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Thursday, December 4, 2014

U.S. Legalization Hurts Mexican Drug Cartels



Borderland Beat posted by Nutzz Republished from Marijuana.com


Marijuana legalization advocates have long campaigned on the claim that ending prohibition will reduce the power of the often violent organized crime networks that control the illegal market.

A Mexican Institute of Competitiveness study, for example, released just before the 2012 elections — when legalization was on the ballot in Colorado, Oregon and Washington State — found that cartels’ drug trafficking revenues could fall by 22 to 30 percent, some $4.6 billion, if the three initiatives passed. The measures in Colorado and Washington did pass that year, and Oregon voters approved a separate legalization initiative this year after narrowly rejecting the 2012 one.

Now National Public Radio reports that the increasingly successful movement to legalize marijuana in U.S. states is indeed cutting into the profits of Mexican drug cartels.

“Two or three years ago, a kilogram of marijuana was worth $60 to $90,” a 24-year-old Mexican marijuana grower named Nabor told NPR. “But now they’re paying us $30 to $40 a kilo. It’s a big difference … The day we get $20 a kilo, it will get to the point that we just won’t plant marijuana anymore.”

As prohibition comes to an end across the U.S. and consumers are given a wide variety of high-quality strain choices in the newly legal market, fewer people see the need to buy pot on the black market, where there’s no quality control and the product isn’t tested and labeled for potency.

“Is it hurting the cartels? Yes. The cartels are criminal organizations that were making as much as 35-40 percent of their income from marijuana,” Terry Nelson, a retired federal border agent who now works with Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, told VICE earlier this year. “They aren’t able to move as much cannabis inside the U.S. now.”

“At one time, virtually all the weed smoked in the States, from Acapulco Gold to Colombian Red, came from south of the border,” NPR reported. “Not anymore.”

Alaska and Washington, D.C. also voted to legalize this year, and several states — such as California and Massachusetts — are expected to consider legalization on the ballot in 2016. That means Americans in even more regions of the country are likely to have access to legal, high-quality marijuana and fewer will have to resort to the black market for their weed needs.

As Nabor, the grower who supplies the Sinaloa cartel, put it, “If the U.S. continues to legalize pot, they’ll run us into the ground

49 comments:

  1. Most cartels are in for the bigger stuff.. Cocaine, Meth thats where the big bucks are.. It will never end

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    1. Your right but only about 5 percent of the u.s population use coke and about 3 percent use meth, when its about 50 percent that use weed! See the numbers? Making weed legal in the u.s. hurts the cartels big time buddy...

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    2. And how you think they get the money to buy the big stuff?? By selling grass!!

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    3. The consuming market for mota is exponentially bigger and mota is affordable for low income to high income Americans. Plus the product cost of mota is low and lost loads don't hurt investment as bad. Many of the biggest and richest "legitimate" businesses in Sinaloa made their fortunes on marijuana and losing this huge market is going to hurt REAL bad. Can you imagine what Cheverolet's revenues would be if all they sold were corvettes?

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    4. Leagalize it in all 50states with the chance for a regular person to plant up to 4 little plants for personal use. Im talking about high quality bud recreational/medicinal to make it more accesible for the people that needed.
      Then you'll see if drug cartels revenue isn't going to take a hit....I bet you that it will, im pretty sure! persons that feel well don't feel the need for hard drugs that can kill unless you don't give a f@ck.
      There is always one "tiny" problem the underage kids and teens! they would probably skip school to stay smoking high quality marihuana all day! with the bum teen gang! lol
      It would be a good move against cartels. Doing it like the alcohol making it illegal for minors to consume pot. Minors only with prescription from a cannabis doctor (doctor cannabis lol)

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    5. One idea I read that made sense. The states that legalize and tax should offer college scholarships to graduating teens that test negative for THC or any illegal drugs. This would encourage young people to stay clean and get an education. If they turn up dirty then the funds are cancelled.

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  2. Don't forget heroin they make lot of $$$ from that.

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  3. It's true that there are bigger markets within different products.. Synthetic being vauled the most, follow by black Mart prescription pills,cocaine, phycadelics and so onn.. BUT this does hurt them in big ways!! So the guys who push "weed" for the cartel usually don't have resources or the people to move the harsher drugs,marihuana is a whole different game from the other drugs out there.. So keep the legalization going, and keep hurting there pockets... The sad thing tho is what else will these cartels will come up with for revenue once marihuana is legalize in more states -FREE THE WEED"

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  4. They are just guerrilla growing up in the mountains now and shipping east. Hear of zetas in the emerald triangle growing but keep a low profile. That A.G. is still around and it's fire.

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  5. It will come to a point that the drug cartels are going to turn into oil,coal,gas,gold cartels. I heard that most of mexicos natural resources dont belong to the mexican people any more. I heard that theyre going to sell their beaches as well.

