From pressing to 'cool' flowers: they warn that the marijuana market was reactivated due to self-cultivation

The drug traffickers say it, the policemen who specialize in investigating them and those who really know the subject say it: "

." 

"The trafficker always saw him as an extra, as a plus for his clientele. The business was always the merchandise," explains a former head of a Dangerous Drug Brigade of the Argentine Federal Police (PFA), who retired a few months ago.

But in the last five or six years the belief began to change thanks to the

, which generated a new market.

And it is beginning to attract, little by little,

, attracted by what the growers who sell their crops earn.    

Drug trafficking, unlike the vast majority of crimes, is

.

Illegal, but trade at last.

In this context, the drug trafficker seeks the lowest cost and the greatest benefit, like a butcher or a kiosquero does.

And the numbers rule: while 25 grams of the historic pressed marijuana, exported from Paraguay, are quoted at 3,500 pesos, each gram of the harvest of a plant that grows in the back of any house can be sold for 2,000

.  

In other words, for a kilo of pressed, sold at retail, 140 thousand pesos can be collected.

On the other hand, for a kilo of the so-called "flowers",

.

Or more, depending on the quality of the product.

A premium marijuana is offered at 3,000 or 3,500 pesos per gram.  

It could be said that we are in "marijuana week".

First, because April 20 was

.

Second, because the Argentine growers are in the

, after months of work.

Now, it is the time of the marijuana harvest.

Photo Maxi Failla

This Thursday the Government, through the Ministry of Health and within the framework of marijuana day, published news in the Official Gazette and reported that those authorized to cultivate and transport cannabis for medical users are more than

.

They are incorporated into a single, official registry known as Reprocann.

The validity of that permit

.   

Authorized growers

.

They are allowed to have up to 9 plants in their houses (for themselves or a third party) and to transport up to 40 grams of flowers or oil (even up to a domestic flight). 

But here the most important detail:

by law.

They are barely enabled for "medicinal consumption" and/or to "donate" their crops to patients suffering from insomnia, anxiety, Parkinson's, arthritis, osteoarthritis, sclerosis, among many pathologies, to whom a doctor prescribed cannabis as a

.   

Hence the term "solidarity grower".

Some meet those demands.

Others don't.

Or yes, but

.

"He is a

says an indignant figure of cannabis culture who prefers not to reveal his identity for obvious reasons.

"You can imagine that the one who cultivates is not going to work for free for months. You have to take off your mask: this movement began as an 'anti-narco' movement and today most of them sell

. Since nobody controls anything, I would tell you that everyone has many more than 9 plants. Or they send relatives to say that they 'can't sleep' to take out the Reprocann and be authorized to plant more."  

The grower invites

to discover his production, in the back of a house in the west of the suburbs.

He admits that they keep asking him "if he sells flowers" and that

.

"I would love for the next official step to be that of 'registered vendors'," he clarifies. "And for the government to allow us to sell our crops and pay the corresponding tax, as is the case in Canada, Uruguay or many states in the United States."      

The Dangerous Drugs retiree speaks at a Mataderos service station.

He analyzes the new drug phenomenon.

"

, and the values ​​rose exponentially. The consumer is usually middle or upper class. That made you have deals that

, or that add the product to their offer. And to a lot of kids who call themselves supportive growers and

."

Today the plants are grown on balconies and terraces.

Photo Maxi Failla

So profitable is the business that it generated a new criminal figure: the

.

It is the thief who specializes in

.

In April the "high season" for the industry began.

They are excited as in every year: they know that, without having luck on their side, three or four stolen plants will represent a kilo of flowers.

Equivalent to

, on average.

cannabis lawyers

Juan Palomino and Maximiliano Carlinis are lawyers and are in charge of the specialized study 420 and are activists of the cannabis culture.

The first thing they notice is that they have as their goal the "adult and responsible use of cannabis" and they affirm that marijuana has been sold for 40 years. 

"A kid who sells a 25-gram jar of flowers can receive a sentence of between 4 and 15 years (not released)," says Carlinis.

"It is the same sentence that would correspond to someone who sells paco or cocaine. And it is

, because we are talking about an abstract danger crime with a complex one.

."

Palomino cites an example: a client who spent more than three years in prison for making 

.

"Let's analyze the damage caused by him and those who are dedicated to the sale of cannabis," he proposes and responds: "It is zero. And it is hypocritical that they receive a penalty for marketing something that many people are authorized to consume and cultivate." 

In Argentina there are kids who buy flowers on the sly.

But they travel to the United States and find themselves with an antagonistic panorama: they are sold the same product in shopping malls or fast track in Miami, New York or California and they receive tickets.

Lawyers maintain that he is a role model.

"We have some of the best growers in the world. Without regulation, Argentina is losing foreign currency and a significant sum in taxes to be collected," they agree.     

The old Paraguayan route

According to the World Health Organization, 16.7% of

come from Paraguay.

That tobacco smuggling, since the 80s, created a route to cross them into Argentina and distribute them throughout our provinces.

The Paraná River had to be crossed by canoes and at the height of Corrientes the boxes were loaded onto a truck that had as its first destination a warehouse or a country house.

