Mexican Pot Gangs Pollute National Parks

Industrial Sized Grow Sites Are Destroying The Environment In America's Parks And Forests

(AP)  National forests and parks - long popular with Mexican marijuana-growing cartels - have become home to some of the most polluted pockets of wilderness in America because of the toxic chemicals needed to eke lucrative harvests from rocky mountainsides, federal officials said.

The grow sites have taken hold from the West Coast's Cascade Mountains, as well as on federal lands in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Seven hundred grow sites were discovered on U.S. Forest Service land in California alone in 2007 and 2008 - and authorities say the 1,800-square-mile Sequoia National Forest is the hardest hit.

Weed and bug sprays, some long banned in the U.S., have been smuggled to the marijuana farms. Plant growth hormones have been dumped into streams, and the water has then been diverted for miles in PVC pipes.

Rat poison has been sprinkled over the landscape to keep animals away from tender plants. And many sites are strewn with the carcasses of deer and bears poached by workers during the five-month growing season that is now ending.

"What's going on on public lands is a crisis at every level," said Forest Service agent Ron Pugh. "These are America's most precious resources, and they are being devastated by an unprecedented commercial enterprise conducted by armed foreign nationals. It is a huge mess."

The first documented marijuana cartels were discovered in Sequoia National Park in 1998. Then, officials say, tighter border controls after Sept. 11, 2001, forced industrial-scale growers to move their operations into the United States.

Millions of dollars are spent every year to find and uproot marijuana-growing operations on state and federal lands, but federal officials say no money is budgeted to clean up the environmental mess left behind after helicopters carry off the plants. They are encouraged that Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who last year secured funding for eradication, has inquired about the pollution problems.

In the meantime, the only cleanup is done by volunteers. On Tuesday, the nonprofit High Sierra Trail Crew, founded to improve access to public lands, plans to take 30 people deep into the Sequoia National Forest to carry out miles of drip irrigation pipe, tons of human garbage, volatile propane canisters, and bags and bottles of herbicides and pesticides.

"If the people of California knew what was going on out there, they'd be up in arms about this," said Shane Krogen, the nonprofit's executive director. "Helicopters full of dope are like body counts in the Vietnam War. What does it really mean?"

Last year, law enforcement agents uprooted nearly five million plants in California, nearly a half million in Kentucky and 276,000 in Washington state as the development of hybrid plants has expanded the range of climates marijuana can tolerate.

"People light up a joint, and they have no idea the amount of environmental damage associated with it," said Cicely Muldoon, deputy regional director of the Pacific West Region of the National Park Service.

As of Sept. 2, more than 2.2 million plants had been uprooted statewide. The largest single bust in the nation this year netted 482,000 plants in the remote Sierra of Tulare County, the forest service said.

Some popular parks also have suffered damage. In 2007, rangers found more than 20,000 plants in Yosemite National Park and 43,000 plants in Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park, where 159 grow sites have been discovered over the past 10 years.

Agent Patrick Foy of the California Department of Fish and Game estimated that 1.5 pounds of fertilizers and pesticides is used for every 11.5 plants.

"I've seen the pesticide residue on the plants," Foy said. "You ain't just smoking pot, bud. You're smoking some heavy-duty pesticides from Mexico."

Scott Wanek, the western regional chief ranger for the National Park Service, said he believes the eradication efforts have touched only a small portion of the marijuana farms and that the environmental impact is much greater than anyone knows.

"Think about Sequoia," Wanek said. "The impact goes well beyond the acreage planted. They create huge networks of trail systems, and the chemicals that get into watersheds are potentially very far-reaching - all the way to drinking water for the downstream communities. We are trying to study that now."

[indianaman13]

Wow. We need border control and more forest rangers. We need more art and education in schools. I don''t mean drug education, Reagan proved for over 20 years now that mandatory sentencing just doesn''t work. We need to put brushes, colored pencils, and musical instruments into kids hands, or else they pick up drugs. We need to quit forcing addicts into prison because they join gangs to survive, and we all know just how much gangs are the scum of humanity. Educated children know they have a future simply because they know they have a mind, while dumb kids don''t mind being dumb and high simply because they know no other life.

