Outlook

The Northern California HIDTA's role as a regional- and national-level distribution center for illicit drugs will continue as a result of the region's highly developed transportation infrastructure and proximity to sources of supply. Mexican DTOs will continue to dominate the wholesale transportation and distribution of ice methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, and heroin in the region.

Methamphetamine trafficking and abuse will continue to influence the escalation of violent crime and property crime perpetrated in the HIDTA region. To further exacerbate this problem, a new, younger group of methamphetamine abusers may emerge in the HIDTA region in the near term, drawn to methamphetamine by flavored and colored forms of the drug. Consequently, methamphetamine-related admissions to publicly funded treatment centers will also very likely increase.

As long as outdoor and indoor cannabis cultivation remains a highly lucrative money making enterprise, the Northern California HIDTA will continue to experience an increase in major trafficking organizations operating in the area and will continue to experience the residual effects of the associated violent crime and property crime, increased public health and officer safety issues, and rising treatment rates. Mexican DTOs will continue their efforts to produce high-potency marijuana from cannabis cultivated outdoors. In doing so, they will most likely increase the number and size of grow sites within the HIDTA region. They will also quite likely protect their grow sites through an increased presence of armed guards.

Asian DTOs will increase their activities in large-scale indoor cannabis cultivation operations within the HIDTA region in order to capitalize on increasing profit margins associated with higher-potency marijuana. These operations will quite likely mirror indoor cultivation operations established by Asian DTOs in other parts of the country and in Canada.

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