Pot Farms (1594 hits)
Category: NewsRating: -0.53 on 30 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by <Barid_Bel_Medar.at.excite.com> (View user info) at 2003-07-30 09:40:38 EDT
This article is for all the pot users around this site, especially Loki.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030804-471161,00.html?cnn=yes
Take a good look at it Loki, especially the part about hikers and hunters being gunned down. Are you sure pot growing is a victimless crime? Are you sure you want to go hiking in that beautiful national park when you can get shot for no reason at all? And don't try to use this as an arguement for legalization
For anyone too lazy to click the link.
Busted!
Drug dealers are planting pot farms all over our national parks, and the Park Service is struggling to root them out. TIME goes on a raid
By MARGOT ROOSEVELT I AUBURN, CALIF.
Sunday, Jul. 27, 2003
A blue-gray dawn tickles the tops of the ponderosa pines at the Sugar Pine Recreation Area in California's Tahoe National Forest. Campers slumber in lakeside tents; bikers have yet to hit the trails. But all is not quiet on this cool July morning. A platoon of camouflaged figures equipped with rifles, pistols and bulletproof vests creep through manzanita brush with a police dog. Their objective: a marijuana plantation a few hundred yards from a well-traveled tourist area.
As the Forest Service rangers stealthily approach, an unsuspecting Mexican laborer named Pedro Villa García, 51, stands in a clearing. All around him the hillside is freshly terraced, irrigated by black plastic hoses and dotted with iridescent green cannabis. Villa García peers down the path. Is that a black bear—a common local species—emerging from the morning mist? Suddenly he sees the rangers and dashes off through the brambles. But the police dog, a Belgian Malinois, catches up quickly, sinking its teeth into Villa García's arm. Two rangers wrestle him to the ground and handcuff him. "We're good at jungle warfare," says Laura Mark, a Forest Service investigator, as she prepares to question the suspect. "We're the ninjas of the woods."
Armed combat is hardly what families hope to encounter as they head for their summer vacations in America's national parks and forests. But drug smugglers, methamphetamine cooks and cannabis cultivators are invading federal lands as never before. A U.S. Park Service ranger in Arizona's Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument was gunned down by a Mexican pot smuggler last August. In Missouri's Mark Twain National Forest, 192 meth labs have been dismantled over the past three years. And marijuana farms are infesting Kentucky's Daniel Boone National Forest and Alabama's Talladega National Forest.
But the most explosive conflicts—and the biggest hauls—are taking place in California. As enforcement tightens along U.S. borders, especially since 9/11, it is getting harder to transport drugs into America. So Mexican traffickers have turned to creating vast marijuana plantations Stateside, that much closer to their main customers. Thanks to a mild climate, rich soil and a lengthy, March-to-October growing season, California cultivators routinely produce 10-ft.-high specimens worth up to $4,000 each. Some of these California pot farms stretch over several hundred acres and have as many as 50,000 plants. Last year 420,000 pot plants with a street value of $1.5 billion were eradicated from the state's 18 federal forests, a tenfold increase from 1994.
In Sequoia National Park, renowned for its majestic trees, rangers confiscated eight tons of marijuana in a single week last September. "We have a tremendous influx of Mexican growers," says Ross Butler, a special agent for the federal Bureau of Land Management. "They are sophisticated. They have guns. And we don't know much about who they are."
Villa García is unarmed when he is caught in the Tahoe forest—probably, rangers say, because it is early in the season. If they had already matured, the 3,500 plants he was tending would have yielded some $8 million worth of pot—an investment worth protecting. In the fall, when scores of Mexican workers arrive to harvest and process the pot, shoot-outs occur between law-enforcement agents and camouflage-clad growers toting AK-47s. Sometimes the pot pirates mistake innocent tourists for thieves or cops. Last year kayakers on the Salmon River in the Klamath National Forest were held at gunpoint by traffickers, as were a hiker in the Sequoia National Park and hunters in Mendocino National Forest. Two years ago, an 8-year-old boy hunting deer in the Eldorado National Forest with his father was shot in the face by pot farmers. "If you are a hunter, a fisherman or a backpacker, it can be dangerous," says Michael Delaney, who oversees marijuana cases for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Northern California. "There's a safety factor for everyone who is out there."
Squirming in his handcuffs, the white-bearded Villa García looks more like a kindly grandfather than a drug trafficker. He says he has been in the U.S. poquito—only a short time. A stranger came to his village in the Mexican state of Michoacán and brought him across the border, along with four others.
One of them was with him on the Tahoe farm but managed to escape. "I did not know what kind of work it would be," he says in Spanish, adding that he was paid $200 a month. Villa García was arraigned on narcotics-cultivation charges, pleaded not guilty, and is in prison awaiting trial. His is a story federal agents know well after arresting scores of low-level gardeners, all undocumented, most hailing from Michoacán. "They don't know much, and they're told, 'You talk, you gonna die,'" says Mark, who has questioned 60 such workers in the past year. "The odds of us finding the organizers are slim."