In the next step, the load was transferred to a truck that left for Route 14, bound for Buenos Aires.

Between the mid-90s and the early 2000s, the route was maintained.

What has changed is the product: the old illegal tobacco carriers dedicated themselves to

.

For a matter of profitability.

Until about 2015 it was the only option for Argentine consumers, and Buenos Aires drug traffickers who bought to resell. 

A shipment of pressed marijuana from Paraguay that was seized last year.

"The best joint in Paraguay is for the Brazilians. The fresh one goes to them. The dry one is for us," says a source from the Rosario drug world, who made his first steps closing deals with Paraguayan organizations.

The biggest deal was buying the cargo in Buenos Aires, or Rosario, or Córdoba, and crossing it to Chile, where they paid up to $1,200 per kilo.

Although it is still very little compared to the prices of cannabis. 

The same thing happened in Chile as in Argentina:

.

For the quality.

Something similar happens in Europe: there is not so much Moroccan hashish anymore;

Now the one who supplies the market is the grower, from his house.

The aforementioned Rosario would end up going from Paraguayan marijuana to cocaine.

But in the last few weeks he received a proposal from a "solidarity" grower: he sold him his annual harvest at a rate of 800 pesos per gram.

.

And he suggested selling it for 2,000, for the consumer.      

An investigator of the Department of Narcocriminality of the City Police maintains that at present it is very difficult to find pressed outside the Buenos Aires villas.

"Outside the villa I'd say it's

," he calculates.

To the point that the inverse equation became common:

.

"Watch this," the policeman proposes: he enters Telegram and taps the "watch people nearby" button.

He automatically finds what he wants to show: a user who shares a video of flowers and announces "we lower prices and improve quality."                

The marijuana he sells is worth 2,100 pesos per gram.

Although he clarifies: "The minimum sale is 3 grams and shipping costs 1,000 pesos."

It has an offer of 6 grams for 11,500 pesos with delivery included.

"Telegram reigns supreme in the environment.

. It is also common for growers to sell to their friends, or friends or co-workers of their friends. Today everyone asks for flowers. They are kids who wear a style of life of 500 thousand pesos per month. It is the money that we calculate that they generate," he says.  

indoor.

This is the name given to indoor greenhouse cultivation.

Photo Maxi Failla

The researcher uses a term:

.

That's what they call growers who sell marijuana.

"Because they are autonomous. They don't belong to any gang. They buy seeds, plant in their homes and sell. They see it as 'an enterprise'," he argues.

In the raids that he carried out for this type of investigation, he always heard the same thing: "I have Reprocann", "I am a supportive grower", "I am authorized", "I use it for my own consumption".

The answer is concrete and forceful: "We did not come to your house by chance. We have been following you for months: we have recorded and listened to you and we

".

Although it is believed that far fewer baling shipments would be on the market than six or seven years ago,

.

On April 12, the Gendarmerie seized 5,800 kilos hidden in a truck with a Paraguayan patent that was traveling through Clorinda, Formosa.

"Truck drivers usually charge between 2,000 and 3,000 dollars before each trip. And when they deliver the load, 50% more," says Judge Pablo Morán, in charge of the procedure and Federal Court 1 of Formosa.

And he continues: "We also have causes of people who risk it. They travel to Paraguay, buy 8 or 9 kilos and get on a bus to Buenos Aires."     

But what is the fate of these shipments of a product that is hardly seen among marijuana users anymore?

A vendor from Buenos Aires clears up the doubts: "It is bought to smoke 'nevado' and for

."

"Nevado" is the joint to which cocaine is added, a fashionable "product" in the lower classes.

record kidnappings

In February 2022, a Gendarmerie investigation ended with the seizure of more than 10,000 plants and 74 kilos of marijuana in buds and packages.

It was in the context of two raids in Salta and Jujuy and is, so far,

.

It far surpassed what is still the second most important, that of the San Antonio de Areco greenhouse, in which there were more than 5,000 plants.

Another "big one" is from Misiones, with 1,800.

There aren't many more.

The record kidnapping of plants, last year in Salta.

Photo File

"So far

, as it does exist in the Paraguayan groups that transport and sell pressed," warns a federal prosecutor.

"What we do notice are licensed individuals and with Reprocann who have 20, 30 or 40

."

"In any case, self-cultivation gives us more peace of mind than pressing. For a health issue and because it does not generate the violence and links that exist in an organization," he adds.

In addition to the retail sale that the prosecutor is talking about,

was able to find out about people who are

. "

"You have the one who hires the grower and pays him a fixed salary for cultivating, which can be 500,000 pesos per month," says the benchmark for cannabis culture.

"Or the cannabis clubs (they must be made up of at least seven growers) that ask you for a kilo and you propose to go halfway. Half and half of what they receive for the sale of a thousand grams."

The last figure is the most common: the one with the

.

People who buy cheap and resell a product that is legal in other countries and for which taxes are paid for each sale.

ACE 

look too

Medical cannabis: there are already 200,000 registered in the self-cultivation registry and the Government expedited the process

Medical cannabis oil: for the first time they include private companies in production