Homegrown, Gourmet Pot on the Rise in Mexico Peter Orsi - Associated Press
go to original March 21, 2015

Homero Fernandez, of Mexico City, warms a pipe with one hand as he holds in the other a small amount of marijuana. (Eduardo Verdugo/AP)

Once upon a time, Mexican marijuana was the gold standard for U.S. pot smokers. But in the new world of legal markets and gourmet weed, aficionados here are looking to the United States and Europe for the good stuff.

Instead of Acapulco Gold, Mexican smokers want strains like Liberty Haze and Moby Dick — either importing high-potency boutique pot from the United States, or growing it here in secret gardens that use techniques perfected abroad.

It's a small but growing market in a country where marijuana is largely illegal, unlike the U.S. states of Colorado and Washington that have legalized recreational use, and others where medicinal pot is available.

A text message will bring a Mexico City dealer to the customer's doorstep with a menu of high-end buds for sale at the swipe of a credit card through a smartphone reader. Hydroponic shops have sprung up that supply equipment to those who want to cultivate potent strains in sophisticated home-grown operations. Some even are setting up pot cooperatives to share costs like high electrical bills and swap what they grow with each other.

...So far, reports of U.S.-grown marijuana making its way south have been only anecdotal but enough to raise concern.

Read the rest at SunSentinel

With an increasing number of states legalizing weed, the Mexican drug cartels are left with less demand for their most popular product. So how badly is the US marijuana legalization affecting the Mexican drug trade? (TestTube)

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