cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Crop Getting Bigger Marijuana Crop Getting Bigger Posted by FoM on September 25, 2000 at 07:22:30 PT By David Greenberg, Staff Writer Source: Daily News Illegal drug suppliers employing heavily armed workers are increasingly using the 1.75 million-acre Los Padres National Forest for marijuana crops, according to authorities.Saying the planters include sophisticated Mexican drug cartels, a joint task force of military, police and forest officials so far this year has seized plants that would have been worth $21 million to $26 million in street sales. This month authorities found 15,000 plants with a street value of $17 million to $22 million in the Ventura County portion of the forest. "It certainly does seem to be a lot more growing up there," said Eric Nishimoto, a spokesman for the Ventura County Sheriff's Department. "Over time, we are seeing more sophistication in the methods used, which can yield a much bigger crop. We're probably going to find even more."We're not talking about the old days where some potheads grew some plants for their own use."Battling this growing problem is the Ventura County combined agencies team, formed in June 1999 by police officers, sheriff's deputies, probation officers and personnel from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency and state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement Agency.Plantings are often spotted during aerial reconnaissance missions by Army and Marine pilots conducting training exercises.By the September harvest season, plants are 4 to 12 feet tall, with the average plant generating a pound of marijuana.Depending on the potency of the tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredients in marijuana, a pound can have a street value of $600 to $5,000, authorities said.The team suspects that Mexican drug cartels are involved because of the sophisticated way in which the gardens are laid out and tended."It's in the way the plants are laid in rows, . . . consistent with the natural vegetation of the area," said Cpl. Tim Turner of the Ventura Police Department, a former member of the team. "From air, it's more difficult to detect. It's also in the way they use the natural vegetation to conceal their plants."The recent seizures include 4,700 plants valued at $5 million from the Tule Creek area, 1,300 plants valued at $2.25 million from the Potrero Seco area and 4,000 plants valued at $4 million to $5 million from Matilija Canyon.Authorities on Friday released details of the seizure of an estimated 5,000 plants from three separate locations in the Ventura County portion of Los Padres, with a possible street value of $5 million to $10 million.Rather than burning the seized marijuana as in years past, authorities now bury the illegal drugs.Authorities also have found irrigation pipes running to the cultivation sites from natural water sources two to five miles from the nearest road or dirt path. Campsites near the marijuana plants showed the growers had carried in their food, clothing, ammunition and other supplies, and they would have carried out the marijuana on their backs, authorities said.None of the growers has been arrested. Apparently they always spot authorities on their way in to seize the marijuana plants."Certainly they have lookouts," said Turner. "We've seen that in many of the cases, where an area is designated to be a lookout position. When it's laid out in the rim of the canyon, you can see who enters or leaves the canyon."But we're putting a large dent into their operations. We're continuing to look for more growth sites as the investigations continue."Forest officials are upset about environmental damage in addition to the drug problem. Marijuana growers kill animals for food or to protect their crop, cut away natural vegetation, litter and leave human waste."They are using the forest as a toilet," said Kathy Good, a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman. "Small birds and mammals are dying because they're getting into the (pesticide) poisons that the growers are using. . . . They are also presenting a fire hazard because they are using stoves and campfires unsafely." Published: Monday, September 25, 2000 Source: Daily News of Los Angeles (CA)Author: David GreenbergCopyright: 2000 Daily News of Los AngelesAddress: P.O. Box 4200, Woodland Hills, CA 91365Fax: (818)713-3723Website: http://www.DailyNews.com/Feedback: http://www.DailyNews.com/contact/letters.aspRelated Articles:Pot Growers Boldly Expanding Operationshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7141.shtmlMassive Pot Farm in Hills Discovered http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7140.shtmlRecord Drug Bust Near San Mateo County Reservoirhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7133.shtmlMadera Cultivates Millions in Pot Haul http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7116.shtml END SNIP --> Snipped Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #10 posted by Kanabys on September 27, 2000 at 05:45:49 PT C. Suet I do feel for your predicament; strip mining sucks too. They don't do that around here, yet. I don't know if there is coal, but I have seen topsoil mining near here and that devastates the land too. Nothing wants to grow on subsoil or bedrock for that matter. But when I was young, (long long ago in a world far far away) this part of the country had some nice old forests. I've watch as the decades have gone by most of those forests demolished by greedy people only wanting to make a buck. There is a very very large city about 70 miles from me and I've watched most of those forests build 6000 to 7000 sq. ft. homes for 2 or 3 member families. Tens of thousands of them. I grew up in a four member family in a 1500 sq ft house and was just fine. I'm not dictating what people should build with thier money but I think that money shouldn't cause common sense to fly out the window. I mean, that's just plain wasteful!! Trees don't grow overnite; ah, but hemp 'almost' does. This is my point. Stats show that one acre of hemp grown in one year could produce as much building material as 4 acres of trees that took 30+ years to grow. Does anyone see my point??? Yes, i'll admit it, I'm sort of a treehugger. I enjoy a walk in the woods almost as much as a good doobie. I'm just afraid that one day, there will be nothing but plains. No forests to enjoy just 'naked land'. This is what makes me so disgusted with the reports like this article. They are only condemning these petty acts due the fact that an illegal activity of their own making was happening. Yet, they sit on their collective hands when skidders and other large, noisy machines completely devastate a forest. I figure it just continues to fill thier bottomless pockets somehow. Again, those Hypocites!! [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by FoM on September 26, 2000 at 18:40:54 PT: Hi Again! CongressmanSuet I wanted to say to you on this topic that I watched a tv program on wild horses. They followed and tracked the horses. They