Drug Cultivation in the United States

The U.S. supply-reduction strategy seeks to eliminate illegal drug cultivation and production.

The United States Government Cultivation Estimates

Illegal narcotics are grown, refined, trafficked, and sold on the street by criminal enterprises that attempt to conceal every step of the process. Accurate estimates of such criminal activity are difficult to produce. The United States government estimates on illicit drug production presented in the INCSR represent the United States government’s best effort to sketch the current dimensions of the international drug problem. They are based on agricultural surveys conducted with satellite imagery and scientific studies of crop yields and the likely efficiency of typical illicit refining labs.

Each year the United States Government review eradication data, seizure data, law enforcement investigations information, the previous year’s imagery, and other information to determine the areas likely to have cultivation, and revise and update the search area if possible. They then estimate cultivation in the new survey area using proven statistical techniques. The resultant estimates meet the U.S. government’s need for an annual estimate of cultivation for each country.

The amount of marijuana produced domestically is unknown.16 However, eradication data and law enforcement reporting indicate that the amount of marijuana produced in the United States appears to be very high, based in part on the continual increases in the number of plants eradicated nationally (see Table 4). In fact, eradication of plants from both indoor and outdoor sites has more than doubled since 2004. Well-organized criminal groups and DTOs that produce domestic marijuana do so because of the high profitability of and demand for marijuana in the United States. These groups have realized the benefits of producing large quantities of marijuana in the United States, including having direct access to a large customer base, avoiding the risk of detection and seizure during transportation across the U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico borders, and increasing profits by reducing transportation costs.

Indoor cannabis cultivation that allows for increased security and potentially higher-quality marijuana has become more popular–particularly with Caucasian independents and criminal groups–with the proliferation of coordinated outdoor eradication efforts nationwide.

Criminal Foreign Issues

Mexico has long been recognized as a major source of marijuana (Toro, 1995), but its role in poppy cultivation is less widely known. Poppy cultivation has existed in the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa since before the 1900’s. However, it was perceived that opium smoking was not commonly used among Mexican nationals and was instead used by “Chinese immigrants, artists and bourgeois degenerates” (Astorga, 1996).

Trends in opium cultivation and heroin production in some Mexican states may in part explain its increase importance; however, other factors such as recent increased enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border, low street prices of black tar heroin, and the poor economy may be contributing factors.

Marijuana Cultivation

Marijuana is produced in the United States by various DTOs and criminal groups, including Caucasian, Asian, and Mexican groups, but Caucasian independents and criminal groups are well established in every region of the country and very likely produce the most marijuana domestically overall.17 Mexican, Asian, and Cuban criminal groups and DTOs, in particular, pose an increasing threat in regard to domestic cultivation, since their cultivation activities often involve illegal immigrants and large-scale growing operations ranging from 100 to more than 1,000 plants per site. In addition, these groups appear to be expanding and shifting operations within the United States (see below).

Mexican traffickers are expanding and shifting outdoor cultivation operations eastward across the United States into areas that they believe are less subject to law enforcement scrutiny. These Mexican DTOs have established cultivation operations in areas outside their traditional strongholds of California, Washington, and Oregon. Since 1999, law enforcement reporting has noted this eastward shift and expansion from these western states to Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, North Carolina, Tennessee and, most recently, Wisconsin and Michigan. These groups appear to be moving to these areas in response to improved outdoor grow site detection capabilities and heightened eradication efforts.

Asian traffickers are operating an increasing number of indoor grow sites. Some U.S.-based and Canada-based Asian groups (primarily ethnic Vietnamese and Chinese) engage in large-scale indoor cultivation, operating multithousand plant sites, predominantly in the Pacific Northwest and throughout much of California. Within the past decade, these tight-knit and often family-oriented groups have expanded their network throughout the country to numerous states, including Texas and several New England states, to avoid law enforcement detection and to gain better access to drug markets.

Cuban traffickers are the primary operators of indoor marijuana grow sites in the Southeast Region. Cuban-operated indoor sites are of a smaller scale than Asian-operated grows. Cannabis cultivation sites operated by Cuban traffickers are most prevalent in southern Florida, but such activity has expanded northward into northern Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina to move operations closer to potential drug markets. Cuban immigrants are often exploited by DTOs and criminal groups to cultivate high-potency cannabis at these indoor sites, and the problem appears to be growing. Law enforcement reporting and eradication data indicate an increase in the seizure of indoor cannabis grow operations that cultivate high-potency marijuana, and the number of indoor grow sites seized in Florida rose each year between 2004 (246 sites) and 2008 (1,022 sites)

The United States Drug Cultivation Issues

Review of the drug cultivation and manufacturing issues in the United States and other jurisdictions, including the growing of marijuana intended for qualified patients across the United States.

Resources

Further Reading

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