US Marijuana Legalization Means The Mexican Cartels Lose Business And Money
In addition to constantly having a severe case of the munchies, who would have thought legalizing marijuana in the United States would also be responsible for the Mexican drug cartel's massive loss in revenue?
That's exactly what's happening, and unfortunately for the Mexican drug cartels, there's really no stopping it.
This is all thanks to the recent rise in marijuana legalization throughout the United States. Rather than having to text a sketchy drug dealer and wait two whole hours for an illegal bag of stale weed, Americans can now shop for cannabis right in select states here at home.
In a recent interview with NPR, a 24-year-old grower in Sinaloa, Mexico named Nabor reveals,
Two or three years ago, a kilogram 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.
Aside from the uprise in legalization being the reason for the Cartel's revenue loss on marijuana, Americans are now able to get higher quality strains without venturing too far.
As a matter of fact, the Mexican drug cartels have had to find ways to match the potency of the strains found in the American states were weed is legal. At this point, it's becoming an uphill battle!
In the 2015 National Drug Threat Assessment, the DEA revealed,
The quality of marijuana produced in Mexico and the Caribbean is thought to be inferior to the marijuana produced domestically in the United States or in Canada. Law enforcement reporting indicates that Mexican cartels are attempting to produce higher-quality marijuana to keep up with U.S. demand.
The downside to all of this? The cartels are producing much larger amounts of heroin and methamphetamines, which are obviously much more harmful to society.
But hey, it's the Mexican drug cartels. Did you really think they wouldn't find a way to offset their losses?!
Citations: Legal Marijuana Causes Mexican Drug Cartel Revenues to Plummet (SF Gate)
