Significant numbers of marijuana farmers throughout Mexico and Central America are switching to other crops, in particular poppies. The reason? Wholesale cannabis prices in the United States have dropped precipitously due to increasing numbers of licensed MMJ dispensaries and recreational retailers.
“I wish the Americans would stop with this legalization,” Rodrigo Silla, a lifelong cannabis farmer in Mexico’s Sinaloa state, told the Washington Post.
Per exclusive data from the “Profiting in the Recreational Marketplace Handbook” from the editors of Marijuana Business Daily, U.S. consumers strongly prefer to buy legally, even if the price of legal cannabis is higher than that of black market product. This is in part because consumers prefer lab-tested product, while at the same time most people would rather be law-abiding.
As the black market’s supply chain dries up south of the border, the cartel needs new sources. Sources have told Marijuana Business Daily that some unlicensed cannabis farmers in California and Washington State who were not previously working with the cartels are now being pressured to supply it.
