Marijuana

Marijuana remains the most readily available and most widely abused drug in Wisconsin. Abuse by young people has increased since the early 1990s. A Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (WDPI) Student Survey shows that monthly marijuana use doubled between 1993 and 1997 and that lifetime use rose substantially. Milwaukee and Madison are both major destinations for Mexican-produced marijuana and transshipment points to other areas in the state, and Mexican DTOs transport multikilogram quantities of marijuana from the Southwest Border to Wisconsin. Rural areas in Wisconsin provide many opportunities for cannabis cultivation.

Abuse

Marijuana abuse spans a wide spectrum of age, racial, and socioeconomic groups. TEDS data show a 134 percent increase in admissions for marijuana abuse from 1993 (723) to 1998 (1,699). According to the Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance, most Wisconsin arrestees test positive for marijuana, and at least 60 percent of prison inmates test positive for marijuana when entering state correctional facilities. Juvenile marijuana use has increased in recent years, according to arrest records and surveys conducted by the WDPI and the Wisconsin DNE. The Wisconsin DNE further reports that one-fourth of all marijuana users also abuse other drugs. According to the WDPI, the percentage of students who reported marijuana use in the previous 30 days doubled from 1993 (11%) to 1999 (22%).

Availability

Marijuana is more readily available in Wisconsin today than at any other time. Every county sheriff's office and police department in Wisconsin that replied to the NDIC National Drug Threat Survey 2000 reports the ready availability of marijuana; 40 percent report that availability has increased. According to the Wisconsin DNE, seven Wisconsin counties reported that marijuana was an increasing problem in 1999. Retail prices for marijuana dropped between 1996 and 1999 from $175 to $110 per ounce, also indicating an increasing marijuana supply.

Additional evidence that marijuana abuse has increased in Wisconsin is found in arrest and seizure statistics. Marijuana arrests made by Wisconsin County Drug Task Forces statewide increased from 4,556 in 1994 to 7,100 in 1999 (the Wisconsin Department of Justice Assistance reports the 1999 figures are only an estimate because of database problems). Furthermore, in a comparison of Wisconsin Task Force drug charges from 1995 to 1999, marijuana charges rose by more than 30 percent. According to Wisconsin DNE arrest records, approximately 68 percent of all arrests in some way involved marijuana. Seizures at the General Mitchell International Airport increased from 9 kilograms in 1997 to 230 kilograms in 1999.

State Crime Laboratory cases involving marijuana also increased from 1991 to 1999, from 1,000 to over 2,400. The numbers of seized drug samples submitted to the state crime laboratories for testing are indicators of the supply of drugs around the state.

Local marijuana availability is increasing because of advances in both indoor and outdoor growing techniques and because domestic marijuana is being cut with Mexican-produced marijuana to extend the supply through the year. Wisconsin rural areas provide many opportunities for cannabis cultivation, and there has been an increase in indoor grow operations. State law enforcement officials and seven county sheriffs stated that indoor grow operations were on the rise, and the number of plants seized in indoor grow operations statewide increased, from 2,979 in 1997 to 3,858 in 1999. Indoor grows produce marijuana with a much higher THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) content, increasing the drug's potency and desirability.

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Violence

Violence associated with cannabis cultivation is of increasing concern to Wisconsin law enforcement officers. Domestic cannabis growers often are heavily armed and use boobytraps and warning devices to protect cultivation sites from law enforcement authorities and the public. The U.S. Forest Service reports that visitors to public lands may be endangered by the presence of cannabis cultivation sites, which are routinely booby-trapped with explosives, trip-wire firing devices, hanging fishhooks, and punji stakes buried around the cannabis plots. Furthermore, the number of weapons seized during cannabis eradication operations nationally has more than doubled over the past decade.

The Wisconsin Cannabis Enforcement and Suppression Effort (CEASE) has linked weapons use and cannabis cultivation. Hundreds of firearms have been seized during program operations. CEASE assists local law enforcement agencies with locating marijuana grow operations and arresting and prosecuting responsible parties. The decrease shown for 1998 is probably due to a decrease in eradication efforts. (See Table 2.)

   Table 2. CEASE Statistics, Wisconsin, 1993-1998

    Source: Wisconsin Cannabis Enforcement and Suppression Effort, 1998.

