In Chapter 9, Reding cites Karl Marx’s idea that in a capitalist society, businesses must “grow or die.” It behooves the CEOs and shareholders of large corporations to cannibalize their competition. This creates a sellers market where there are limited service providers but hordes of buyers who are at the mercy of the conglomerates.

Reding points out that the drug trafficking organizations operate similarly to corporations like Cargill or monolithic pharmaceutical companies: “The ability to influence the governmental decision-making process is something the U.S. food and pharmaceutical industries share with the five Mexican DTOs” (161).

Corporations can grow so large, and command such vast sums of money, that they can buy influence and demand a seat at the tables where government policy is made. The DTOs wield similar influence in government, although they pursue their agendas through overtly criminal means. They are so powerful and have such vast resources that the American government must consider many of its policies in light of how they might affect the drug trade.

Even well-intended government policies can have adverse effects that work to the benefit of DTOs. For example, the Combat Meth Act made it more difficult to procure large amounts of precursors drugs from pharmacies.