Posted on 03/05/2016 9:11:55 PM PST by Ken H
Legal marijuana may be doing at least one thing that a decades-long drug war couldn't: taking a bite out of Mexican drug cartels' profits.
The latest data from the U.S. Border Patrol shows that last year, marijuana seizures along the southwest border tumbled to their lowest level in at least a decade. Agents snagged roughly 1.5 million pounds of marijuana at the border, down from a peak of nearly 4 million pounds in 2009.
The data supports the many stories about the difficulties marijuana growers in Mexico face in light of increased competition from the north. As domestic marijuana production has ramped up in places such as California, Colorado and Washington, marijuana prices have fallen, especially at the bulk level.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Prohibition created the drug cartels....legalization and supply and demand economics is killing them. Who’d a thunk it.
Hope we won’t have to legalize human trafficking.
What Mexico has lost in revenue for pot cultivation, has been made up in poppy cultivation. We now are experiencing a flood of heroin flowing into the country.
It is funny, in this WP article claims because less pot is siezed at the border it means less is crossing to border. Yet in in another article about illegals crossing the border. The WP has this to say.
Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said the level of criminal activity belies claims that because fewer illegal immigrants are being caught, the border has improved in recent years.
“This is the challenge we are facing at the border today,” he said. “There are those who will point to lower apprehension rates and tell you the border is secure. Border Patrol agents, however, throughout this nation will tell you the border is not secure, and the southwest border certainly is not safe.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/9/20-pct-illegals-caught-border-have-criminal-record/?page=all
Note: I made a mistake in previous post, second article from Washington Times, not Washington Post.
If there government valued personal freedom they would allow cultivation of marijuana for personal use.
It’s a friggin’ plant.
jonrick46 you are right about the heroin. We are seeing it in the high schools in Colorado now and our prison nurse friend says the jail is now full with heroin people. Get ready america this stuff cuts across all demographics of race and affluence. The prices are going down so many people are getting hooked now.
It’s a lot easier to rationalize putting a bullet in a slavers head that a guy with a bag of weed...
There is a constitutional amendment against slavery, which states do not have the authority to defy.
Where is the constitutional amendment that forbids the states from legalizing marijuana or allows fedgov to regulate intrastate mj?
Or it may not.As domestic marijuana production has ramped up in places such as California, Colorado and Washington, marijuana prices have fallen, especially at the bulk level.
A) Who do you think is operating those groves? Correct! Mexican drug cartels.
B) Lower prices do not necessarily mean lesser profits. Increased sales could allow for lower prices while maintaining profits. Plus, reduced transportation costs could also allow for lower prices while maintaining profit margins.
The bottom line is; potheads can continue to destroy this country for their own self-gratification and not give a damn. Congrats.
History repeats itself. Late 1960’s, marijuana was almost legal...open use was prevalent, many cities had a look the oher way policy. The mj trafficing from Mexico was hugh and series.
Then heroin came to town. This was before pill mills and all that nonsense. It was getting sold to the lower level dealers by the middlemen. The gangs were pleased because they could make more money with one mule than with 10 trucks. Or boats. Plus, the mule was usually some dopey junky no one cared about.
Anyone who remembers the end of the sixties remembers meth, heroin and the growing number of deaths and increase in vioent crime. This is not as simple a story as it is made out to be. History repeats.
The average heroin user buys it from someone they know, and probably someone they smoke pot with. It doesn’t fall from the sky. The cartels are not going to give up their power to some jagov in CO because he has a rinky dink store. When they want to take the market back, they will. Right now, they are thriled with our dopey laws and inability to pass legislation properly. The cartels are patient, they’ll wait until someone finally realizes what they are doing and starts to take drugs seriously. It isn’t just a plant, it’s a multi-billion dollar a year industry that spreads into so many other things, supporting guns, slave trade and you name it.
Like the man said in the Godfather...”they are bigger than US Steel.” And they aren’t going to give it up without a real viscious fight.
God never forbade pot; did forbid human trafficking.
God forbade misuse of any otherwise unforbidden thing.
We don’t have a drug problem.
Now you say Redneck, are you crazy?
But we don’t have a drug problem.
We have a God problem.
As in ignoring God.
Chemicals, which never could force us to do evil things with them of themselves, are being used by demons to lead people astray.
God would show Himself way more powerful than all that, but He never goes and blesses where He isn’t invited to. And quite frankly, half the time you hear about God today it’s probably “God damn him” and “God damn her.” Well He is granting those wishes, and are we so surprised?
The cartels have been operating grow operations in CO and the other southwestern states since long before legalization. CO collected $135M in marijuana taxes in 2015. CA collects around $1B/yr in medical mj taxes. That’s over a billion dollars out of the pockets of the cartels.
Hooray!
Anyone who has an understanding of the true nature of Freedom, that's who.
Freedom doesn't just mean the Right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness; it also means respecting other individuals' Right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
I don't get to decide the boundaries of your Pursuit of Happiness, unless and until you infringe on someone else's rights by committing a crime of force, fraud, or palpable negligence.
Contraband law is Unamerican and Tyrannical; anybody who thinks a person should be subject to prison for possessing the wrong medicine, plant, liquid spirits, or recreational chemical fundamentally misunderstands what Freedom is.
Again, my Pursuit of Happiness shouldn't depend on the whims of any other individual or group. Only in the most compelling circumstances can such a thing even be contemplated, and it should be the exception rather than the rule.
Arbitrary law, and the misguided, shortcut-seeking Prohibitionist mind is what helped create and nurture organized crime cartels, both during alcohol Prohibition and also during the course of the Constitution-shredding Drug War.
George Washington grew hemp (marijuana). Thus, in today's America, the Father of our Country would be subject to a lengthy prison sentence for doing so, even if the crop wasn't intended for recreational use! He'd also be subject to militarized police breaking into his home with a "no knock" search warrant, ready to shoot dead anything that moves.
Cheering a militarized Police State as it imposes Tyranny on your brother for doing something you don't approve of will likely result someday in the same thing happening to you or someone you care about!
No thanks. I categorically reject such compromised Liberty. I'll continue honoring Liberty in its pure, unadulterated form, with its many inconveniences, challenges, perils, and advantages, and in all of its exhilarating glory.
Correct! The groves operated by the Mexican drug cartels!
That the dispensaries pay taxes on the pot they sell does not mean the money came out of the cartels' pockets.
At least this system is more honest.
The government never really wanted to “win the drug war.” It was way too much of a cash cow in Kabuki theater efforts to fight it, which if too effective would have been self defeating.
Better to let it be a cash cow via taxes. And more of this can go to rehab than in the other way.
We need God, however, to really make it fly. Even George Washington said so.
The best morality isn’t the one that is “punished in” but the one that is taught by conscience towards an awesome God of copious blessings, and yet who will not prosper sin.
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