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    1. They already do! they steal the oil, and steal other peoples mines! em bad rats got their hands on everything!

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  6. How can a couple of states take away 30%. Cartels have been going into multi business not just marijuana. I do not think corrupt government employees are making 30% less. The cartel will just move into the legitimate side of the business without any chance of getting arrested.

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  7. If the U.S. legalizes kidnapping, murder, land theft, siphoning natural resources, bribery, moneylaundering and rape, then it will hurt Mexico's cartels

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    1. That's for damn sure. Alot of cartels make their money from terrorizing the public.. It seems like there is more revenue made in theft and terror these days.

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  8. This is propaganda, lies,lies and more lies. Who do you think is growing in Northern California.? That's right,the cartels have been there since the late 1990's. They are still making money ttransporting California weed to states that don't have legal weed. Also,farmers in Mexico are now planting poppy over weed.

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    1. U r wrong nobody works for the cartels here in cali everybody works for them selfs if they sell to a cartels client then they give a percent to them but they never say if they are cartel like if somebody knows a connect in chicago i have to give that sombody 200 dllrs per pound i sell to them but know cartel work here in northen cali

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    2. You are an idiot, the sinaloa cartel has a huge presence in Northern California only to be surpassed by the russian mafia who has a big interest in high quality weed coming for NorCal

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    3. The sinaloa cartel has cells everywhere in cali from north to south those btches wantta turn california into another mexico with their corruption. But the russian mafia?? didn't know the russian mafia was that big in Corrupt Fornia

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  9. Lol there is still black markets for marijuana in places where it's legalized. And theres no zetas in the emerald triangle chill out with those lies.

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    1. But why buy shitty weed when you can the best stuff at the store

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  10. Just because weed becomes unprofitable means cartels will shift to other rackets from humans to oro, wood to oil, parrots to reptiles, and anything in between. If it has value, then the mafia is on it.

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  11. Will they move to Canada and try to get established -BC Bud, Romulan, etc , much better product.

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  12. It's really going to hurt Mexican cartels. I see the news here in Arizona often and most of the time there's trucks that the border agents find full of weed inside and out, like 2 or 3 kilos of meth or coke. So I know for a fact it's gana hurt cartels and they are going to rely more on extorting business and kidnapping tomake up for the money their used to getting

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  13. I think this might hurt the CDG the most because they mainy move weed because they don't have enough connection for a large amounts of coke they make shitty meth and heroin weed is some thing they move in the tons and is cheaper

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  14. So there is hope that the cartels will suffer financially.

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  15. All The Good Stuff is Still coming from. Mexico and into the dispensaries if it's legal it will still benefit them but they will loose money if everyone starts planting them at home

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    1. It's good but not the best. The best is being grown in the US. And that's a fact. Mexico has the quantity and the US has the quality.

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  16. First of all, IMO marijuana should be legal for all sorts of reasons. The cartels are diversifying into so many things that are far worse such as human trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, meth, etc. If they no longer have the revenue from marijuana won't they just increase doing those things to make up the difference ? I lived in Mexico for 6 years. I used to LOVE that country and still do although after being a victim of a very, very brutal crime there I will never go back. I am glad to see the people rising up and protesting and also forming the auto defensas. The everyday people are the only ones that can take their country back from the criminals and the corrupt politicians.

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  17. Other drugs such as Cocaine, Heroine and Meth are filling up the gap that the legalization of marijuana leaves on the cartel's revenue. That is why Heroine use has skyrocket with a 700% increase in the last 10 years and meth use has gone up 450% during this same period of time. Also the Mexican cartels are also gaining their market share dominance in cocaine, heroine, and meth that is introduced not on to the US, but important drug trafficking markets around the world.

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  18. Just make it legal dam. its. so easy to get. govt y not make money n tax it. then mayb our local taxes wont keep goin up. but im hi right now on some purple urple. woo i cant see. trih

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  19. "Weed" what a great victory for the US...50% of the population smoke shit, what a great achievement... and we should get our toes curling from the emotion like some bitter and frustrated old lady who never had any fun until she met grifa, mexican grifa does not live off designer's grifa for rich homos, it is all about the cheapest for the most, not about enriching some rich cocksucker at his dispensary with daddy's money, the people wins again...

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  20. Way to fight the war on drugs. If you cant beat em join em right. Im suprised more americans arent worried that now with 3 narco states in america thanks to greedy politicians you end up with cartels that are forced to export meth as apposed to pot in order to make up for the 60 billion in revenue being lost to those american narco states. I am again taken the dummies who dont see the harm in more meth being imported further fueling the already out of control american drug addiction machine. These are the same GREEDY PIGS that invented prohibition in order to manipulate black markets and drive market prices to what they are today so they can fill they pockets while tons of cocaine heroine and meth flood American streets. Thats awesome lets tax the ADDICTS. Great idea tax payers lets replace all the cheech and chongs with walter whitse and jesse pinkmans. WHOS WINNING THE WAR NOW. ARRIVA N.A.F.T.A.

