Illegal marijuana continues to be a serious problem in California despite legalization.
For example, KRON 4 News out of San Francisco recently reported on 20 illegal marijuana grow houses busted in a single county. Watch that news segment below.
California created a legal framework for growing and selling marijuana in order to weaken drug cartels’ power in the state, but instead their illegal marijuana farms have grown.
Unfortunately, California isn’t alone.
Oregon was among the first states to legalize marijuana. At the time, many believed legalization would eliminate the black market and reduce drug crimes. Instead the opposite happened.
Oregon has been inundated by industrial scale marijuana cultivation sites operated illegally by organized crime and drug cartels.
Some of these marijuana operations are tied to labor trafficking and violent crime.
Authorities in Oregon reportedly seized some 105 tons of illicit marijuana last year.
It’s worth pointing out that if Arkansas had passed Issue 4 last November, our marijuana laws arguably would be more lax than Oregon’s and California’s in many ways. Fortunately, voters rejected that measure at the ballot box.
Contrary to popular belief, legalization does not decrease drug-related crime, and it does not alleviate drug abuse. If anything, it seems to make those problems worse.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
