Opinion: Cheap pot prices signal failure in the War on Drugs
If the War on Drugs was succeeding, wouldn’t the price be driven up by the shortage? Not in the Houston area, and not when it comes to marijuana.
A car, a home, a gallon of milk — most everything costs more now than a generation ago. Except a baggie of Mexican marijuana.
Give or take a few dollars, authorities say, pot grown in Mexico and sold in Houston and other Texas cities still goes for about the same price as 25 years ago: $60 to $80 for an ounce.
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According to a drug market analysis released earlier this year, federal, state and local police assigned within the Houston-based High Intensity Drug Trafficking area saw marijuana seizures climb from 85,582 pounds in 2005 to last year’s haul of 191,000 pounds.
Based on the weight of a typical marijuana cigarette, enough marijuana to roll more than 171 million joints was taken out of commission in a 16-county area, including Houston and portions of the Texas Gulf Coast.
That’s a lot of manpower that could be going to other law enforcement endevors being used to do something that is obviously no effect in curtailing the availability of cannabis.
The same thing is going on here. Police constantly send out press releases announcing the dollar value of the pot they haul in. I cannot speak from personal experience as to whether or not the price of weed has gone up or down in Peoria, but I doubt it’s changed much during the last 20 years.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
