California County Calls for State Aid to Combat Cannabis Farms

(ablokhin/iStock)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A California state senator has asked Gov. Jerry Brown to help a rural county deal with a dramatic proliferation of illegal marijuana farms by declaring a state of emergency.

Siskiyou County supervisors earlier declared a local emergency after the sheriff said his department is outmanned by the illegal farmers, who some residents complain are wrecking the environment and attracting violent crime. Emergency declarations give government officials flexibility to quickly react to natural disasters and other catastrophes and can lead to grants and other financial help.

Republican state Sen. Ted Gaines, who represents the county, said on Wednesday that he formally asked the governor for the emergency declaration to compel state officials to help Sheriff Jon Lopey in crack down on the illegal farms. Gaines said that could include making the California National Guard available to help.

Gaines recently toured the county by helicopter with the sheriff, who says there are more than 2,000 illegal farms in the county along the California-Oregon state line about 300 miles north of San Francisco.

“The grows are vast and numerous, and it’s indicative of a community that is overrun by unlawful behavior, and of a criminal class that is in complete contempt of the law,” Gaines said.

Kelly Huston, the deputy director of the governor’s Officer of Emergency Services, said the agency is reviewing the senator’s request. Huston said there are ways state officials can help even if the governor doesn’t declare an emergency.

Lopey said the county is “overwhelmed” by the illegal farmers, many of whom he says live in tents and other temporary shelters and some are diverting streams, using illicit fertilizers and degrading the environment. Lopey said three farmers died of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by faulty heaters last winter.

Lopey last month worked with federal officials to arrest two farmers who he says offered him a $1 million bribe to shield their plants and workers from law enforcement scrutiny.

Lured by inexpensive land and privacy, marijuana farmers are flocking to rural counties in Northern California seeking to cash in on growing demand in the state and across the country. Many farmers are squatting illegally on state and federal lands in the region as well.

California was the first state to legalize the medicinal use of marijuana in 1999 and voters in November legalized the recreational use of cannabis. State officials are drafting regulations ahead of a Jan. 1 deadline to start issuing licenses to legally grow and sell marijuana for recreational use.

“We need all the help we can get,” Lopey said. “Our quality of life is being impacted negatively.”

California siskiyou county

The Associated Press

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Wade Rawluk

You are in error. California legalized medical marijuana through proposition 215 in 1996 not 1999. Please correct the date.
Ricky

Stare of emergency?? So forget poverty.. gangs.. gun crime.. focus all efforts on cannibis..
dtschuck

Mean time, opiod ODs killed 3,000 Californians, but no one is asking for an emergency declaration or cares. How about putting state resources to work on the real problems, not some two-bit sheriff that wants to ride-hard-and-put-’em-up-wet growers.
- Excuse me
  
  You raise a great point. Actually, the various states are applying pressure in various ways to prescribers of opioids. Often this places patients in the middle of a vast policy change, that since the 1970s, has gone from restricted prescribing, to liberal prescribing, and back to strident opposition. Today, most opioids are being prescribed at so-called pain clinics by physicians who are comfortable with lots of paperwork and a patient base who generally asks few questions besides, “can I fill my prescription?” They are given few alternatives, although, in the medical Cannabis states, some of these patient’s primary providers are suggesting Cannabis, since they are literally locked out of opioid prescribing by their State boards, or some other bureaucracy and do recognize the danger opioids represent. Meanwhile, the “pain clinics” are overcharging for evaluation and management of these patients, and literally committing fraud against state, federal, county and private payers by billing for examination levels they never perform. You can assume medical spending is 20-30% higher from this fraudulent charging alone.
Snegurochka

Meth heads are rampant, but the right wing extremist sheriff whips up hysteria about Cannabis growing.
- Mark NV
  
  The once great state of California is now a total shit hole. I believe the problem is the left wing extremist politicians turning a blind eye to crime in exchange for votes from illegal aliens and tax revenue to help support their new voter base!!
- Excuse me
  
  Are all people who are against unsanctioned weed growing “extremists”? How do you know he has not taken measures against the more unstable meth users in Siskiyou County? As I noted above the whole issue pales in comparison to the harm done by Monsanto. That said, this Sheriff has a commendable curriculum vitae. He served a stint in Humbolt County, and may not want to see a repeat of the less desirable aspects of the cannabis growing culture. Plus, lllegal grows remain a concern in tax hungry California, just like illegal wine makers or whiskey distillers do. Plus, if these people are squatting on Federal land, they are possibly endangering and degrading forests–think fires first off–like the illegal alien cartel members have been doing throughout California.
  
