Marijuana has a great cultural significance which is apparent in clothing, artwork, music, and many other forms.It is a constant and accessible commodity, even more so than alcohol to some, and has become deeply ingrained in California culture. Its accessibility makes it easy for people to use regularly and to create substance based relationships where marijuana becomes routine in certain activities or social situations. These habitual relationships are significant in social participation and the creation of psychological reliance. Marijuana’s unique psychoactive function distinguishes it from any other drug. Marijuana can alter one’s perception in a way to provide relief from stress, or to simply to produce a pleasurable sensory perception. The most common mechanism of ingestion, inhalation, allows the psychoactive chemicals to take effect within thirty seconds.Marijuana is dose dependent so people can control the intensity of their high to some extent. It is a versatile natural medicine and provides viable relief from a myriad of symptoms and diseases. While individuals have their own motivation for smoking marijuana, the cannabis plant is a deeply rooted product in American culture. Marijuana cultivation by Drug Trafficking Organizations is a relatively recent development in California history. The foremost organizations that produce commercial marijuana plantations are of Mexican descent. Other major cultivators include outfits of Canadian and South American origin as well as comparably small scale independent growers. These groups began cultivating Cannabis vertical farming on public lands in order to evade border security, capitalize on lucrative domestic markets, and take advantage of the optimal growing conditions provided by California lands. Remote Cannabis cultivation requires large scale capital investments as well as a high degree of risk; however, DTOs have had a great measure of success.
Traditionally, major organizations conducted drug traffic across international borders. Illegal substances were produced in foreign areas and transported across United States borders. Trafficking organizations utilized a variety of methods and a large quantity of smugglers to transport a steady flow of drugs beyond US border security with minimal losses to seizure. Mexican cartels were notorious for supplying large amounts of low quality marijuana to the southern regions of the United States. This commercial grade marijuana was often referred to as ‘Mexican Brick Weed’; a reference to the tightly condensed ‘bricks’ of dried marijuana buds packaged for international transfer. The process of drying and condensing buds distorted bud shape, reduced THC content, and decreased overall marketability, however, high volume smuggling created a surplus of marijuana that could be sold cheaply and in large quantities to compensate for the low quality of the substance. Mexican Brick Weed contained approximately 2-3 percent THC, whereas domestically produced strains of sinsemilla, marijuana without seeds, could reach levels upwards of 10 percent THC.In most areas of California, Mexican marijuana could not compete with domestically produced strains in terms of quality; only in competitive price. The risk involved with Cannabis cultivation enabled local growers and distributors to charge high prices, while the methods of pollination prevention, crossbreeding, and nutrient additives created highly psychoactive buds that maintained a widespread demand in California and across the nation. Domestic marijuana cultivation traditionally occurred on a small scale by California residents. Small gardens were tended by a few people on private property, or a nearby location where plots of up to one hundred plants were grown.While marijuana cultivation remained illegal, this method provided a form of income and sustenance for people living in rural areas. Grow sites were generally outdoors near an accessible water source, and growers lived in local proximity to their sites. These small scale plantations were the primary producers of the marijuana sold in California up until early 1980s, when large scale organizations entered into marijuana production inside the US. These policies initiated a transition in immigration practices that allowed more Mexican laborers to legally enter the United States while deterring illegal methods of entry by tightening border security.
The increased border security led to higher rates of drug seizure. These shifts in immigration were reinforced by the Immigration Act of 1990, which increased the limits on legal immigration, changed the status of aliens, and further increased border security by deploying a regular presence of National Guard troops to assist with Border Patrol.As the presence of law enforcement troops increased, the funding for extended patrols, searches and seizures increased as well. These measures threatened the flow of non-documented laborers and restricted the ability for Mexican organizations to regularly transport drugs across the border. As more traffickers were intercepted, DTOs responded by developing products within US borders.During the early 1990s the Mexican cartels began to participate in the trend that originated in California in the early 1980s. In response to increased marijuana related property seizures, California citizens began to grow marijuana on public lands because it made “ownership of marijuana… difficult to prove.”Growing Cannabis outside of personal property enabled local cultivators to limit investments on land and greatly reduced both the probability of getting caught and the liability of losing their property to the state. Commercial growers were able to diversify and decentralize their cultivation sites in order to make them less vulnerable. This cultivation model was ideal for cartels because they did not need to acquire land and could operate undetected by discreetly encroaching on remote landscapes. Meanwhile, the dynamics of the marijuana market in California began to change as a result of state level policy changes. In 1996, the Compassionate Use Act, Proposition 215, passed 55.6 percent to 44.4 percent to allow medical marijuana to be legally grown and consumed in California, soon followed by thirteen other states.Minimal regulation of doctor prescribed medical marijuana cards allowed cultivators to easily enter into the medical marijuana market. The new legal standing of marijuana decreased the consequences for cultivation on the whole, and often enabled traditional commercial cultivation to occur under the umbrella of the Compassionate Use Act. This proposition reduced the scale of some grow sites by setting limitations on legally cultivated amounts, but it also significantly increased the number of growers. Proposition 215 created a political climate conducive to innovative cultivator practices.
