It looks like the drug fight is paying off with a bit of legalization and more enforcement. The police across the Ohio state have noticed a new trend when it comes to fighting drug possession and trading. So far, the reports on the number of seizures of marijuana and meth have dropped over the recent years. With that being the case, the usage on the other hand has soared than ever before.
The police attribute the drop to various factors with one of them being greater sophistication to the making of these drugs. Many marijuana growers today would take time to develop potent plants in their homes or barns. They can now easily grow what is enough for consumption instead of visiting their usual dealers. As for meth, the Mexican drug cartels have managed to keep it flowing into the state. This has reduced the need to manufacture meth locally in Ohio.
Less labs destroyed in 2017
If the reported are anything to consider, then less labs cooking meth are being destroyed today. As of 2012, the authorities shut down an average of 607 meth labs. Five years down the line, the police managed to close 239 labs that were involved in manufacturing meth. You can easily see that it is a 61 percent drop.
It is not just for the meth labs, the marijuana uprooted by the authorities has also dwindled with time. In 2010, the authorities uprooted 105,121 plants in the state. These marijuana stems were planted in large plots found in Southeast Ohio hillsides. So, guess what the authorities have managed this year? The numbers are low as the authorities managed to uproot 20,468 plants only. If you do the math, this is an 81 percent drop. Most of these plants were even spotted by the police who were in a helicopter moving around the state.
Increase in drug use
More reports show that there has been an increase in the number of people using heroin and synthetic opioids. This has created quite a deadly epidemic where the police, lawmakers and the addiction services struggling with the number of people who use meth and marijuana.
The Ohio Substance Abuse Monitoring Network is responsible for tracking the drug trends in the state. The report released by the agency shows that the availability of marijuana and meth has been on the increase in the state since the start of the year. The agency gave Southeast Ohio as one of the places that has meth being used widely as heroin. This is also due to the fact that the meth produced in superlabs in Mexico are shipped with heroin.
It is not clear just when did the Mexican cartels start targeting Ohio users, but it seems they are getting successful. The cartels must have found an untapped market in Ohio and they are really exploiting it. They also know that the Americans want quality products. It is the reason you will get the meth distributed in the state being of high quality. Once it is shipped, it is then distributed through the couriers in different parts of the state.
Such a scenario is different from how things worked in Ohio in the past years. The labs in the area would be the ones selling on their own turf. It seems they have found an easy way to get meth than creating it themselves.
What is surprising is that some of the cartels tried to use the method of cooking meth based on the TV series “Breaking Bad”. Things did not work well as most of the cookers simply blew the roofs off easily exposing them to the authorities. People have to understand that you cannot follow the TV show just to make a product. Most of the time it is a script meant to make the show better.
Several counties in the state have experienced a drop in the drug manufacturing. The authorities now have to deal with those distributing it in the state. It is possible that the cartels are using drug mules to get the drugs into the state and reach their consumers.
Several drug abuse reports also show that there has been an increase in high-grade marijuana in the state. This because the users are now growing their marijuana indoors rather than in large plots. This keeps them safe from the police and poachers. The use of hydroponic lighting also gives them better control of the plant making sure it grows properly.