At least five Mexican drug rings are under investigation, some of them related to the Michoacán-based Magana family. In June 2001, nine members of the Magana clan pleaded guilty in federal court to narcotics charges and were given prison sentences ranging from four to 12 years. The Maganas have been tied to 20 large gardens with more than 100,000 plants in the Sequoia, Sierra, Stanislaus and Mendocino national forests. They also supplied workers for pot farms on federal land in Arkansas, Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington. According to investigators, the Maganas and other groups have used profits from methamphetamine operations to expand into marijuana. They own gas stations, haciendas and million-dollar resorts in Puerto Vallarta, Guadalajara, Michoacán and other parts of Mexico. "They have tremendous networks involving legal businesses, money laundering and distribution," says Jerry Moore, the Forest Service's regional law-enforcement chief. "We arrest people, but new players move in."
Villa García and his Tahoe pot farm were discovered a week after two forest rangers on patrol noticed a recently bushwhacked footpath. After the bust, the rangers found the usual layout and pattern of cultivation. "It's like they all go to the same college course—Marijuana 101," says Mark. As in other grows, seedlings are planted 6 ft. apart in rows. A forest canopy admits filtered sunlight but hides the seedlings from aerial surveillance. A stream is diverted to allow its water to flow through drip-irrigation tubes along the terraces. So that the workers can escape more easily, their sleeping area—strewn with toothbrushes and bottles of Pepto-Bismol and NyQuil—is hidden in the brush, apart from the kitchen and processing area. Propane bottles provide fuel for a two-burner stove next to bags of tortillas, cans of Juanita's-brand menudo (tripe), sacks of fertilizer and a votive card of St. Peter with the inscription "May your spirit intercede for sinners ..." in Spanish.
Rangers say that in March and April, workers are driven in vans along remote forest roads at dusk or dawn. They pile out onto prescouted paths with 100-lb. packs of supplies. Once they set up camp and begin planting, they are resupplied every two to three weeks. Throughout the summer, a skeletal crew tends the gardens, which are often divided into connected plots. In the fall, more workers come in to process the weed; one raid found 40 sleeping bags at a single site. The workers pick the flowering tops and hang them in nets to dry for up to a week. They peel off the buds, package the pot using scales and Baggies, and hike it out at night in duffel bags. At preset pickup points, vans await to transport the pot to consumers across the U.S.
Beyond the safety issue, the ecological damage from large-scale farms in parks and forests could take years to repair. Tree cutting and terraced slopes are causing massive erosion. In addition, the pot farmers leave a mess. At the Tahoe grow, 20 rangers and sheriff's deputies dug up the cannabis and stuffed it into paper bags as evidence. But propane tanks, coils of irrigation hose and food cans were left behind. "We don't have the manpower to get the garbage out," says Mark as she rips open plastic bags and tosses tortillas into the bushes.
Only seven drug-enforcement agents are assigned to police California's 20 million acres of federal forests. Rangers estimate that they discover as few as a third of the pot farms growing on public lands—and more than half of those are left untouched for lack of personnel to investigate them. When forest fires demand extra bodies, as was the case during last year's drought, even more cannabis is left to harvest. "This is a huge criminal enterprise, and we have so few resources to fight it," says Mark. "There are more growers than we know about or can deal with. We pick off a couple. The rest get away."
From the Aug. 04, 2003 issue of TIME magazine
User Reviews
Submitted by madprofit <-> at 2003-09-25 11:04:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Anyone else find it kind of funny that --420-- thousand plants were were eradicated from the state's 18 federal forests??
maybe i'm just high.
Submitted by Thanatos (user info) at 2003-07-30 14:58:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I don't feel like making another front page post, so here's another something to show people are stupid. This is an excerpt from a dialog by Tom Dreesen when he subbed for Letterman. You win a cookie if you can spot why he's an idiot.
I went to my school reunion last week. Don't go to school reunions. You just see a bunch of old people who claim to have been your classmates. But I ran into my old algebra teacher. I said "x to the 5th plus x to the 5th equals x to the 10th because in algebra you don't multiply, you add." My old algebra teacher replied, "That's very good, I'm impressed." I then said back to him, "And that's only the second time I've ever used that since you taught me it in high school."
Submitted by XAcidl3urN (user info) at 2003-07-30 14:12:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Loki- solely for that link, you are my hero for the day. Nay- THE WEEK! Yes, the whole goddamn week. Screw 200$ for a vapir, i'm gettin a 60 buck dealy. Fabulous- you're awesomer than if Fred Durst had a brick dropped on his voice box...well, almost that awesome (sorry, very few things would beat that)
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2003-07-30 14:12:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Thanatos - You've got to get out more. Although I do know people who fit your description, they are by no means the majority. Most of my friends who indulge are highly educated professionals. Saying that all pot smokers are ** overweight, lazy, and sexually promiscuous** is like saying that everyone who drinks is a wife beating drunk driver with no job and a beer gut.
