Marijuana Prices in Chile Skyrocket Three-fold

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Marijuana Prices in Chile Skyrocket Three-fold

February 8, 2010 -

Prices escalate from US$923 per kilo to US$2,769 per kilo due to shortage

Policia de Investigaciones (PDI) crackdowns on marijuana cultivation and trafficking in Chile have resulted in a shortage of the drug, sending prices sky-rocketing, government sources reported last week.

In the last three years the amount of cannabis seized by the PDI has risen 107 percent.

Figures show the price of one kilogram of marijuana in Santiago is currently US$1,661, while in La Calera the same amount costs US$2,400 and US$2,954 in San Antonio. In Talca, one kilo costs US$1,846, the same as further south in Puerto Montt. In Chillan, a kilogram is priced at US$1,292 and in Punta Arenas, US$2,769.

During 2009, police seized 11.5 tons of cannabis and 74, 434 crop plants – a 60 percent increase over the previous year.

Police are searching border crossings and inspecting rural areas to detect cannabis crops. Juan Francisco Hernande, PDI’s anti-narcotics division head, said most of the processed marijuana sold in Chile comes from foreign shores, most often Paraguay, where it is then hidden in trucks and transported to Argentina, before a final leg to Chile across the Andes.

Hernandez said tightened security at border crossings has lead traffickers to seek out alternate routes into Chile. He added that greater use of helicopters is also helping police locate marijuana crops. “We have focused our work between Region IV and Region VIII, [which] we found are the major growing areas,” Hernandez said.

Around 180 people were arrested for growing marijuana in 2009, compared to 122 arrested in 2008. Already this year (2010) police have seized 33,000 plants.

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[Fandango 1,440]

This is what the laws of supply and demand can easily predict. So the war on drugs by seizing drugs is only increasing the street value of the remaining drugs on the street. Presumably, the increased prices have a direct correlation to increasing drug related crime.

So basically, the war on drugs can never truly be effective the way it's being approached.