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Your math sounds right. I’m surprised that ProPublica would fall for copaganda.
In a situation like this, they're probably heavily relying on the information provided by police or other government officials since it's not easy to find people willing to go on record to talk about their illegal activity.
I don't doubt that there are organized groups growing and selling illegally, but the scale of what they're claiming just seems wildly exaggerated. Police also have a vested interest in making crime seem worse as that leads to more funding and new military toys to use against the populace.
I don't find it too surprising from ProPublica as it's not too dissimilar from articles about the Satanic panic back in the day that had huge outlets like the New York Times publishing complete fabrications. I think any news outlet can be susceptible to things like this because it's highly sensational and difficult to verify.