Homegrown Marijuana Threatens Mexican Cartels

Sarah Creech
10/9/09
4:58

Homegrown marijuana is putting massive pressure on the extremely violent Mexican Drug Cartels and changing the Mexican Drug War for good. This competition is having more of an effect than decades of arrests. While illicit marijuana production has been growing in the United States, recent changes of marijuana laws have made it easier for people in the United States to grow themselves. Mexico used to produce almost all of the marijuana that was consumed in the United States. Now, almost half of marijuana available in the United States is produced domestically. To stay competitive, drug cartels are beginning to hire illegal immigrants to grow marijuana in the United States. They operate on rural publicly owned lands with sophisticated networks in California, Washington, Oregon, Michigan, Arkansas, and North Carolina. United States Drug Task Forces are responsible for finding the growing operations and dismantling them. Ralph Reyes, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, made the point that, “The casual consumer in the United States...will never in their mind associate smoking a joint with the severing of people's heads in Mexico.”

Most drug users have no idea what is behind their social habit. Its clearly the United States demand for the product that keeps these drug cartels in business in Mexico. While the cartels sell other illegal substances, marijuana is the main cash crop. It funds their lifestyles and the violence they use to enforce it. America's drug war is nothing the violence in Mexico. The violence and gang activity of Mexico is spilling into the United States causing our government to have to spend even more money on a war that may be easier to fight with decriminalization or legalization of marijuana. I think the only thing that can make this better is a cooperation between Mexico and the U.S. to try and shut down these cartels. They may continue to try fighting a war with arrests, but it may be easier to just let capitalism kill the cartels.




http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/07/politics/washingtonpost/main5368594.shtml