Peace, Love and Dope, and Mass Murder

The press has been  chewing on this for two days trying to avoid noticing the 900 pound gorilla in the room.  The Robbery Murder of eight family members in Ohio.  It is not a “mass murder” in the classic sense that somebody twisted off and started killing for no apparent reason. This was a plain old drug rip off. But, but, the killers left behind the marijuana plants.  Did you hear the cops say anything about finished product or cash reserves?  Crickets.

Peace, love, dope, marijuana is benign, people involved in marijuana aren’t violent, tell that to Charlie Manson and family. Marijuana equals money more so than at any other time.  Look to the economics and these murders start to make sense.

The police found three grow sites.  I have not seen any description of the grows. The thing that the number of plants under cultivation would tell me was the sophistication of the growers and their capacity to turn out product.

Let’s bat some numbers around.  This all pure speculation but illustrates the potential.  First some assumptions:

  • The growers were growing hybrid weed and probably sinsemilla (that is only female plants are kept, and they are sexually frustrated by not being allowed to pollinate).
  • They are using the “Sea of Green” technique in that some portion of the crop is always ready for harvest.

Want a pound a weed in San Antonio, TX.  Might cost you $200 on the south side, $250 if you buy it  north of IH 10. If you get that pound up to Ohio, you can probably sell it for $900-$1000 a pound. That’s Mexican weed.

We’ve already stipulated that the deceased in Ohio were growing hybrid weed. What’s the difference?  Mexican weed has 3-5% THC content, the active ingredient that provides the “high”.  Sinsemilla Hybrid weed has 19-28% THC. Market price $2400-5000 a pound. Let’s call it $3600 a pound to account for variations in price due to marketing.

We have stipulated that they were using a sea of green technique.  The United States sentencing commission says a marijuana plant is the equivalent to a kilo, DEA counts one plant as a pound.  Check the Internet one plant equals one pound sounds reasonable.

To keep the math reasonable, let’s say our growers were able to harvest ten pounds a week, week in and week out for the past year. $3600 X 10= $36000 X 52 = $1,872,000. This verses Mexican weed $1000 X 10= $10,000 X 52= $520,000. The money is going to support three families and provide overhead.  The clear profit winner is the hybrid weed.

Next look to the crime itself.  Person(s) unknown took control of three separate locations and eight adults.  The locations if not within sight of one another were within hearing distance.  This suggests multiple suspects acting in a coordinated fashion.

The proliferation of “indoor”, ” hybrid” marijuana grows is an innovation brought down from Canada.  The Vietnamese started the trend.  The “bikers” realized the potential and took over the marijuana growing in Canada. A good starting point to find the shooters would be to cast a glance at outlaw bikers. You know like the kind hearted, good ole boys, that just wanted to attend a safety meeting in Waco, Texas.

These victims weren’t living a high dollar type of lifestyle. Red neck logic says if they ain’t spending it, their hoarding it.  Peace, love and Dope marijuana is a non-violent lifestyle.