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Mexican traffickers face economic battle as U.S. marijuana production rises
By Steve Fainaru and William Booth
updated 4:03 a.m. CT, Wed., Oct . 7, 2009
ARCATA, Calif. – Stiff competition from thousands of mom-and-pop marijuana farmers in the United States threatens the bottom line for powerful Mexican drug organizations in a way that decades of arrests and seizures have not, according to law enforcement officials and pot growers in the United States and Mexico.
L. A. Sheriff’s Dept. via AP
This image provided by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department shows a marijuana eradication operation on Sept. 12 in the Angeles National Forest near Los Angeles. Cultivation of marijuana, often by Mexican drug cartels, is rife in California’s national forests.
Video
State law boosts pot as a cash crop
Jan. 21 – Mendocino marijuana expert and Grow magazine publisher Eric Sligh tours Northern California’s ‘Emerald Triangle,’ which has become a fertile site for entrepreneurs who are permitted to harvest a limited amount of marijuana.
Learn more about how Mexican drug cartels are extending their reach farther into the U.S.
Slideshow
Mexico under siege
The death toll is spiraling throughout Mexico as a war between the country’s government and the drug cartels intensifies.
