Marijuana also known as Cannabis is a dried herbal form of drugs and it is used for recreational, religious or spiritual, and medicinal purposes. It is widely available in Mexico, U.S and its production increased up to 59 percent since 2003. This is mostly produced in Mexico and widely smuggled to U.S market.
Cultivation operation of Marijuana is expanded widely from Mexico to U.S in last past decades. According to eradication data and law enforcement report, amount of marijuana produced in the United States appears to be very high. Well-organized criminal groups and DTOs mainly produce marijuana and it yields high profitability to them because this stuff has heavy demand in U.S market.
Various criminal groups produce marijuana in the United States. These activities increase the threats to domestic cultivation, since their cultivation activities involve illegal immigrants and large-scale growing operations ranging from 100 to more than 1,000 plants per site. This Marijuana is mostly cultivated on public land and free land.
According to NDAT (National Drug Threat Assessment) report, over past 5 years more than 11 million marijuana plants are eradicated from federal public lands. Eradication of plant increases year by year and it increased by more than 300 percent from 1,013,088 plants in 2004 to 4,043,231 plants in 2008. Public land is mostly used by DTO’s because these land is mostly located in remote location hence there is a limited chance of detection.
Hence, Marijuana is produced in Mexico and U.S and it is increasing year by year. Marijuana production on public land is resulted in numerous armed confrontations with hikers, hunters, and passersby who unwittingly enter active cultivation sites.