This makes sense if you think about it from the cartel's standpoint, but it won't change much in the big picture. All the cartel's are doing is switching products, producing more cocaine, more meth, heroin, and ecstasy. All of which are vastly more popular and generate tons more revenue in the US than marijuana anyways.
Most of the articles I've read, talk about how marijuana is effectively a third or fourth tier product to them. Sure they bring a lot of it in, but it's not a huge money maker like other drugs are. This isn't hardly going to put a dent in their operations. When you have an organization generating BILLIONS of dollars, a few million here or there isn't going to affect them very much.
How did you come to the conclusion that those drugs are more popular than marijuana in the US? I've never met anyone who did coke, meth, heroin, or ecstasy and didn't also smoke weed.
What I meant was the numbers for these drugs seems to be increasing while those numbers for marijuana seem to be staying steady or increasing slightly. There have always been high numbers of marijuana users, but in the last 5 years, usage for the other drugs is increasing, giving the cartels an easy way to pivot to those drugs to recover their losses from legalization here. Sorry if the wording was misleading.
"Across the U.S., heroin abuse among first-time users has increased by nearly 60 percent in the last decade, from about 90,000 to 156,000 new users a year, according to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)."
"Emergency room visits related to MDMA -- known as Ecstasy in pill form and Molly in the newer powder form -- increased 128 percent between 2005 and 2011 among people younger than 21. Visits rose from about roughly 4,500 to more than 10,000 during that time, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration."
"A report by the National Drug Intelligence Center released last August, “National Drug Threat Assessment 2011,” stated methamphetamine use was increasing, especially among the young. The report attributed the rise to Mexican drug cartels that control smuggling routes across the Southwestern border, which can produce, transport and distribute the drug. "
Most of the articles I've read, talk about how marijuana is effectively a third or fourth tier product to them. Sure they bring a lot of it in, but it's not a huge money maker like other drugs are. This isn't hardly going to put a dent in their operations. When you have an organization generating BILLIONS of dollars, a few million here or there isn't going to affect them very much.