On Monday the Arkansas State Police seized an estimated $3.6 million worth of illegal marijuana during a traffic stop in Lonoke County, according to an official press release. The driver reportedly was travelling from California to Florida.
While very little is known about this particular situation, it serves as a reminder that marijuana’s legalization in places like California has actually fueled the black market and the drug cartels rather than weakening them.
For example, California’s Unified Cannabis Enforcement Taskforce seized nearly $162 million worth of illegal marijuana during the first half of this year.
In New Mexico, a loophole in state law has allowed criminals to operate marijuana businesses without a proper background check, and 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 marijuana amendment Issue 4 in 2022, 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 these problems worse.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