  Just because weed is a useful, enjoyable, mostly beneficial and profitable product–at least in some situations–does not mean a community should be turned into an armed camp of growers. (and this is what parts of Humbolt have been like–I have spent a fair amount of time there. Many of the growers are sweet lovebugs, but there are a substantial number of thugs as well.) The legalization issue passed by just 2% in Siskiyou Country. The impoverishment of the county might suggest people would want to green light the industry for economic reasons, but the negatives may leave people unconvinced. That certainly does not make them extremists. I imagine, given time, and observation of the fiscal benefits to other counties–if they occur–they will change their minds, but that will be with regulated growing operations. And States being in the business of being States, that will be what will prevail. See any unlicensed and untaxed whiskey in California liquor stores?
  - F Michael Addams
    
    …people have been growing for 50 years…supplying the market for everyone…and now they should simply go away..?..not likely…the Fed’s fund this drug war 100%..time for them to end it..
    - Excuse me
      
      50 years? Your answer to legalization efforts is to grandfather in anyone who was breaking the law for 50 years? Because they were supplying the market for everyone? Well, for you and me, perhaps. But we were risking our freedom. So were they, as suppliers. Was it all stupidly enforced? Sure. Now that freedom is no longer in danger in a legalization setting. Put down the rainbow flag. When people go home from Burning Man, most return to jobs, families and a house on the power grid. Set aside conspiracy theory, paranoia, and whispers around the campfire for a minute. If we want the drug war to end, it would make sense to comply with the new paradigm of legality. Remember it is about tax revenue. California is spending money faster than it is coming in. The opportunity of being able to buy weed in many forms in Colorado, Washington, and Oregon is a historic event in the US. It has been illegal federally since 1937.
      - F Michael Addams
        
        …pretty impressed with yourself. eh..?
      - Excuse me
        
        Gee, thanks for the great reply. Excellent rejoinder.
Excuse me

Degrading the environment? While it would be great to bring all the growers in line with good farming practices, the real degradation to the environment, and to the health of Californians as well as others, is the Monsanto/GMO/glyphosate travesty. How many politicians has Monsanto bought through campaign dollars to assure them the serfdom of farmers, and the destruction of the human gut biome? See who in the State legislature have been taking Monsanto cash.
Steve G

I can see where this can be a problem that needs to be addressed. Leave it to few few idiots to fuck it up for the rest of us who want to grow good quality organic weed. I stay within the law and have excellent results and quantity. A lot of these idiots are using pesticides and other chemicals, putting people and the environment at risk just to make a fucking buck.
Steven Lloyd

It would be a long drive, but I’d come from La to help rid the place of weeds, if they’d let me bring back a pickup load.
cinderabi

Ridiculous.
Prapanna Smith

Not a word about the fact that this county has a ban in place, which means it’s a haven for illegal growers. This county is a textbook example of what not to do. They need to get real and pass regulations, license the good guys, tax them, then go after everyone else.
Trixie

I lived in this county for years and I found it heartbreaking to see the comments not take the side of the property owners who are losing property value because of VAST LARGE ILLEGAL grows. Not only are these grows so vast, they have citizens who barely speak English, living in deplorable, third world conditions just to take care of these cannabis plants. This is a horrible situation and LOPEY is right to try to put an end to these abusive growing practices in a once pristine alpine community. How would you feel if areas that were vacant FOR YEARS … overnight, were taken over by LARGE commercial grows with NO PRACTISE FOR SAFETY, CLEANLINESS OR RESPECT FOR NEIGHBORING PROPERTIES, or for protected watersheds?
Trixie

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-hmong-marijuana-siskiyou-20170910-htmlstory.html
I recommend everyone to read this article and learn more about this particular group of people intent to create a rural subdivision into an Hmong subdivision, with people growing vast amounts of cannabis for “personal use.”