Marijuana plants have been growing on public land for decades, but only recently has it started to expand to the point of a real crisis for United States Authorities. This crisis has begun because drug gangs from Mexico have started to use public lands in the United States to grow hundreds of thousands of marijuana plants. These gangs then bring in, mainly illegal, immigrants from Mexico to cultivate and work on the plants and make them ready to distribute.
Authorities believe that some of these gangs are able to make a total yield of over 30 tons a year. Brent Woods has commented that these Mexican gangs have taken what was once usually a small operation and has expanded it to massive proportions. In this past year alone the DEA, across the country, has destroyed and confiscated over 7 million plants, of these over 20 thousand of them were from outdoor sites.
There is an advantage for the gangs to be growing the United States as they have much less risk in trying to smuggle marijuana across the border, and the gangs can produce their marijuana much closer to their market.