According to the Milwaukee HIDTA and the Wisconsin DNE, there is a potential for increased violence among Mexican DTOs, the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, Jamaican criminal groups, and street gangs competing for the marijuana distribution market. Mexican DTOs control marijuana transportation and wholesale distribution operations in Wisconsin, and they facilitate retail sales. The Outlaws Motorcycle Club and street gangs with local and statewide influence control marijuana retail sales. If the Outlaws, Jamaican criminal groups, or street gangs such as the East Side Mafioso or Spanish Cobras attempt to increase their retail sales or break into the wholesale marijuana market, violence most likely will erupt.

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Production

Marijuana production is increasing in Wisconsin. Most of the Wisconsin respondents to the National Drug Threat Survey 2000 indicated an increase in cannabis cultivation in their areas. A rise in task force investigations and arrests also suggests an increase in cultivation, while declining retail prices for marijuana indicate an increasing supply. Although outdoor cannabis operations are strictly seasonal, Wisconsin's large rural areas provide abundant opportunity for cannabis cultivation. This domestically produced marijuana supplements supplies of Mexican-produced marijuana. Dealers sometimes cut domestic marijuana with the Mexican variety to increase profits and availability.

Local groups, as well as at least one interstate group, cultivate cannabis in Wisconsin rural areas in order to circumvent law enforcement scrutiny. The Corn Bread Mafia, a group that originated in a rural central Kentucky county and was composed of Caucasian farmers, was named by federal authorities as the first organized group in the United States involved in a multistate domestic cannabis cultivation and distribution network. This group shifted its growing operations to other states in the Midwest because of intensified marijuana suppression efforts within Kentucky. Members of the Corn Bread Mafia have cultivated cannabis on 30 farms in eight states including Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.

Indoor cannabis grows are becoming more widespread in Wisconsin. Improved growing techniques (easily obtained on the Internet or in magazines), a year-round growing season, and increased profits from selling high potency marijuana are triggering a rise in the number of indoor cannabis grows throughout Wisconsin. Refined techniques can produce marijuana with THC levels well above 10 percent, increasing the popularity of the product. Indoor cannabis grows account for approximately 20 percent of the state's domestic marijuana supply. Seizures of plants grown indoors numbered 3,858 in 1999, an increase of more than 30 percent from 1997, and seizures again increased markedly in the first quarter of 2000. Most of the Wisconsin county sheriffs that responded to the NDIC National Drug Threat Survey 2000 reported increases in indoor grow operations. The Northwest Area Crime Unit, an antidrug task force that serves seven counties in northern Wisconsin, had considerable success in exposing outdoor cannabis growing operations in the early to mid-1990s, but arrests have decreased considerably since 1997. Like many other Wisconsin task forces, the crime unit attributes much of the decline in arrests to a statewide trend toward indoor grows, which likely is a result of successful outdoor eradication efforts.

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Transportation

The Milwaukee HIDTA and the Wisconsin DNE indicate that Mexican DTOs are the primary transporters of marijuana into and throughout Wisconsin. The Milwaukee, Sheboygan, and Madison Police Departments indicate that Mexican DTOs are the primary marijuana transporters in their jurisdictions. Twenty OCDETF investigations initiated nationwide in 1999 targeted major marijuana trafficking organizations from the Southwest Border to Chicago--a distribution center that influences the drug trade in the Milwaukee area. Most of the marijuana available in Wisconsin is transported from Mexico via the Southwest Border. Law enforcement and intelligence sources report that Texas and Arizona are the primary entry points for Mexican marijuana smuggled into the United States. The FBI arrested two individuals for operating a marijuana transportation network from south Texas. One member of the network was arrested in transit to Milwaukee with 135 kilograms of marijuana. According to the Dallas DEA Field Division, 100-pound quantities of imported Mexican-produced marijuana are transshipped through the Dallas Field Division area of operations to areas in the northern and eastern United States.

Marijuana is transported to the area in bulk shipments, frequently hidden in private vehicles, tractor-trailers, and utility trucks. For example, the Texas Department of Public Safety seized a large amount of marijuana from a tractor-trailer that was loaded in El Paso and destined for Milwaukee. Marijuana transported in tractor-trailers often is mixed with the truck's legitimate cargo; in some cases, the marijuana is the only cargo. In February 2001, authorities in Phelps County, Missouri, seized 3,689 pounds of marijuana from a tractor-trailer driven by a Wisconsin man. Stopped for running a stop sign, the driver told the officer he was transporting produce. The officer became suspicious, however, after noticing the refrigeration unit on the vehicle was turned off. The marijuana, with an estimated street value of $11 million, was found hidden in 55-gallon barrels in the front of the trailer.

