NCJ Number
228347
Date Published
July 2009
Length
40 pages
Annotation
This 2009 assessment of domestic cannabis cultivation is intended to provide policymakers, law enforcement executives, resource planners, and cannabis eradication program coordinators with strategic intelligence regarding cannabis cultivation and marijuana trafficking trends.
Abstract
The assessment highlights strategic trends in indoor and outdoor cannabis cultivation, with attention to principal domestic cultivation areas. Strategic intelligence is also presented regarding the operational trends and tendencies of drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) and criminal groups that produce marijuana. In addition, it addresses the violence, hazards, and environmental damage linked to domestic cannabis cultivation. In its overview of the assessment, the report indicates that the high demand for marijuana has motivated DTOs and criminal groups to launch large-scale cannabis cultivation in the United States as well as smuggle thousands of metric tons of marijuana from Mexico and, to a lesser extent, Canada. Mexican criminal groups operate large outdoor cannabis plots, often consisting of several thousand plants, using public lands in Western States. Caucasian criminal groups also cultivate significant amounts of cannabis, particularly in Appalachian communities. Caucasian criminal groups have tended to shift from outdoor cannabis cultivation to indoor cultivation in order to produce higher potency marijuana, which translates into higher profits. Most large-scale indoor cannabis cultivation, however, is done by Asian DTOs, including some Asian DTOs from Canada. The primary marijuana cultivation States are California, Hawaii, Kentucky, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington, and West Virginia (M7 States). Data from the Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program show that just over 8 million plants were eradicated in 2008, with 89 percent of the eradicated plants being in the M7 States. The report projects that in the near term, domestic cannabis cultivation, outdoor and indoor, will increase, as DTOs expand their operations throughout the United States. 5 tables, 14 figures, and a listing of data sources for this report