A Big Boohoo For Drug Cartels As Pot Legalization Eats Away At Their Profits
As a Facebook friend put it, "Gee. Its almost as if what Nobel prize winning economists say about supply and demand is true."
"Legal US Weed Is Killing Drug Cartels" is the headline on the Jonah Bennett piece at The Daily Caller:
The growth of the U.S. marijuana industry has devastated drug cartels in Mexico, evidenced by fewer seizures of cannabis at the border and, according to Mexican security forces, a drop in total homicides and domestic marijuana production rates.Mexican drug cartels are finding it difficult to compete in the cannabis market not only in terms of price, but also quality, given that the U.S. industry is starting to label products according to THC content, CNBC reports. According to The ArcView Group, a cannabis research firm, the marijuana industry in the U.S. grew 74 percent in just one year, up from $1.5 billion in 2013 to $2.7 billion in 2014.
Marijuana from Mexico, on the other hand, is often mass-produced in less than ideal conditions, with no guarantee as to the safety of the product.
Advocates who initially pushed for legalization in Washington and Colorado have argued strenuously in the past that increased access to marijuana in the U.S. would mean a decline in drug-related violence and revenue for the cartels in Mexico.
Homicides in Mexico have dropped from 22,852 in 2011 to 15,649 as of 2014, which tracks relatively closely with the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington, although the link between the two events is not conclusive.
...the link between the two events is not conclusive.
In other news, the ground got wet, but experts find no evidence linking it to recent rainfall in the area.
Take off your 'drugs are bad' glasses, it might get clearer.
DrCos at February 20, 2015 3:31 AM
BULLSHIT.
Mexican cartels never sold weed in this country successfully. It's fucking ridiculous to link the drop because weed became legal in two states, and they even admit it indirectly. Tells you how little the American media knows about the cartels and the violence they cause.
The drop is because Los Zetas have lost power due to Los Negros and MS-13 forming an alliance. Los Zetas is partly composed of indirectly US trained Mexican and Central American mercenaries or guys recruited from their respective countries Special Forces. They were hired by the Gulf Cartel to fuck everyone up but decided to off-shoot and form their own group, which lead to a clusterfuck of every cartel hiring trained soldiers with advanced technology.
El Chapo is currently in custody and Sinaloa cartel has once again been able to eviserate all its competition. Hence the drop in violence.
Ppen at February 20, 2015 4:52 AM
Wow, DrCos. Get thee to the Nizkor fallacy tutorial, quickly -- because you have to rule out other reasons to establish ANY link between this and legalization of just pot in two middlin' size states.
Hey, if you want drugs, just say so. Don't make things up.
By the way, I see something up there: "Marijuana from Mexico, on the other hand, is often mass-produced in less than ideal conditions, with no guarantee as to the safety of the product."
There you go: another appeal to consumer protections, exactly as I have done from the beginning of debates about "legalization" (still in quotes because I see no agreement about what that means).
Radwaste at February 20, 2015 5:19 AM
...you have to rule out other reasons to establish ANY link...
I would say that is a fallacy as well.
Apparently in your world there can be only one link for two (apparently) related things.
DrCos posts comments I think are stupid.
Therefore DrCos is stupid.
Or how about:
Drugs are bad. Marijuana is a drug.
Therefore marijuana is bad.
Can we not be open to the idea that legalizing marijuana might have some positive effects? M'kay?
drcos at February 20, 2015 7:46 AM
Hey, if you want drugs, just say so
You mean like booze? Or caffeine? Or nicotine?
Or every new underground synthetic or designer drug that are worse than weed, cocaine, and heroin; but still technically legal until the law catches up with them?
lujlp at February 20, 2015 9:41 AM
"There you go: another appeal to consumer protections, exactly as I have done from the beginning of debates about "legalization" (still in quotes because I see no agreement about what that means)."
It means I can drive on down the hill into a little town to the west of me, stop in at Margie's Pot Shop and buy weed.
http://www.margiespot.com/
Steve Daniels at February 20, 2015 1:46 PM
"Mexican cartels never sold weed in this country successfully."
Ppen, that is demonstrably untrue. What other explanation can there be for years and years of huge busts at the Southwest Border? Where else could that stuff have been coming from? Are you saying someone other than the cartels were smuggling it?
jim at February 20, 2015 2:37 PM
I can't attest to the accuracy of this, but I live about 20 minutes from Washington state. I have friends in Washington, of which several smoke pot. They have stated it's very expensive to buy pot in a store, quite a bit more expensive than buying from street dealers. Since I don't live in Washington nor smoke pot I don't know if this is completely true, just true in their area, or they are lying about it altogether.
BunnyGirl at February 20, 2015 2:43 PM
Jim,
Most marijuana is grown in the U.S. Mexican weed sells for nothing because nobody wants it. The seizures you see are because the underlings do the work, and the profit margin is so abysmally low that they don't care to put in the effort to smuggle it well.
Cartels make their main profit off heroin, coke, human trafficking, extortion, and kidnappings. I know it doesn't look that way but the middle class consumes a shit ton of heroin.
Ppen at February 20, 2015 5:23 PM
"I would say that is a fallacy as well."
Well, clearly you don't understand logic.
Radwaste at February 21, 2015 3:35 AM
Well, clearly you don't understand logic.
...another fallacy.
DrCos at February 22, 2015 3:34 AM
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