Marijuana also is transported into the area through parcel delivery services. On February 17, 2000, law enforcement officers seized approximately 60 kilograms of marijuana from four parcel packages shipped from El Paso to Milwaukee and to three cities on the East Coast. The heavily taped parcels with handwritten labels had been shipped overnight from various El Paso postal drops. In another instance, a Harlingen, Texas, Special Investigation Unit investigated a marijuana trafficking group that used various parcel companies to transport marijuana from the Southwest Border of the United States. When agents raided the traffickers' residence, they found dozens of package receipts indicating that the group had mailed at least 96 packages weighing more than 1,575 kilograms from 1997 to 1999. The packages were shipped via parcel services from Harlingen to recipients in Wisconsin and 14 other states. Another investigation identified a major marijuana transportation organization that used various parcel companies to transport marijuana to numerous states, including Wisconsin.

Jamaican criminal groups also transport large quantities of marijuana to Wisconsin, primarily to Milwaukee. For example, two Jamaican men were arrested in Illinois after more than 270 kilograms of marijuana were discovered in a tractor-trailer on Interstate 55 headed for Wisconsin. The police found the marijuana in 14 cardboard boxes that were surrounded by boxes of onions. Jamaican criminal groups have contacts throughout the United States, the Caribbean, and Europe, and the Milwaukee HIDTA reports that these contacts support transportation operations into Wisconsin.

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Distribution

Mexican DTOs are the primary marijuana wholesalers in Wisconsin. They also supply most of the cocaine in the Milwaukee area and use the same networks to distribute marijuana. Family members and associates provide the connections through which DTOs in Mexico establish branches of their organizations in the United States. Mexican distribution groups operating in the Milwaukee area often are composed of extended family members and associates of Mexican DTOs. Mexican DTOs also have strong affiliations with Milwaukee street gangs and supply them with marijuana for retail distribution.

Various criminal groups and street gangs are secondary wholesale distributors. In 1999, Jamaican criminal groups transported several hundred kilograms of marijuana from California to supply their wholesale and retail marijuana distribution operations in Milwaukee. African American gangs on the North Side of Milwaukee transport large amounts of marijuana, predominantly from Chicago, and distribute it to other retail groups. The East Side Mafioso sells large and small quantities of marijuana and other drugs to other gangs. However, Milwaukee gangs are involved in primarily retail marijuana sales.

Once marijuana is shipped into Milwaukee, which serves as a distribution center for the rest of the state, it is stored in private storage or warehouse facilities. The marijuana is then transferred to private homes and garages on an as-needed basis. Kilogram quantities of marijuana seized from Mexican DTOs often are packaged in large plastic bags wrapped in tape; smaller plastic sandwich bags are used for retail distribution quantities.

While street gangs retail a significant amount of marijuana in the state, ethnic criminal groups also distribute marijuana at the street level within their communities. Retail sales take place on street corners, from vehicles, in drug houses, in bars, and in other public places. African American gangs work two levels of retail marijuana distribution: sales to consumers and sales to other retailers. Sales to consumers consist of selling $10 and $20 worth of marijuana from houses and on street corners. Sales to other retailers involve larger quantities of marijuana. The East Side Mafioso's current method of operation is to sell large and small quantities of marijuana to other gangs. The gang has obtained marijuana from Tennessee and Texas and transported it to Milwaukee. The Mickey Cobras gang deals strictly in retail sales and receives its marijuana supply from various sources in Milwaukee and Chicago. The Mexican Posse, a Mexican street gang operating on the South Side of Milwaukee, is involved in retail marijuana sales and is very violent. Within the Milwaukee area, Jamaican criminal groups primarily deal on the North Side and are associated with several Jamaican-owned taverns in the city.

The Outlaws Motorcycle Club, detailed in the Cocaine section, also is involved in retail marijuana distribution. The Milwaukee HIDTA stated that the Outlaws Motorcycle Club is dealing marijuana throughout the state. The Outlaws club is known to distribute drugs through business fronts such as exotic bars and tattoo parlors. The Outlaws' Milwaukee chapter, the largest of the five Outlaws chapters in the state, controls all Outlaws activity in the state. The Milwaukee chapter attained its position through violent suppression of other clubs in the 1970s and 1980s. It consists of older, more hardened members, and it uses puppet clubs to retail marijuana and other drugs in the Milwaukee area.

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