The expansion of legalized medical marijuana has caused significant increases in local U.S. marijuana farms, which has resulted in intensified competition with large Mexican drug organizations. About half of the marijuana consumed in the United States is now grown domestically, and often by small “mom-and-pop” farmers. The decentralized nature of domestically grown marijuana has threatened Mexican drug lords in a far more effective manner than the efforts of anti-narcotics programs.
In order for Mexican drug cartels to maintain their competitiveness, they cultivate marijuana directly in the United States instead of exporting it from Mexico. As a result, Mexican drug dealers can sell it for higher prices and minimize the risk of getting caught at the border. They have developed a complex mechanism to grow marijuana, which ranges from California and Washington to Michigan and North Carolina. They have even hidden the drug farms in areas so inaccessible that only airlifts can reach the marijuana plants.
Full legalization of marijuana would likely put an end to cartel involvement, just as the end of alcohol prohibition in 1933 knocked organized crime out of the business.
-Justin Tang