Mexican cartels grow weed in U.S. National Forests

I love how the media spins stories like this to portray marijuana as the villain. Within the past week over 26,000 marijuana plants were discovered and removed from the Sequoia National Forest. According to the Federal and State officials, Mexican drug cartels have been sending illegal immigrants across the border with supplies to grow and cultivate large crops worth $40 million (street value).

Officials are also claiming that the creation of these crops are the cause of environmental degradation within the area. 7,000 feet of irrigation tubing, over 2,000 pounds of garbage and “hazardous waste”, over 200 pounds of fertilizer and two gallons of pesticides were removed from the marijuana farm as well. Bears and other animals are said to have been killed by these so called armed and dangerous marijuana growers.

I’m pretty sure the increasing levels of nitrous dioxide in the air of countries like China and the Philippines due to manufacturing facilities and car emissions are a bigger threat to our environment than Mexican drug cartels planting more vegetation within our forests.

From a news release by the Join Information Center of Tulare County Sheriff’s Department:

…growers can live in remote locations near the sites for months at a time and officers have come across camps with exercise facilities, tree houses, barbed wire fences and numerous firearms. The camps often contain cooking and sleeping areas within view of the cultivation site. Some of the camps have tents, hammocks and sleeping bags on the ground and some have been found with large overhanging tarps.

Sounds like a great vacation spot to me. They had me sold with the exercise facilities. With more than 760,000 marijuana plants seized within the past year on land managed by the Sequoia National Forest, I’m bound to stumble upon a few hidden treasures. A little Mary Jane never hurt anyone, right?

(Via High Times)