Next time you pick up a joint, you may want to think carefully about where it came from.
The marijuana you're smoking is very possibly tainted by the brutality of cartels, according to New York Times bestselling author Don Winslow, who joined HuffPost Live on Thursday to discuss his most recent book, The Cartel.
"It's always been blood weed," Winslow told host Marc Lamont Hill.
The author explained that since states began legalizing marijuana, marijuana imports from Mexico have declined by roughly 40 percent, "because [Mexico] can't compete with the American price and quality." But even with that decrease, the drug trade's continued rampant violence means recreational weed smokers should be aware of where their dope is from.
"You should know its provenance," Winslow said. "You should know where it came from because, you know, there are tractor trailor trucks of it that are coming up through Mexico every day, and a lot of that is produced by slave labor. It's been sent to you by people who are mass murderers. ... I don't want to harsh anybody's high, but it's very possible that that weed you're smoking does have blood all over it."
The author provided a telling example of the hypocrisy of only paying attention to where your products originate in certain cases: "How can you go and be very particular about buying only fair trade coffee and then go home and smoke dope that was produced by women who were being gang raped and kidnapped and murdered and all of that?"
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