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As the state marijuana legalization movement continues to expand, seizures of cannabis at southern border declined again in 2023, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The latest figures show agents intercepted roughly 61,000 pounds of cannabis in the region—a 29 percent drop from the year before.

The new numbers represent an ongoing decline in illicit marijuana seizures by border agents as more U.S. state legalization laws come online. In 2022, CBP authorities seized 154,797 pounds of cannabis nationwide—about half of the 319,447 pounds that were seized the year before.

Advocates for legalization say the data from the southern border is further evidence that state-regulated markets are shrinking demand for imported Mexican marijuana.

“When it comes to cannabis, the prevailing attitude is ‘Buy American,'” NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said in a statement about the trend. “The rise of the regulated state-legal cannabis market has not only supplanted Americans’ demand for Mexican cannabis, but in many places it has also disrupted the unregulated domestic marketplace.”

NORML noted that the 2023 figures mark a 98 percent decline in seized cannabis at the U.S.–Mexico border since 2013, when more than 2.4 million pounds were intercepted.

The advocacy group also cited a survey from last year in which 52 percent of U.S. cannabis consumers said they primarily obtain marijuana from brick-and-mortar establishments. The poll found that just 6 percent said they primarily get cannabis from a “dealer.”

As reports in recent years have pointed out, the dynamic has shifted so significantly that, at least in some cases, U.S. marijuana is now being smuggled into Mexico, where it commands premium prices. One vehicle recently stopped by authorities as it traveled from California to Tijuana held 5,600 jars of THC-infused gummies.

NORML said similar dynamics are being observed in Canada. In 2019, the first full year of legalization in that country, just over a third (37 percent) of consumers reported buying marijuana from legal sources. By 2022, that share had nearly doubled, to 69 percent. At that point, only 4 percent of respondents said they still purchased cannabis on the unregulated market.

The CBP data tracks with other indications of declines in illegal marijuana trafficking as a growing number of state laws give American consumers legal places to buy cannabis, including a March report from the U.S. Sentencing Commission that showed federal cases continue to fall.

While that report didn’t cite the specific number of marijuana trafficking cases in 2023, it dipped again compared to the previous 2022 low of 806, according to an included chart. By comparison, there were roughly 5,000 cannabis cases in 2013.

Meanwhile, cases involving fentanyl and powder cocaine increased again last year. Drug cases overall made up 29.9 percent of the federal criminal caseload, the second-largest category after immigration-related offenses.

Despite the latest CBP figures showing a marked drop in cannabis intercepted at the southern border, the agency has recently stepped up its seizures of marijuana from state-licensed businesses.

CBP has seized hundreds of thousands of dollars of marijuana from state-licensed cannabis businesses in New Mexico in recent weeks—detaining industry workers in what appears to be a localized escalation of national prohibition enforcement even as the federal government has largely refrained from interfering with the implementation of state legalization laws in recent years.

According to leaked audio from a call between New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) and the Biden administration last month, the governor told federal officials she’s frustrated with CBP’s approach.

Lujan Grisham’s office told Marijuana Moment last month that a Biden administration official has told the state that federal cannabis laws haven’t changed, indicating the seizures could continue.

New Mexico marijuana businesses report that the more than a dozen CBP seizures, particularly at interior checkpoints around the Las Cruces area, are a relatively new phenomenon. Since adult-use marijuana sales launched in the state in 2022, the operators say they’ve generally been able to transport their products to testing facilities and retailers without incident.

Starting around two months ago, however, the agency has evidently taken a more proactive approach to enforcing federal prohibition, taking hundreds of pounds of cannabis at the checkpoints inside the state. CBP is able to carry out its activities within 100 miles of the U.S. border.

For now, there’s no clear solution to the New Mexico cannabis industry’s CBP problem—or clear answers about why it’s happening two years after the state’s adult-use market first opened. In the meantime, businesses have been reaching out to members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation for support.

CBP’s actions against state-legal marijuana business is getting pushback in Congress as well.

“The Biden-Harris Administration is not doing enough to protect states who are not waiting for the federal government to catch up,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), founding co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, told Marijuana Moment last month.

“These seizures underscore the confusion and harm caused by the growing gap between the federal government and state-legal operations,” the congressman said. “Absent descheduling, President Biden urgently needs to issue guidance to prevent this type of infringement from happening again.”

Meanwile, a 2022 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) shed some light on who’s getting caught up in enforcement activities. At checkpoints across the country, agents are mostly taking small amounts of marijuana from American citizens rather than making large busts of international cartels, as some might assume.

Also, consistent with other studies and federal reports, the GAO analysis showed a significant decline in cannabis seizures at checkpoints overall since 2016.

In 2019, a coalition of senators requested a review of Border Patrol immigration checkpoint actions, citing a past report that found a significant number of searches and seizures were executed against U.S. citizens for low-level marijuana possession. It’s unclear if this new report is directly responsive to the lawmakers’ request.

A separate GAO report from earlier in 2022 also criticized Border Patrol because it does “not have fields” on forms for agents “to record data on the various sub-types of marijuana that exist” such as “edibles or THC oils and waxes.”

“This is noteworthy because marijuana represents 27 percent of total CBP drug seizures from fiscal years 2016 through 2021,” the report said. “Intelligence officials stated that they are unable to obtain a full picture of marijuana seizures in their analysis because these seizures are not categorized into these more specific sub-types, and each sub-type of marijuana can have its own smuggling trends.”

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The post Marijuana Seizures At U.S.–Mexico Border Continue To Fall As More States Legalize, Federal Data Shows appeared first on Marijuana Moment.

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Ben Adlin, KahliBuds, 420GrowLife