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Aug 18, 2009 01:15 PM | 12
Serious bummer, dude. California's totally ablaze, and the cops are laying the blame on marijuana growers.
That's right. Investigators with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Narcotics Unit have confirmed that the camp at the origin of the La Brea fire was an illegal marijuana operation believed to be run by a Mexican drug organization. The suspects are currently on the lam and thought to be hiding out in the San Rafael wilderness, the U.S. Forest Service said in a prepared statement.
The La Brea fire first flared up east of Santa Maria, Calif., on Aug. 8 and has since burned 75,000 acres of chaparral, grass and timber. Last week, 234 houses were evacuated, but the blaze is now 25 percent contained, reports the Los Angeles Times.
As the U.S. has clamped down on cross-border trafficking, the cultivation of marijuana on public lands, including national parks, has become a serious problem. And while marijuana may be green, growing, harvesting and shipping it are not.
In 2003, Art Gaffrey of the Sequoia National Forest in California testified before Congress that in a five-year period starting in 1997, agents eradicated 3 million marijuana plants, or about 3,000 metric tons, on Forest Service lands. Gaffrey described the camps as being filled with "refuse, feces, fertilizers and poisons" and explained that the marijuana harvest was far from organic. Marijuana growers were also responsible for starting a wildfire in Sequoia in 1999.
Although medical marijuana use is legal in California, legal cultivation is limited to small-scale operations constrained by a patchwork of local laws. Depending on how you look at it, the ecological cost could be one more reason to ramp up the war on drugs—or to encourage decriminalization or legalization, bringing cultivation into the domain of environmental laws.
What do you think?
Image of marijuana plant courtesy Eric Caballero via Flickr
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12 Comments
Add CommentWhere's the Science?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs SciAm now becoming a pseudo-news/political web site?
Well well, if such a harmless recreational drug as marijuana wasn't illegal, this would never have happened, would it have?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe drug alcohol is completely legal, and kills far more people every year than any blaze ever will in California. Believe it.
Uh yeah, ehem ah... the Mexicans are behind it!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe social, environmental, and economic costs of keeping marijuana illegal are greater than the costs if it were legal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBickjh hit it right on the 'head'
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSeems that everyone has it right except te goverment who would rather spen billions of tax dollars keeing it illegal than makeing marijuana legal and thereby reaping billions of tax dollars. Reminds me of the "prohibition years" for alchohol. I f mijuana were legal perhaps it would reduce the number of alcohol related deaths. I live in Canada where the laws are just as dumb as those of the US.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLEGALIZE IT!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHave opponents of the medical marijuana industry now done their part in what has lead to the burning up of the planet and all these related natural disasters that are killing people? In the big picture, how ethical has their choice to overpower other people's personal health choices been? People see the big picture of how to most protect all people when energy and consciousness is free to flow through their bodies, which are integrated with their minds. So, has opposing that flow had the potential effect of destroying much of the planet's life and people? People may have ideals, but this is a practical situation we're dealing with on earth that has very real and serious effects. Does stress in interpersonal relationships create hot energy? Should people try to cool down by respecting each other's personal liberties, to coordinate more effectively together?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this- Irene at heartofheartart.blogspot.com
The few people I still know from the hippy days... that have not died from cancer or been killed in car accidents. (They liked to smoke and drink!)Have stopped smoking. Why... It's not fun when your kids think your stupid. Pot makes you very, very stupid.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisScience is supposed to solve problems, all you doubters. So, "how many times must a man look down" and see that our ignorant laws regarding a weed, ad infinitum, do nothing but support drug cartels and crime and war and terror. Understand what motivates humans, and get right. Before I die would be good. And free all the folks up on marijuana charges, and clear their records. This was political harrassment, no more. Nixon feared and hated Hippies. He lost. We won. Make it official, please.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHey bops, I am 66 and I smoked my first doobie in 1965 and my last one yesterday. All the people I know from back in the day still get high! I don't think smoking weed makes you stupid. Most of my friends from the summer of love are/were professionals. Peace brother! Robert-- Harvard College--class of 1973!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNot only that, but they cause tremendous environmental damage and clean up costs - http://www.campaignsthatmatter.com/articles/5-legalizing-marijuana-in-california
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