I know the title of this thread is going to catch some eyes but before comment please read this article off the news I found. This pisses me off very badly because of the way the environment is affected and our beautiful natural parks are being destroyed. Strong supporter of grow your own and bust those nasty cartels destroying mother nature!!! 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. 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."
i think they're saying its bad for the enviroment as propaganda... I actually like the idea of weed growing outdoors and in the wild. I doubt there's pesticides in the bud
Well there is hard proof that the mexican drug cartels have been tearing up the land, putting in plastic irrigation systems, spraying pesticides and basically destroying our fucking environment. I dont understand how you guys could just shrug this off... Its not propoganda just google image it and you can see the fucking trash they have taken out of our forests... Your allowing them to destroy mother nature just so you can get high. Real nice.
Seems like alot of ppl really don't want to look at the truth, just continue to get high no matter what damage it may cause to this world.
well, it seems to me that if laws weren't as harsh, you wouldn't have people trying to grow pot any way possible. if it wasn't illegal, more care could be taken to regulate growing conditions- that is, it wouldn't be a matter of "just grow it without any regard for nature because it's all we can do", and time could be spent to make it more environmentally concious, much in the way (some) companies are refining their production methods to give off less pollution. although i do think, given a choice, that it would be better to not be harming the environment than "getting weed any way possible". you just need to keep in mind that often times, polluted systems feed polluted actions, and polluted actions feed polluted systems. as a society, we need to be willing to accept the possibility that the problem isn't isolated (pot growers harming the environment), rather it is in the structure itself (legality, so called morality, etc). interesting post though, for sure.
I am going to have to agree with CherokeeMist because the government does need to lay back a lot. There are a lot of good thing that can be made from marijuana. It has been said that aside from the medical benefits (which the phamaceutical industry, of which I am a part of, does not like MJ) Hemp can have many beneficial effects to the USA. We can make paper, rope, clothing, and many other products. However, hemp is currently catorgarized as illegal, so the companies that make products that hemp would compete with have a lot of power. For instace, lets say that hemp makes better paper than Georgia-Pacific (which is a huge company) can make with normal trees. GeorgiaPacific is going to send Millions or maybe Billions to Congress to keep hemp illegal. Now, there are lots of people in the United States of America living with Cancer or AIDS. They have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars every month for their drugs. Now, I am studying pharmaceuticals, so it is counterintuitive for me to tell you about these people. But I don't think that people should suffer when rich people are living the good life. Everybody has to work for their fortune, but sometimes people need a little help getting started.
Even if it does harm the enviroment a little, I'm never glad we have a DEA. a bunch of government snitches. And I'm glad I have my smokes.
What you guys are not realizing is it isn't just involved around the DEA. You have locals saying the same thing, the forest service saying the same thing, and environmentalists who don't even SUPPORT this government saying the same thing. These people are not even Americans! They came into this country and are profitting off the people of America, they are killers, murderers. Why are most of you all so hard headed and bent on getting high. I think you need to ask yourself if you could live without... if not you have a problem and are a dependent, weak-minded individual. CherokeeMist I agree partly on your post, BUT these are foreign nationals coming into our country, destroying our NATURAL FORESTS AND ANIMALS all for the sake of growing some weed. You can do that in your own home, its seriously not that hard. Just remember one thing, you are supporting "mexican drug cartels" if you take this article so lightly. Read up on them a bit, not the peacefullest group in the world. Everyone is out for money, power, and greed. That is why I will continue to stay a supporter of home-grown.!.! -Jeremy
very true tbh I don't get why they can't just grow it organically. really!put some damn netting around it, get a bunch of ladybugs, whatever! unless these are massive spans of marijuana plants, that's another case
