Posted on 12/18/2006 2:00:49 PM PST by kddid
You are a piece of work. Oh, and you should know by now that I can support my numbers.
But you're still missing my point. You are looking at domestic production completely separate from total market (domestic + import).
I'd hazard a guess that with increased interdiction in the 80s due to the rise of cocaine a lot of the marijuana production moved to the US because it was easier to hide a grow op domestically than smuggle bales of pot across the border.
No need to imagine an export market for US grown marijuana to explain faulty interpretation of government guesstimates under that scenario.
OK. Fine. I can agree with that. But I don't think that was the author's point.
Let's just assign some numbers, illustrating your (our) point. Let's say in 1981 we were producing 1000 tons and importing 10,000 tons. Today, we are producing 10,000 tons and importing 1000 tons.
Adjust those number how you will, it still doesn't support the author's conclusion, "Gettman said the 10-fold increase in U.S. marijuana production, from 1,000 metric tons in 1981 to 10,000 metric tons in 2006, showed the country was failing to control marijuana by making its cultivation and use illegal."
So you're saying that domestic production increasing 10x in 25 years is proving that making its cultivation and use illegal is working?
If domestic production has increased to compensate for reduced imports, it's disingenuous of the author to conclude that our laws against cultivation aren't working. "Laughable" is probably a better descriptor.
But, I would expect no less from the former head of NORML.
"I'm surprised that Mexican weed dominates the market."
I should add that it is possible that a good bit of this pot is not actually grown in Mexico. A lot of it could be coming from Central or South America. The Mexicans run the trade now though for the most part. They're the ones who bring it in and do the wholesale marketing. They run the cocaine business now for the most part even though they don't produce any cocaine. They started out being a drug producing country and because of their boundary with the United States they were always heavily involved with smuggling drugs into our country that came from south of their border. Over the years they've taken a much bigger role in the drug trade. Now they're major producers of most drugs and they control most of the smuggling routes and most of the large quantity distribution networks in our country. Most drugs on our streets have probably passed though Mexican hands at one point even if the Mexicans didn't produce the drugs.
Thanks. Your posts are certainly a breath of reason in the ongoing hurricane of rhetoric on these threads.
That is the sickest post I have ever read. I am deathly allergic to mold and the thought of security allowing such a biological hazard into a public building is gut wrenching. Have they never heard of sick building syndrome?
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