A Pot Crackdown Could Be a Huge Gift to Trumps Bad Hombres
Among the many statements Donald Trump made last year during the campaign were promises to crack down on the “bad hombres” crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and suggestions he’d take a hands-off approach to legalized marijuana.
While the statements weren’t made in tandem, they had a certain coherence: As has been widely reported, the legalization of marijuana in Washington and Colorado in 2012—and in several other states since—has disrupted the business models of Mexican drug cartels that had been making big bucks smuggling marijuana into the United States. However, while the Trump administration has moved forward with its border enforcement plans with gusto, it signaled yesterday that it could in fact take a more aggressive posture toward marijuana enforcement in states where recreational pot is legal—despite Trump’s campaign statements.
There’s ample evidence that, from a “bad hombre” perspective, this is bad policy.
According to Time, reporting in 2015, “U.S. Border Patrol has been seizing steadily smaller quantities of (marijuana), from 2.5 million pounds in 2011 to 1.9 million pounds in 2014…This fall appears to have little to do with law enforcement, however, and all to do with the wave of U.S. marijuana legalization.” The trend continued into 2015, with the Washington Post reporting that marijuana seizures dropped to 1.5 million pounds that year. “Two or three years ago, a kilogram of marijuana was worth $60 to $90,” a marijuana grower in Mexico told NPR in 2014. “But now they’re paying us $30 to $40 a kilo. … If the U.S. continues to legalize pot, they’ll run us into the ground.”
http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/a-pot-crackdown-could-be-a-huge-gift-to-trumps-bad-hombres/
= new reply since forum marked as read