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2003-07-30 14:02:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
http://www.rxdirect2u.com/
Submitted by XAcidl3urN (user info) at 2003-07-30 13:58:48 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Thanatos~ sure 1 joint is approx equal to 7 cigs, but do you really need to smoke a whole joint to get high? Maybe your first time, but after that, a few puffs on a J gets you pretty fucked. Have half the thing if you really wanna be retarded, but a whole J to your head is just a waste. also- read below with the whole vaporizer thing- no cancer
Submitted by Thanatos (user info) at 2003-07-30 13:54:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Actually, studies have shown that 1 marijuana cigarette = 7 regular cigarettes when it comes to cancer.
Loki, How could you even suggest letting children use during school? Our kids for the most part already suck at math, science, english(look at ubersite) and in general are getting the shit kicked out of them in any international scholastic event.
Hey kids, now, not only do you not have learn anything in school, but you can get baked as well!
In my experience, there is a good reason that pot users are stereotyped. Of the ones I know that smoke up more than once a week, there is not a single one that is not overweight, lazy, and sexually promiscuous. You can go ahead and say, 'oh, but I'm not like that', well I'd don't know you so you're not part of my personal experiences.
Submitted by XAcidl3urN (user info) at 2003-07-30 13:53:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
loki- sort of like that except cooler. It's completely enclosed and circulates heated air for like 20 minutes inside it's neato plastic shell. I dunno- yours looks cool too and probably didn't cost 200$...speaking of which- where did you get that (obviously your parents are cool as shit, but where'd they get it) and if you know, how much was it?
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2003-07-30 13:46:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
XAcidl3urN - you mean an aromatherapy diffuser don't you, like this: http://www.ubersite.com/cgi-bin/message_get.cgi?message=1059516142834518222
But this is all off the subject, the subject is that my weed can kick Glam's weed's ass.
Submitted by XAcidl3urN (user info) at 2003-07-30 13:42:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
i'm sick of hearing people complain about getting lung cancer from smoking weed. Yeah, it happens- same as if you smoke cigs- but you don't have to smoke weed to get high. First off, as most of you know, you can eat it- like in brownies (personal favorite), cookies...pretty much anything that uses butter, and if you're a man, that's everything. Second- pot doesn't even need to be smoked anymore. I'm not sure if anyone's seen it, but go to www.vapir.com It's a vaporizer that is fucking amazing. Uses less weed, gets you more fucked up, and DOESN'T cause cancer because there's no smoke. Problem? it costs at least 200$ which is more than any glass piece (almost any glass piece...)
Submitted by acrog (user info) at 2003-07-30 13:39:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
"especially the part about hikers and hunters being gunned down. Are you sure pot growing is a victimless crime? Are you sure you want to go hiking in that beautiful national park when you can get shot for no reason at all? And don't try to use this as an arguement for legalization"
Gee, this sounds a lot like the stills in the mountains back during alcohol prohibition. You don't hear of many shooting around stills very much anymore since prohibition was abolished.
"And don't try to use this as an arguement for legalization"
Come on man, think about it. If you take the criminal element out of it, you lower the risk of violence. I haven't heard of any beer deals going bad and someone getting shot over it.
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2003-07-30 13:36:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
hippie fight
hippie fight
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2003-07-30 13:34:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
SWEET, what we need is some way to measure the outcome.
As a point of clarification, if something is grown indoors, what difference does it make where this door is that is grown inside of?
By the way, I will soooo kick Glam's ass he should just go ahead and give up now and bow down to my greatness, Mendel was a fraud compared to me.
Submitted by glam_daddy (user info) at 2003-07-30 13:33:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
competition over.
CA wins.
there was never any doubt.
still love ya loki.
Submitted by Razor (user info) at 2003-07-30 13:29:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I will judge the competition.
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2003-07-30 13:22:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
If this is a challenge Glam you're on!
Submitted by Berz (user info) at 2003-07-30 13:13:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Glam is right, cali bud- indoor or outdoor is always good shit. Infact the mountain climate that these "farmers" are using is premo for growing.
Submitted by glam_daddy (user info) at 2003-07-30 13:08:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
-2 because i did +1 last time.
oops.
Submitted by glam_daddy (user info) at 2003-07-30 13:06:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
"Besides, growing outside produces dirt weed."
oooohh no you didnt. Loki has obviouslt beens spending too much time on the east coast.
Outdorr CA herb is extreemly un-dirt...
or something...