[klingon69]

Not being racist, but a White America was a better America. A better standard of living and a better quality of life and harmony.
Posted by cbsfan731 at 12:55 PM : Oct 12, 2008

Now you have effectively invalidted any past, present or future statements you make

[america51]

race or nationality do not determine anything, mexicans are not the only ones that do that weed ***,whites and african americans do it as well, but americans are trying to find someone to blame it on!!!1 and it would be a very stupid idea to legalize weed!!!!

[ryindy]

newster1 qrote: Making it legal....

Always has to be a few advocating this craziness.

Assume that it is made legal. How long would it take before you find drug emporiums in strip malls or street corners like you now find tobacco shops or liquor store''s?

Can''t buy it until your 18 you say? How many kids now drink or smoke?

Make it legal ? Think again.

[nothappyatall]

Weed and bug sprays, some long banned in the U.S., have been smuggled to the marijuana farms"

ANother reason to legalize and tax the krap and do away with this underground market. Cant imagine the stupidity of smoking illegally grown krap coated with unknown pesticides, but then the same people woud buy medicines and viagra from an on-line spammer "pharmacy" whose ingredient origins are unknown.

Making it legal however would mean the Govt FAILED and spent billions in a drug "war" for nothing.

[gop_will_win]

We should just get rid of the national parks and turn them into industrial parks and such things as this wont be happening anymore.

[hologram5]

Some say legalize pot to solve the problem. I say, execute on site the thugs who are doing it. No questions asked, simply dead foreign nationals. Leave the dead bodies hung from a sign warning the next ones that their time is coming if they do the same. Simple enough. God Bless the USA!


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Posted by xentpro at 01:27 AM : Oct 13, 2008
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This has got to be the most idiotic thing I have ever heard. Alcohol kills more people per capita than pot ever has or will. Take 10 people, put them in a room with whiskey and there will be fighting. Take the same guys, put them in a room with pot and they''ll be playing video games and ordering pizza. Think about it.

[closethippy1]

It amazes me how much the government with the help of the media can brainwash people and make them fearful to think of practical solutions to our problems.
A practical solution to marihuana is the legalization of it, no questions about it.
But you got these "moral" freaks running who want to show off to their families and friends how heroic they are by fighting "potheads".
These folks are making a lot of money and winning a lot of votes when they run for offcie because of it.
It sickens me to see how people can be so freaking naive.
People have been smoking weed for tens of thousands of years without any consequence and now look what they''re willing to do to you if lae enforcement finds out about you.
I just can''t believe how humanity with all the freaking technology and science available has less freedoms than before.
Everyone is now isolated in their living cubes and believe everything they see coming out of their TVs. Oh, goodness, all those boogymen with strange names like Barack, or who like to smoke weed, or who want to fool you into being peaceful, they all want to get you! Watch out! Don''t be fooled by Satan!
I swear, it''s as easy to scare voters as it is to scare children.

[ubrew12]

thevealchop said: "Alcohol MIGHT help prevent heart attacks, but otherwise it pickles livers and reeks havoc on kidneys and is linked with all sorts of diseases, like diabetes. Tobacco, too, is linked with diabetes, but is primarily known for causing lung cancer.

Marijuana has a medicinal function, much like aspirin does for headaches. There are people who use it to treat depression, anxiety, IBS, sinus headaches, back pain, and a multitude of other ailments. Cancer patients will ingest it to relax and ease pain. America has been mislead on the evils of marijuana."

Bump. Bears repeating.

As with free-market economics, global warming, and the benefits of a vegetarian diet, marijuana is yet ANOTHER example of how hippies were right all along, and the American ''right'' were wrong, for 40 years.

[thevealchop]

I wonder what kind of data there is to support this publication''s claim that the pot''s being grown by mexicans.

Marijuana has a medicinal function, much like aspirin does for headaches. There are people who use it to treat depression, anxiety, IBS, sinus headaches, back pain, and a multitude of other ailments. Cancer patients will ingest it to relax and ease pain.

Alcohol MIGHT help prevent heart attacks, but otherwise it pickles livers and reeks havoc on kidneys and is linked with all sorts of diseases, like diabetes. Tobacco, too, is linked with diabetes, but is primarily known for causing lung cancer.

America has been mislead on the evils of marijuana.

[neonink]

the government doesn''t seem to have any problems with those "toxic chemicals" when they are used on our food...


hmmm...

[toolmangler-2009]

Our government should decriminalize marijuana in order to regulate production, tax the sales, and track its use.
Posted by trstephens at 01:34 PM : Oct 12, 2008

Look you are 100% right. I also think that anybody using MaryJane should be uninsurable like Smokers (tobacco) are. I think that anybody that rides a Motorcycle without a Helmet on should be treated the same way, that goes for Seatbelts too. If you are going to do stupid things, ''you'' not I should have to pay for it. BTW I am a Biker who used to smoke.

[mswolfestock]

First - throw out the illegals and send them home, and make them take their toxic chemicals and garbage back with them.

Second - legalize marijuana to be grown organically.

Third - everybody sit down, burn a couple of J''s, and forget all of your troubles.

"ALL WE ARE SAYING, IS GIVE PEACE A CHANCE."

Pot brownies for all uptight Repubi-PIGS.

How could they be such nasty, ignorant, lying A*S*S*H*O*L*E*S after a couple of hits of Mendo Bud?

[heero78-2009]

Save our environment and economy by legalizing and taxing pot.

[standlee5]

There is nothing sacred about the USA to illegals. I see them open their car doors and dump all their fast food garbage out in parking lots and on the streets their kids graphiti up the neighborhoods. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Now they''re destroying our federal lands and most sacred of national parks. DEPORT NOW

[geneonlbk]

The liquor lobby doesn''t mind having the taxpayers support their monopoly. While the taxpayers are paying to house one million pot-heads over the past decade, the liquor industry has been killing fifty thousand a year in alcohol caused traffic deaths. Oh yes, the Feds are unable to come up with any statistics on deaths cause by pot because there aren''t any. It''s your choice. You can spend forty thousand a year to incarcerate a bunch of harmless pot-heads and watch your neighbors and family killed by drunks. Or you can get smart and write your representatives to also outlaw a really dangerous and lethal drug - alcohol. Better yet legalize pot and tax it just like liquor. I bet the liquor industry would prefer not to have to compete with a safe drug such as pot while liquor ruins millions of lives and families every year.

[getaclue777]

PLUS IT WOULDN''''T BE IN OUR PARKS IT WOULD BE ON A LEGAL AND TAXED FIELD IN INDIANA...




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Posted by jw218389



It WOULD be in our parks just as much as alcohol is!

[jw218389]

If it was legal - U.S. Farmers could grow it - just like tobacco and WE COULD TAX IT. Plus the Mexican drug cartel (pot anyway) would go the way of Al Capone after the end of Prohibition in the 20''s.

PLUS IT WOULDN''T BE IN OUR PARKS IT WOULD BE ON A LEGAL AND TAXED FIELD IN INDIANA...

[getaclue777]

cbs731 wrote:
This country was far greater without these people around. They inhibit the advancement of society. America was smarter, more respected and far better off without them. Diversity is another term for appeasement. I still think that electric shocks and shooting them with rubber bullets are in order. If you think about it, they have invaded, which is an act of war. "Not being racist, but a White America was a better America. A better standard of living and a better quality of life and harmony." The same holds true for Europe. You really have to feel sorry for Briton and France now. They are becoming genetic cesspools.------------------------------
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Do you really think I''''m the only one who sees what you''''re up to? Or are you busy deleting other''''s posts as well?
Better hurry up and delete this, someone might read it....lol....you fools!

Are you really so gutless? Can''t you just respond?

[pkelly79]

Deregulation is the only option & solves this problem as well as many others associated with the black market.