Posted on 10/12/2008 1:15:41 PM PDT by metmom
PORTERVILLE, Calif. — 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
My arguments don't make sense? What you are saying here makes absolutely no sense at all. As we tighten the borders we're going to see more Mexicans growing pot in our national forests, not less. It doesn't take millions of illegals to grow tons of pot. A few guys can set up a few thousand plant grow and leave a couple behind to tend to the plants. As we tighten the borders and make it harder to smuggle cheap Mexican grown pot in, it will make more and more sense for them just to grow it here.
Understand what we are dealing with here. These are massive drug trafficking organizations who are raking in billions of dollars every year. They probably supply the majority of the marijuana consumed in this country. They certainly supply several thousand tons. That's what our government believes. These Mexican drug trafficking organizations are dead serious about making this money too. Look at all the articles about dozens of bodies showing up all the time in border towns. They're fighting over smuggling routes. As we start to close off some of these smuggling routes, it will become more expensive for them to bring in their marijuana. These drug trafficking organizations expect to lose a few loads now. It is a cost of doing business to them, a tax. But if it becomes a lot more expensive for them hire smugglers to get the stuff over here and they lose a lot more loads, more and more of them will just start setting up growing operations up here so they don't have to smuggle it across the border. That's just what's bound to happen. We're already seeing it begin. And my bet is that the next thing we start seeing is Mexicans getting heavily involved with indoor growing operations as well like the Asian gangs have done up north. The DEA are already seeing evidence that this is starting to occur, and you can bet your bottom dollar that we'll see a lot more of it as we tighten border security.
There used to be a “redneck mafia”, not sure if it still exists, that grew a lot of pot on soy bean and cotton farms in NE Arkansas.
They do leave a lot of garbage there. Don’t know why you would think that is okay. They also use a lot of dangerous chemicals that are banned in this country. And they poften carry uzis.
It’s probably even bigger now. You know how sparsely populated Arkansas is. A person could drive for miles without seeing anything but trees and fields. I’d guess pot is a better cash crop than soy or cotton.
For the most part, I agree with all your comments in this thread. I have nothing to add. Just a “me too.”
My dad once told me that a big time farmer took him way to the back of his farm and showed him a field of pot. He told my dad, “I can make more money off one acre of that than I can a hundred acres of soy beans.”
Bingo. It’s likely the cash crop all over the southern half of the country. If pot were legalized, the farmers’ profits would drop, but they could grow more and not risk losing their land. Of course, lots of things are overlooked in rural counties where everyone knows everyone else. That’s not always a bad thing. Live and let live.
Thanks.
fine, then our awesome law officers will continue to stuff them out. Legalizing a hallucenogenic drug is not the answer and will create more of a burden on society from making it so very easy for people to get addicted with very little consequence. Yes, you are not making sense. Have you been smoking the stuff lately? : )
There are definitely consequences to being a heavy pot smoker. I’ll give you that. I just think that for most who do it the consequences are not related to marijuana’s legal status. Those consequences would remain even if marijuana was legalized. The fact that marijuana is illegal is in reality fairly inconsequential to the majority of people who would smoke pot. They do it anyway, and the vast majority get away with it without ever being caught. The small minority who do get caught aren’t punished very much in most cases. With little possibility of getting caught and fairly mild legal consequences for those who do get caught I do not know how anyone could possibly think the laws are deterring many people from smoking pot. But, if you want to delude yourself, be my guest. I’m not going to waste any more time arguing with you.
I agree. The penalties for growing pot in most states are completely asinine.
In Colorado growing a single plant is a class 4 felony. Here are some other class 4 felonies in the state:
*Robbery
*Class 2 Assault (this includes “recklessly causes serious bodily injury to another person by means of a deadly weapon.”
*An auto accident that results in death
*Damage of property from $500 to $15k
*Knowingly assisting a “serious” felony
*Enticement of a child.
So in Colorado, in the eyes of the law growing a pot plant is the same as robbery, beating someone up seriously, killing someone with your car, damaging thousands of dollars worth of property, assisting in armed robbery and the like, and “enticing” a child.
So, who would you all rather live next to? A hippie who grows a few pot plants for himself (and yes, I’ll admit living next to a hippie could be irritating) or a robber/child molester/violent person/etc.
“Hallucinogenic drug”?
Hell, alcohol is probably hallucinogenic if you drink too much of it. You’d have to consume a massive amount of pot for it to even approach that.
And pot is already extremely easy to get. Hang out at a bar (you know, the place where they sell a completely legal drug) sometime and you can find a pot connection pretty easily.
Oh, and our “awesome” law officers are about as piss poor as it gets at snuffing them out. Part of it is because they just suck in general, but the other part of it is even if they were “awesome” there are just too many growers and not enough “awesomes.”
I will admit, our “awesome” law enforcement officers are great at dressing up in full riot gear and killing dogs and innocent people in raids.
“I’m betting the toxic pollution is a trash dump and this article is just the usual BS.”
Bad bet. This is going on thousands and thousands of national park and forest acres. These cartels destroy the habitat.
Photos here:
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/search?q=invasion+800+miles
The Mexican border has moved 800 miles north-
“I don’t see their proof that it’s Mexicans growing all this pot. “
Just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not so. Yes, most of the large farms on public lands is Mexican Drug Cartels. We have half a dozen of them in our local jail most of the time.
Photos here:
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/search?q=invasion+800+miles
The Mexican border has moved 800 miles north-
whatever...you sound pretty screwed up and confused. Check out fhu.com...they have a great be still free download that has helped so many people become happy and free....without drugs or alcohol!
Anyone with a middle school education should have been able to understand what I wrote. Which probably disqualifies you. If I sound “screwed up” and “confused,” maybe you should go to your local community college and take a refresher course on reading. Don’t worry, I’ll help you with the application if it happens to contain words that have more than three syllables.
ok, thanks.
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