Cartels are foregoing pot and opium fields for synthetic drugs, says the Mexican defense minister

As the wholesale price per pound of legal cannabis drops in some states bordering Mexico, cartels in the country are shifting to more lucrative drugs: fentanyl and other synthetic drugs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced this week that fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 45, thanks in part to criminal involvement in several countries.

Texas is the only state bordering Mexico with no adult cannabis, and it shows in prices. Mexico’s cartels once relied on organic poppy and cannabis farms to produce drugs, but times have changed. The illegal eradication of cannabis in Mexico has been halved in recent years – in line with the schedule of cannabis legalization in the north.

Mexico’s Defense Minister General Luis Cresencio Sandoval said cannabis and other organic drugs like opium-rich poppy seeds are out for cartels and fentanyl is in.

The Associated Press reports that, according to Sandoval, the seizures of fentanyl during the first three years of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s reign, who died on Jan.

During that period, law enforcement officers seized 1,232 pounds (559 kilograms) of fentanyl between 2016 and 2018 and 7,710 pounds (3,497 kilograms) between 2019 and 2021.

The reason for the switch is that results will improve when cartel activities switch from organic opioids to synthetic opioids, which are cheaper to manufacture. “Consumption has changed, there has been a change in drug markets because of the ease with which synthetic drugs are made,” Sandoval said. Cartels no longer have to pay for workers to grow poppies and slowly scrape off the opium that seeps from the poppy bulbs. The same could be said about the growing / trimming / curing process of cannabis.

But the synthetic drugs don’t come from Mexico. Mexican cartels can order fentanyl online from Asia at wholesale price and then cut it into ready-to-go cans. Laboratories also produce drugs like meth, which is also more profitable than organic cannabis or opium. “The laboratories that were discovered or confiscated in this administration had larger capacities, which enabled us to confiscate more methamphetamine products,” said Sandoval.

The number of methane incidents rose in the past three years from 54,521 kilograms (54,521 kilograms) to almost 275,000 kilograms (124,735 kilograms) in the past three years – an increase of 128 percent. On November 18, a record-breaking amount of meth and fentanyl was discovered by a truck driver at the Otay Mesa port of entry in San Diego, according to a report from the US District Attorney’s Office. Border officials found 17,584 pounds of methamphetamine and 388.93 pounds of fentanyl in the truck.

Mexico’s data is consistent with recent documents, updated October 14th and compiled by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), which works within the Library of Congress and works directly for members of Congress. “Despite early supply chain disruptions, US illicit drug shipments appear to have returned to pre-pandemic levels; Illegal fentanyl flows in particular seem to be thriving, ”CRS reported. Just a year earlier, the CRS had admitted in another document that legal cannabis in particular harms cartels. “Authorities predict a continued decline in US demand for Mexican marijuana as drugs other than marijuana are likely to dominate,” wrote CRS. “This is also the case because cannabis, or medicinal cannabis, has been legalized in several US states and Canada, which diminishes its value as part of the portfolio of Mexican trade organizations.”

Meanwhile, the Mexican Senate is well on its way to endorse recreational cannabis.

Still, some cartel operations are planning to sell cannabis, legal or not. The Daily Beast reports that the Sinaloa cartel is already working to infiltrate the legal cannabis market in Mexico, according to “antitrust agents”. It is unclear how the cartel intends to proceed, for example to force its way into licensing.

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