"The Weed Warden" and the Environmental Costs of Illegal Marijuana

[Belsnickel]

So, this was an interesting thing I was thinking about, today. I first heard an interview with John Nores on MeatEater, then I started listening to a more recent podcast he recorded with Joe Rogan. John is a retired conservation officer from California, who formed and led a special operations group within the department aimed at taking out illegal marijuana growing operations in the California wild lands.

Some things I learned that were very interesting to me:

• 70-80% of illegal marijuana around the country comes from California.
• Most of this marijuana is grown using chemicals banned in the US because of their high toxicity.
• A lot of this is occurring on public lands, such as state/national parks and forests.
• These folks are coming from Mexico, where they cut their teeth evading Federales working for the cartels down there. After that, they get sent up here.
• The lenient laws about growing marijuana in California without a license (it is a misdemeanor) is one of the several reasons it occurs so much in the state.
• There is a huge environmental impact to these operations as they divert water, introduce pollutants, illegally clear land, and usually poach.
  

There is a whole lot more to the story, and it really is interesting. Regardless of your position on the legalization of marijuana, this should be a concern and it is something that isn't getting a lot of media coverage. One of the things that this really made me think about, though, was all the people I know in states where weed is not legal that partake of the devil's lettuce and consider themselves to be environmentalists/conservationists. I wonder how they would feel about their habit, which they see as harmless, if they knew the real impacts going on in California to the environment and the wildlife in the state.

Anyway, just thought it would be an interesting conversation that is a bit different than many that we have here. And yes, I would agree that this could be used as an argument for making marijuana legal all throughout the US as it would disincentivizee the cartels to engage in these operations.

[GMDino]

(09-02-2019, 12:45 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: So, this was an interesting thing I was thinking about, today. I first heard an interview with John Nores on MeatEater, then I started listening to a more recent podcast he recorded with Joe Rogan. John is a retired conservation officer from California, who formed and led a special operations group within the department aimed at taking out illegal marijuana growing operations in the California wild lands.

Some things I learned that were very interesting to me:

• 70-80% of illegal marijuana around the country comes from California.
• Most of this marijuana is grown using chemicals banned in the US because of their high toxicity.
• A lot of this is occurring on public lands, such as state/national parks and forests.
• These folks are coming from Mexico, where they cut their teeth evading Federales working for the cartels down there. After that, they get sent up here.
• The lenient laws about growing marijuana in California without a license (it is a misdemeanor) is one of the several reasons it occurs so much in the state.
• There is a huge environmental impact to these operations as they divert water, introduce pollutants, illegally clear land, and usually poach.
  

There is a whole lot more to the story, and it really is interesting. Regardless of your position on the legalization of marijuana, this should be a concern and it is something that isn't getting a lot of media coverage. One of the things that this really made me think about, though, was all the people I know in states where weed is not legal that partake of the devil's lettuce and consider themselves to be environmentalists/conservationists. I wonder how they would feel about their habit, which they see as harmless, if they knew the real impacts going on in California to the environment and the wildlife in the state.

Anyway, just thought it would be an interesting conversation that is a bit different than many that we have here. And yes, I would agree that this could be used as an argument for making marijuana legal all throughout the US as it would disincentivizee the cartels to engage in these operations.

Interesting.

I think like most things the legalizations and regulations (dirty word, I know) will help in the long run with a lot of the problems associated with it.

At least I hope so.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

California predictably effed up the legalization of marijuana. They taxed the legal product to the point that many still buy illegally as it's cheaper. Many of the weed shops are run by criminal street gangs as it's a cash only business and an excellent way to launder money. The government also, as you correctly pointed out, made criminal sanctions for those who don't abide by the new laws weak to the point that they are routinely ignored. I have several friends who are parole agents and they cannot violate people and send them back to prison for anything less than a new, felony, offense. This effectively destroys parole as a felony conviction for an ex-prisoner is 99.99% of the time going to result in a commitment to state prison anyways. I could honestly go on for hours about this but I'll spare all of us.


Lastly, the constant softening of the criminal justice system is already having a noticeable effect on the streets. It will take a while for this to be statistically noted and when it first is law enforcement, parole and probation will be blamed instead of the soft on crime legislature and governor. It's going to take about a decade to even start to reverse all the damage that's being done now.