were tagged and samples taken to see what their physical condition was but no treatments were to be used. This was for study purposes only and nature had to take it's course to do the study like they were.One of the horses, I think it was the stallion was infested with worms. They figured when they came back to do a follow up in a number of months the stallion would be dead. He wasn't! He was thriving! They watched closer and found that the horses purged themselves by eating a certain plant. That's what I mean.Peace, FoM! [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by FoM on September 26, 2000 at 18:34:00 PT: Medicine Man Hi Everyone,I watched a movie a couple of times and it said it all to me. It was called Medicine Man with Sean Connery. We do not know where the cure for cancer is hiding. We do not know where the cure for AIDS is hiding. As long as we have diseases that are fatal we shouldn't even think about eliminating any plant. Somewhere inside a plant could well be a cure and we just can't take that chance in my opinion.Medicine Man http://us.imdb.com/M/title-exact?Medicine+Man+(1992)PS: I haven't been asleep on the job I just can't seem to find any more news to post right now. Hopefully later I'll find a few more articles but if not I sure will post some when I find them. [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by CongressmanSuet on September 26, 2000 at 17:48:27 PT Kanabys,.. It could be worse, you could live where I live, right in the heart of strip mining coal country! Logging? Thats the only way the people around here make enough money to live, they sell the timber off their land ,for pennies on the dollar, the cash they get working at the minimun wage job they are lucky to have doesnt quite seem to make it, what, with 4 kids, and maybe one on the way. I have always lived in urban areas growing up, and I wouldnt have believed this if I didnt see it with my own eyes. The guy who lives down the road from me goes into his woods and cuts maybe 30-40 trees, makes fence posts from them and sells them for almost nothing. If the gov. isnt busying raping the land allowing stripmining, than its the actual land owners taking their shots. Now you have me going off on a rant...what I wanted to say was that I totally agree, Dan, Fom, Kan, who are we to make decisions about the viability of species? We dont like an animal/plant and we decide to exterminate it? Because we dont fully understand it, or are unable to properly evaluate it we should be able to destroy it? Where is all the outcry from the environmental groups on this one? [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by Kanabys on September 26, 2000 at 05:57:17 PT Here I go again..... Cannabis can be grown with a fraction (if any) pesticides. I live in a cotton growing region and I know that when it's time for spraying the crops here, one can smell their concoctions miles away; substances that nature can't even dream of producing. Defoliants, insecticides, etc etc. I'm moving outta here ASAP. This really pi**es me off. They freakin' gripe about a few pints of pesticides used on some weed crop when they pour literal TONNES of this drenn on not only the U.S. people, but ones in other countries as well!! OH,OH, the logging. They have been RAPING the land here for decades. Some streches of land look like an H-bomb has been dropped. And these SOB's complain about a little bit of brush being removed??? Gimme a freakin' break!!! Oh, uh, I'd better quit now before I blow a gasket. Just gotta vent sometimes. Mellowwwwww, Mellowwww. Ah, that's better. Sorry for the rant. Pax [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by Dan B on September 26, 2000 at 03:38:17 PT: I Agree, FoM. Cannabis is a plant, as are the coca plant and the opium poppy. Each of these plants have managed to survive for millions of years, and all of them have legitimate medical and spiritual uses (not to mention the fact that some animals depend on the existence of such plants for their survival, like a certain species of blue moth that lives only in the coca plant). In fact, all illegal drugs come from such plants: peyote from a specific cactus, psylocibe mushrooms, ergot from whence comes LSD, etc. These are natural phenomena, and the federal government wants to erase them from the planet. When does a goverment claim authority to wipe out living things that have been on Earth much longer than people have? When we are talking about the so-called war on drugs.I often wonder why environmentalist organizations do not speak out against this wanton destruction of God's gifts to the planet. Rarely have I heard any dissention from such groups, perhaps because they do not want to be labeled "stoners" or "potheads" by the government. It's a sad state of affairs when the people of this country cannot stand up for the right of another species to live without being labeled "freaks" and tossed aside like refuse. Dan B [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by FoM on September 25, 2000 at 13:01:14 PT My 2 cents Cannabis is a plant. That's all it is. If they eradicate it from the planet what happens to all the wonderful medicines that won't be developed because of this foolishness? It's about money. Someone, somewhere is making so much money by it being illegal that they won't see anything but dollar signs. That's how I feel.Peace, FoM! [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by legalizeit on September 25, 2000 at 12:27:09 PT Not just a war on the people I agree, Kanabys. As a lifelong environmentalist, I am outraged that the prohibitionists' war is (albeit indirectly) causing destruction such as this. If the stuff were legal, it would be grown in existing crop fields and the farmers would go home instead of camping out.When will the dork heads realize that the effects of prohibition are infinitely more devastating than any effect the prohibited drugs may have on a person?If prohibitionists and narks were volunteer workers, things could be different. But as long as their income depends on enforcing prohibition and confiscating (i.e., stealing) the property of "offenders", nothing will change. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by kaptinemo on September 25, 2000 at 11:22:14 PT: I agree: frell them all! And to *Hezmana* with McCaffrey and his drenn-eating goons! [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Kanabys on September 25, 2000 at 08:46:17 PT Hypocrites!!! >>Forest officials are upset about environmental damage in addition to the drug problem. Marijuana growers kill animals for food or to protect their crop, cut away natural vegetation, litter and leave human waste.All caused by prohibition......>>"Small birds and mammals are dying because they're getting into the (pesticide) poisons that the growers are using..So, what the govt is doing in columbia is ok, huh??? With one small exeption, it's not only small birds and mammals that are getting into the poisons they are spraying and dying, it's people.How frelling disgusting!!!! [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: