'Grass From seed to schoolroom
Patronize Kansan Advertisers 12 KANSAN Feb.19 1969
EDITOR'S NOTE: Marijuana users in the United States, according to experts, number in the millions and many if not most of these millions are young people from junior high school to college age. Its most popular name is "pot" and most of it—70 to 90 per cent in varying U.S. estimates—comes into the country from Mexico. This dispatch is the first of four reporting on the prime source of marijuana, how it enters the country, its attractions to and use by "pot smokers" of all ages and finally, its known effects on individuals.
MEXICO CITY (UPI) - In the wild and remote mountains, plains and jungles of the states of Sonora, Sinaloa, Jalisco and Guerrero on the Pacific side of Mexico, the average peasant farmer makes about $200 a year from his crops.
It's tough to get many things to grow there. But one plant flourishes equally well in the sandy deserts, the rocky hills, the steamy coastal tropics.
steamy coastal tropics. It is marijuana. It needs virtually no care. Just plant it and forget it.
Easily Hidden
Marijuana is easily hidden. In jungle areas, the lust vegetation itself is such good cover that no other steps need be taken. In farming areas, it is planted in with other crops. Corn is a favorite cover because corn grows faster and stays a little higher than the marijuana. In the mountains, remote canyons are used.
Half a dozen plants can bring in enough income to the Mexican peasant to easily double his yearly income. A couple of acres and the right connections will bring him several thousand dollars.
The Mexican peasants have a long tradition of "mind your own business and keep away from the law-authorities just mean trouble." If Jose up the hill is running a few acres of non-golf course "grass," his neighbors are no more likely to report him than a good Tennesseean would report Luke's moonshine still.
In warm climate marijuana plants grow to a height of three to six feet and weigh 15 to 20 pounds. A peasant can get $2 to $4 a pound for the stalk, leaves, roots and seeds of a plant.
By the time it reaches the "wholesaler" in the United States the price will have gone over $100 a pound and when it is processed into flakes and rolled into paper going for 50 cents a reefer, the price per pound becomes astronomical.
Not a Major Problem
Tennessee uses Report Traffic Marijuana use in Mexico itself is not considered a major or even an important problem, although it is illegal. It is popular among some Bohemian-type people in the cities but the rural people who grow marijuana rarely use it and the Mexican government never worried much about it until six years ago when the United States began pushing Mexico to do something about the export traffic.
The Mexican government by 1968 had mounted a big program to discourage the growing of marijuana. Several entire army regiments have been detailed for the job plus a large force of federal agents. The United States government has provided the Mexican army with helicopters to aid in the program.
Large Scale Effort
The first problem is to find the stuff. The next is to destroy it and the third is to do so while catching the growers.
Because of the variations in climate, marijuana ripens at different parts of the year in different parts of the country. The anti-marijuana brigade moves in at harvest time because the harvest brings growers into the otherwise untended fields which may be miles from their dwellings.
First of all, army spotter planes-slow-flying, light aircraft-scour the suspect areas.
Use Flamethrowers
Sometimes army motorized columns are patrolling in an area. They head overland in jeeps. If the place is really remote, troops are ferried in by helicopter, landing all around the area to surround it. In some terrain, the horse cavalry is called out and they go galloping into the hills.
The soldiers move in with flamethrowers, systematically charring all vegetation to the ground. The officers and federal agents meanwhile look for the growers. A federal commissioner is brought along so any farmers found in the area can be arraigned and indicted right there and marched away to jail for trial.
The sentences are not too harsh for first offenders since the government attitude is that these are simple people trying to make a few pesos, not big time racketeers.
A Pot Roast
The agents save a few pounds of marijuana from each raid to be used as evidence. A few months ago in Mazatlan, the stored marijuana reached eight tons.
The basic difficulty is the tremendous abundance of the weed plus the simplicity of its processing.
The Mexican peasant simply takes the dried plants, breaks up the stems and branches and packs them into the tightest possible bundle to take up as little room as possible.
The standard is a "key" or kilo-2.2 pounds—and approximately the size and shape of a brick. The sifting and grinding into tiny flakes suitable for cigarettes is left to be done on the northern side of the border.
The city of Culiacan, 800 miles southeast of San Diego, is reported to be the chief organization and distribution point for moving the marijuana northward on back roads to the border at Tijuana.
The collectors who pick up the marijuana in the fields from the farmers resell it to the transporters for about $6 a pound. By the time the bricks reach the area close to the United States border but still in Mexico, the price goes up to more than $10 a pound.
The great jump, and the great risk, comes when the marijuana is taken across the border and delivered to the "wholesaler" in California.
Next: The Smugglers.
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