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    1. Please stop....your comment was worse than Mariah Carey's performance last night......

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    2. awwww you had to watch mariah all alone last night. It must suck being a troll i cant imagine sharing any sympathy but its ok BB will be here for you and we the readers will answer you. saludos jotos. Decriminalizing marijuana opened the doors for synthetic marijuana market which does put poison on the street. Go back and watch mariah. All her songs remind me of how sorry the above culero must be.

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    3. Are you saying they're avoiding selling meth just because cannabis is illegal now? That doesn't make sense. They will sell EVERYTHING they can because it ofcourse increases the profits and if they don't it's because they feel they can't for whatever reasons it may be.

      Also it is a well documented fact that the vast majority of cannabis users are exclusive to that drug. Just because something is available it doesn't automatically mean it will also sell.

      The only negative thing that could happen is if the decreased profits lead to more "diversification" (kidnappings, extortions etc.) but decrease they will without a doubt.

      -Mike Haggar

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  21. Legalization is indeed having a big effect on the Cartels. In Sinaloa, for instance , farmers who have been growing weed for generations are switching to Poppies, causing an over-supply which is drastically reducing the value of heroin smuggled into the U.S. Bad news for the cartels, to be sure, but its also raising fears of a heroin-use epidemic in the U.S., where street prices are also taking a nose dive.

    DD: Check out this article from the April 6 edition of the Washington Post:

    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

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  22. Interesting, because a recent study out of Colorado revealed that the black market demand & the prices for marijuana have remained steady since legalization. That being the case, there's only so much stealing that can be attributed to domestic criminals stealing from dispensaries & legitimate grow operations. What am I getting at? Cartels still have a hand in illegal grow operations that the DEA is struggling to control. I don't see them giving up a 22 to 30 percent market share in a lucrative business like mota. If anything, it would be in the best interest of domestic criminals to join cartels so that the cartels can retain as much of the market share as possible (by way of continued illegal grow operations, sophisticated mota thefts, or otherwise). Let's not forget their enforcement muscle. I'm not an advocate of criminal activity. This is just an observation.

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  23. Cartels will adjust.. There's plenty of other illegal ways to make money other than weed. It's not going to hurt them as much as people think it will.

    It's going to hurt the mid-level and low-level pot dealers who don't want to sell the harder drugs the most.

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    1. Those mid level and low level pot dealers are what keep the cartels interested in bringing the weed in. There's tons of those lil guys selling. Do the math no the meth. Of course the cartels will adjust but it will and has hurt their weed business.

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  24. Who smokes mexican brick pack? Medical dispensaries don't sell that crap. Maybe border cities? I'm pretty sure by know some will know someone who grows it and can produce decent grade tree. No need for that low grade.

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  25. The day that cartels begin to flood the streets with new drugs like krokodyl is going to be the day that people are going to realize that legalizing cannabis was not a good thing. Don't get me wrong I believe that cannabis should have never been illegal in the 1920's, but legalizing it 90 plus years after causes too much risk for national security.

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    1. The problem with Western civilization with money, is that we don't know what moderation is. It over shadows any medicinal benefit weed has because people over do it & get todos pendejos. I used to think that taking Portugal's approach toward legalization would work for the US but it won't because we abuse it & don't know how to moderate ourselves.

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    2. Totally agree with your comments.Here in Canada where it is still illegal the government started showing TV ads on the ill effects of marijuana use just like they used to do with cigarettes.They said memory loss and drop in IQ.I personally know of 2 heavy pot smokers that quit because they were getting scitziphrenia and it went away after they quit.You are right;what happened to moderation?What happened to the weekend smoker?Seems like everyone is an everyday pot smoker now.

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  26. Wat All This Means And Wats Gona Happen Is more violence and killing and more guns y cuz heroine coke meth is gona hit harder and gona b cheaper and more money to b made y cuz the government fuked up the reggy game so instead of fixing the problem ther just gona make it worst thank you! !!!!

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  27. Legalize it in mexico,people get killed and arrested over a plant,how senseless is that?

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  28. marihuana.com is your source LOL propaganda at its highest. mexico already had a legalization policy look up tienditas and it failed just like every legalization policy before it.stop glorifying the drug and crime cultures stop getting high get an education and spread the knowledge in the community that's what puts a dent I drug cartels wallets.

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  29. Makes no sense north american weed cost a lot more, the ones buying must be the same drug trafickers for themselves cause mexican weed sucks low low quallity

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