:-)
Submitted by Berz (user info) at 2003-07-30 12:43:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Man, did this ever back-fire on the author. I think I counted 4 or 5 LEGIT reasons why this article is a good reason for legalization.
"""Plus, it would go a long way towards ending school violence if the kids were allowed to fire up between classes"""
Believe me, they already do. alot. I would go as far as to estimate that 7 out of 10 high school students smoke on a daily basis. Now, I don't know any statistics in front of me, but with 70 percent of the "new" voters smoking regularly; shouldn't we see actual legalization within the next decade? Maybe i'm just dreaming.
Submitted by johnnyOZ (user info) at 2003-07-30 11:56:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Excellent article... I was intrigued the whole way through.
Comments: Fuckin mexicans... How do these border jumpers get away with this, in our country? In our forests nonetheless? Oh I know how, it's our politicians that do not put items like this up on their agendas.
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2003-07-30 11:08:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Plus, it would go a long way towards ending school violence if the kids were allowed to fire up between classes.
Submitted by SubstnceP (user info) at 2003-07-30 11:04:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
This is exactly why it should be legal. Razor and Loki are right! By my calculations...it will be as legal as alcohol in our life-time. The only reason pot isn't totally legal now, is because of congress. Members of congress range in age from 65-85 years of age. As time progresses, they will die and the next generation of people will enter our governing system...namely the baby boomers. This is the generation who experiemented with the psycho-active herb back in the 70's and they know what the true side effects are (or lack there of). Now I know what you are saying...That the people who will be in congress at that time will be the ones who didn't use it. Even so, the drug was socially acceptable among their peers during that time. Bottom line, in 25-30 years from now, our parent's generation will have made a solid presence in congress. No one can deny the money that could be made by our government from legalizing it, and current members of congress know this to be true. Time will catch up with ethical values... and bingo...no glaucoma for anyone!
Submitted by CheesyGoodness (user info) at 2003-07-30 10:54:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
i keep forgetting to rate
Submitted by CheesyGoodness (user info) at 2003-07-30 10:54:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
"Why the hell should they make it legal? What, can't you guys use alcohol like the rest of us?"
Comparison:
Alcohol -
-causes people to die
-can make you completely lose control of yourself
-gives you hangovers oftentimes
-has the tendency to make people violent
-destroys your liver.
-kills brain cells
Pot -
-no recorded deaths related to having too much
-can still drive and carry on a conversation when stoned
-I have a greater respect for everyone and everything around me (from people, to nature, to music)
-don't get angry or violent because life feels too good (chills you out)
-No hangovers.
-ok, it slowly causes lung cancer (much less so than cigarettes), but what doesn't cause cancer nowadays
-2 for trying to make a stupid point
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2003-07-30 10:29:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
I do spend a lot of time in the national parks, in fact in 8 days and 10 hours I'm going to be on my way to Yosemite. I would never condone the use of the national park system for any kind of personal gardening, those places are sacred to me. It would piss me off if I found someone doing that no matter what crop it is. Besides, growing outside produces dirt weed.
Alcohol is so much worse than weed on so many levels. Ever hear of anybody dying of an overdose of weed? No, because it can't happen and believe me that is NOT from a lack of trying.
Submitted by Thanatos (user info) at 2003-07-30 10:25:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Tripe, hey fuck you asshole.
Razor,
I pointed this out to Loki specifically because she seems to be one of the few people on this board that actually gets outside and would use the national parks.
Why the hell should they make it legal? What, can't you guys use alcohol like the rest of us?
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2003-07-30 10:20:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Razor stole my juice. Why don't you watch The Untouchables if you want to know what the effects of prohibition are, besides, I don't grow anything anywhere that people don't want it and have no weapons other then my sharp wit. In short follow the money.
Submitted by Judoka (user info) at 2003-07-30 10:05:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Unfortunely, or fortunatly Razor has summed up the tripe you posted nicely. So in conclusion let me say this. You sir, are a moron.
Submitted by Razor (user info) at 2003-07-30 09:51:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
"Take a good look at it Loki, especially the part about hikers and hunters being gunned down. Are you sure pot growing is a victimless crime? Are you sure you want to go hiking in that beautiful national park when you can get shot for no reason at all? And don't try to use this as an arguement for legalization"
I'll save Loki the effort. This is a PERFECT argument for legalization.
Do you really think if it was legal that people would be getting shot over it?
It's a very simple process...
A. Make something illegal.
B. Prices for it skyrocket.
C. Criminals get involved because there is a huge profit to be made.
What do you mean don't try to use this as an argument for legalization?!?!? It boggles the mind.
Also, I don't think that Loki is in our national parks with a rifle and a bad attitude waiting to take out army rangers.
You can even reverse the process...
A. Make pot legal.
B. The price drops through the floor.
C. Criminals go away because there's no more money to be made.
In conclusion...
Don't bother (-2)