Before the 1970s – the vast majority of cannabis consumed in the United States could have been tracked across the border to Mexico. Cartels weren’t really a major “thing” back then – but, there has been a long-standing cannabis trade with the US. The problem with the “Mexican Brick” as people referred to it was that it had a lot of seeds & stems and usually required smoking half a joint to a full joint just to get high. This is the “weed your grandparents smoked” according to modern political lingo.