Access to important infrastructure and Cannabis enhancing inputs increased because cultivation efforts no longer needed to be kept completely secret. Commercial outlets and plant nurseries could supply high technology indoor and outdoor grow systems along with all of the associated inputs. As a result, more specialized systems were designed and sold commercially. As time passed, individuals increasingly experimented with techniques in crossbreeding, transgenesis, and high-tech indoor cultivation environments. Meticulous grower experimentation and utilization of extensive inputs increased the quality of high grade marijuana by increasing THC and Cannabinoid contents.Whereas the THC content of marijuana previously peaked around 12%, new strains could reach levels upward of 20%.The change in California state marijuana policy decreased the demand for lower quality imported marijuana. California’s Mediterranean climate, abundant water, and loamy organic soils provide ideal growing conditions. By increasing cultivation operations on US lands, DTOs were able to exploit the abundant resources, and domestic research and development necessary to produce high quality psychoactive Cannabis. Ttransformed the scale, methods, economic scope, and environmental impact of marijuana growing. Land encroachment practices have likely increased cartel expenditures compared to traditional trafficking methods, but they have also increased market accessibility, demand and price. The marijuana market has become big business, and is estimated to be the most profitable industry in California.However, the primary profiteers are safeguarded outside of the US. Modern DTOs are international organizations governed by tight hierarchical structures, the upper ranks of which are controlled by familial ties.The logistics of their operations are meticulously planned and highly organized. DTOs are sophisticated in their methods, technologically advanced in their systems,cannabis drying racks and resourceful in their practices. Cultivators select sites in rugged and remote wilderness locations that push the limits of human accessibility. They choose unusual locations to evade detection, even planting in sites not considered conducive for Cannabis cultivation. Grower methods for entering sites are both inventive and evasive. Suppliers drop off materials at inconspicuous locations during night hours in order to remain undetected. Laborers use irregular entry points and carry the supplies on their backs, hiking long distances off established paths through the darkness. These men sometimes carry more than their body weight in supplies over extremely rough terrain, and are careful to remove evidence of their presence. While some individuals use night vision goggles to navigate in the darkness, they still cross terrain that is dangerous in full daylight without added weight. DTO-established sites are setup and operated by two to fifteen people, several of which live on location. A select number of workers with specialized technical expertise rotate between sites and aid in preparation according to their skill set .The men who live on site throughout the season are usually Mexican nationals recruited out of economic desperation or to settle a debt to a Cartel. Their payment depends on the delivery of a complete harvest of marijuana buds without detection. Sometimes their lives and the lives of their families are used as collateral. DTOs invest tens of thousands of dollars for each site, depending on the number of plants and necessary infrastructure. Expensive infrastructure components include weapons, drip irritation, camp gear and mechanical equipment. Drip irrigation line can be left at the site over a period of years to save money and labor.
Cultivators spray-paint subtle tree markings to identify campsites for re-utilization. Supplies that must be replenished annually include seed, or cloned starters, chemical inputs, food, ammunition and more. In addition, Cartels pay for travel and logistics, labor, and other variable costs. While these systems may seem both expensive and risky to establish, each harvest produces millions of dollars in profit. The wholesale value of one pound of high quality marijuana buds ranges from $1,800 to $2,000, and the market value ranges from $2,000 to $6,000.29 At these prices, marijuana is more valuable pound for pound than gold. The average number of plants for all discovered sites in 2006 was about 7,000, with each site producing between 7,000 -14,000 pounds of buds.30 This means that the average harvest is valued between $12.6 million and $28 million. Some outdoor plantations have contained upwards of 50,000 marijuana plants. 31 In 2006, 346 sites were eradicated by the Forest Service in California estimated to represent only 30% to 40% of the marijuana produced within the state that year.In an effort to capitalize on the immense returns, “cultivators [are] changing their cultivation process from a single planting to a two-crop planting with shortened growing cycles… this maximizes potential profits and reduces the risk of eradication.”33 In order to do this, cultivators plant early in the spring, or plant specific strains of Cannabis that mature and produce buds faster. This means that the harvesting season may begin as early as March, and may not end until October. Each DTO grow site supports between 5,000 and 50,000 plants and may contain advanced technological systems such as radios, alarms, scanners, night vision goggles, automated irrigation timers, chainsaws, camp equipment, and weapons. Armed guards are present at every site and carry weapons such as AR 15 assault rifles, AK-47 machine guns, hunting rifles, shotguns, and pistols. In order to provide a 24-hour watch, cultivators rotate their sleep patterns and setup early warning systems. Consequently, anybody in the near vicinity of a plantation is in extreme danger. In recent years cultivator aggression has increased, resulting in death threats, physical harassment, and gun violence. There are reports every year of vandalism to the homes of federal employees, guards firing at hunters, park visitors encountering armed Mexican nationals, law enforcement officers receiving death threats by mail and phone, and even cases of murder in remote areas. Vomestic marijuana cultivation was traditionally a crime enforced by the Drug Enforcement Administration and local law enforcement agencies. As marijuana production became an increasingly prominent and dynamic phenomenon during the mid- 1980s, the governmental agencies responsible for enforcing the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 began to adapt to the changing trends. At this time, the DEA was primarily focused on addressing methamphetamine production across the United States. Local police did not possess the resources or training to fully engage and repress remote cultivation efforts by international organizations.