A new report by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency underscores how marijuana’s legalization in some states has actually emboldened drug cartels and fueled the black market nationwide.
In its 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment released earlier this month, the DEA writes,
Cannabis growers in states where cultivation is legal are the main suppliers of illicit
marijuana markets in the rest of the United States, growing in excess of quotas and legal market
needs. . . .Despite these measures, during the last two decades, the black market for marijuana has expanded significantly as Chinese and other Asian TCOs [transnational criminal organizations] have taken control of the marijuana trade. These organized crime groups, as well as Mexican cartels, are profiting from both illegal cultivation and sales, and from exploiting the “legal” market.
Over the past decade we have seen how legalization has actually emboldened drug cartels and increased the flow of illegal marijuana across America.
For example, last year, California’s Unified Cannabis Enforcement Task Force seized 154,000 pounds of illegal marijuana and destroyed some 236,000 illegal marijuana plants.
According to a recent news report out of Las Vegas, illegal marijuana sales in Nevada run approximately $242 million every year in the state.
Illegal marijuana operations often are believed to be tied to labor trafficking and violent crime — contributing to what some have dubbed “modern day slavery on American soil.”
Troublingly, Chinese organized crime is dominating black market marijuana in many states. The U.S. Department of Justice says Chinese drug cartels may be making millions of dollars from illegal marijuana in states like Maine, New York, Massachusetts, and elsewhere.
Much of the illegal marijuana that authorities in Arkansas seize on a regular basis actually comes from states that have legalized the drug.
Legalizing drugs — whether it’s marijuana itself or the THC and other substances extracted from cannabis — has not worked as intended in places like California. Arkansas should think twice before making the same mistakes these states have made.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
