There’s this age-old stigma concerning Latin American countries and their infiltrating the United States with contraband like narcotics. A recent report by KPBS.org, however, suggests there’s an unexpected development in the story that is the war on drugs. The report states that there is a demand in Mexico for potent California strains of marijuana. Cannabis attorney Matthew Shapiro states that “there is no such thing as high-quality Mexican weed.”
The lack of supply of good marijuana in Mexico has initiated the smuggling of the drug to the south of the border. But the illegal export of contraband from U.S. to Mexico is equally unlawful as smuggling from Mexico to America. Although illegal, the process of entering Mexico is a lot smoother due to the lack of attention paid to the reversed ideology. A smuggler can cross the border into Tijuana without ever speaking to an official, making the process nearly risk-free.
According to Dr. Raul Palacios, clinical director at the Centro De Integracion Juvenil drug rehabilitation facility in Tijuana, his patients prefer the potent California bud as opposed to the marijuana being grown in the motherland. The comparison in potency of the two is like night and day. The marijuana in Mexico average a level of two percent concentration of THC, the plant’s main psychoactive ingredient. California-grown marijuana, on the other hand, can reach a 30 percent concentration level of THC or more.
Mexico is paying close attention to the laws being passed in the U.S. regarding the marijuana industry. The $1 billion in tax revenue that California has generated makes it tempting for the Mexican government to follow in those footsteps.