other illegal substances to grow RainDog May 2014 #4

90% of heroin use is among non-latino whites RainDog May 2014 #5

Comrade Grumpy

(13,184 posts)

1. ...is a bit of an overstatement.

Reply to GliderGuider (Original post)

Fri May 9, 2014, 02:58 PM

May 2014

Marijuana production and export counts for some fraction of their business, estimates range from 15% to 60%.

They also have hot product lines in Colombian cocaine and Mexican manufactured meth.

And Mexican-grown opium poppies. I bet a lot of those guys who grew pot are switching to poppies.

Cooley Hurd

(26,877 posts)

3. Pot IS a gateway drug!

Reply to Comrade Grumpy (Reply #1)

Fri May 9, 2014, 06:18 PM

May 2014

...for growers.

lunasun

(21,646 posts)

2. Well we all knew it would be esp. those making $$$ on the war on drugs all these years

Reply to GliderGuider (Original post)

Fri May 9, 2014, 03:08 PM

May 2014

cartels knew it and played their part too

hope it is game over for both $ides soon every where world wide
So many countries destoyed ...and USA helped

Buy local!!!

RainDog

(28,784 posts)

4. They'll turn to other illegal substances to grow

Reply to GliderGuider (Original post)

Fri May 9, 2014, 06:28 PM

May 2014

as they already have.

The DEA has focused on prescription drug abuse - the substances that imitate heroin or are closely related - so those who abuse prescription drugs are turning to cheaper heroin.

This is why regulating substances that are abused is a better strategy - the Portuguese experiment has demonstrated this over a 10 year period.

Let addicts go to a clinic for their drug, and have substance abuse treatment programs easily available to participate in via sign-ups, on site.

Provide clean needles.

Some of the greatest expense from drug abuse is side issues like HIV or Hep. C from needle sharing - this, alone, would save millions by prevention of these illnesses among the addicted population.

It will take a while, still, for a lot of people to recognize that working from a harm reduction standpoint is not an endorsement of using drugs of abuse because we have so many who view addiction as something like "sin" rather than a health issue that can be better managed by acknowledging that rates of addiction remain stable - no matter what substance is targeted - so how do we best help those with addictions to improve their lives and, hopefully, improve their motivation to deal with addiction itself.

RainDog

(28,784 posts)

5. 90% of heroin use is among non-latino whites

Reply to GliderGuider (Original post)

Fri May 9, 2014, 08:31 PM

May 2014

fwiw.

http://www.ncadd.org/index.php/in-the-news/377-prescription-drug-abuse-fueling-rise-in-heroin-addiction

The increase in prescription drug abuse is fueling a rise in heroin addiction, NBC News reports. A growing number of young people who start abusing expensive prescription drugs are switching to heroin, which is cheaper and easier to buy.

Prescription pain pills cost $20 to $60, while heroin costs $3 to $10 a bag. Many young people who use heroin start off snorting the drug, and within weeks, most start shooting up, according to the news report.

“Kids in the city know not to touch it, but the message never got out to the suburbs,” said Chicago Police Capt. John Roberts, whose son died of a heroin overdose. He founded the Heroin Epidemic Relief Organization to help other families deal with teen heroin use.

In 2009, the most recent year for which national data is available, 510 young adults, ages 15 to 24, died of a heroin overdose, up from 198 in 1999. Almost 90 percent of teens who are addicted to heroin are white.

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