California's Illegal Marijuana Farms Force Cops To Wield 'Green' Stick
Sgt. Kerry Ireland leans out the open
door of the circling helicopter, his hand pointing down at the
emerald-green plants growing in neat rows beneath a canopy of trees.
“There you go, there’s one,” he yells over the thumping blades and whistling wind as the pilot holds the ship in a tight turn.
Deep
in Northern California's national forest and miles from the nearest
paved road, someone has illegally planted hundreds of marijuana plants.
In the helicopter’s rear seat, Deputy Kyle Holt checks the GPS tracker
in his lap to make sure the coordinates match the location, and they fly
off in search of the next illegal grow. And the next.
They're
flying all day, but there are so many farms they could do this all
summer long — finding spots of land cleared for cannabis cultivation
that pockmark thousands of acres of forested mountains.
While
these helicopter flights are an annual exercise for Ireland and his
team, this year they're bringing along something new: a recently enacted
county law requiring cannabis growers to meet tough new regulations of
the kind normally followed by traditional farmers and business owners.
Police are increasingly looking for marijuana growers in California who are violating environmental laws.
Trevor Hughes/USA TODAY
Long
before it enters the consumer market, pot grown by illegal operations —
often on public land — is leaving deep marks on California's already
stressed landscape. Redwood and pine groves are scraped bare by
bulldozers, and ponds turn green after over-fertilized water feeds algae
blooms. The large, hidden farms tap already low rivers, dirty the
drinking water and pollute important fisheries.
In a
sparsely populated county nearly the size of Connecticut, many
marijuana growers decided the risk of getting caught is worth the
profits. The damage has grown more severe over the past several decades
as commercial-scale operations elbow out smaller, family-run operations,
officials say.
As a result, law enforcement is
trying a different tack to fight illegal pot grown in Humboldt County,
the source of most of the cannabis flowing through California's
massive marijuana industry. Rather than just using criminal laws, town
and county police officers have started to wield environmental laws to
curb this activity.
“The
problem we have to address are the people who have no care for the
environment, and I would argue, no care for their community,"
said Estelle Fennell, a member of the county’s elected Board of
Supervisors. "They’re just in it for a buck.”
Cops and code inspectors
California
has the country’s largest medical marijuana marketplace, with
billions of virtually tax-free dollars flowing from growers to
distributors to co-ops that operate on a “donation” system. Drivers then
deliver high-quality pot to customers' homes or offices, within
minutes.
The system gives growers and users a level
of legal protection from state criminal laws that would otherwise make
possession of large amounts of pot a felony. And as in other states,
including Colorado, many growers use the cover of the medical marijuana
system to grow cannabis they'll then illegally ship across state lines.
Some of the Humboldt County industry is legal, at least under state law. Much is illegal. And all of it violates federal law.
Frustrated
by their inability to make a significant dent in the flow of illegal
pot, police and regulators in Northern California are increasingly
turning to environmental and zoning laws. The fact is, few marijuana
growers bother to comply with basic rules governing electrical wiring,
construction permits or water supplies.
The
violations are glaring. Pot growers steal water, illegally cut down and
clear forested areas, build unpermitted greenhouses and dump massive
amounts of fertilizer on their crops, police say. Now growers find
themselves targeted by cops accompanied by code inspectors. While
criminal cases can take months or years to wend their way through the
court system, civil violations are far easier to prove.
“Taking
that route is what’s really going to hurt them,” Ireland said. “The
majority, the vast majority, only cares about making money.”
Single bust: $26M
Looking
around Humboldt County, it’s easy to see how marijuana money drives
this economy, from the high number of fertilizer dealers to the stores
selling equipment to trim the plants for sale. One estimate from a local
banker said fully 25% of the entire county economy is
marijuana-related.
“You can’t swing a dead cat in
Humboldt County without hitting a major marijuana operation. It’s
everywhere in Humboldt County,” Ireland said. "Everywhere."
Marijuana
occupies a gray area in Humboldt, which has just 37 residents per
square mile. State law allows people to grow cannabis for medical use,
or grow it on behalf of others. There’s no real statewide central
registry of who is allowed to use or grow medical marijuana, which means
police trying to keep things legal have to wade through stacks of paper
authorization forms, which may be photocopies shared by multiple
grower.
The
potential profits are staggering: In Humboldt County, a pound of
processed marijuana sells for about $1,500. Sold illegally in another
state that same pot could be worth two or three times as much. And even
the worst grower can get a half-pound from a plant, while an expert can
easily coax upwards of 3 pounds, police say.
The
Humboldt Country Drug Task Force arrested one man this year found with
more than 2,000 marijuana plants. That’s a haul worth at least $1.5
million. Last year, deputies made a single bust worth $26 million,
seizing 23,000 plants, more than 2 tons of processed pot and 50,000
rounds of ammunition.
“Marijuana is the cash crop of Humboldt County. It’s what people do there,” said Emily Brady, author of the book Humboldt: Life on America’s Marijuana Frontier.
Hippies
founded the local marijuana industry, many moving out of San Francisco
during the 1960s back-to-the-land movement. Today, those aging hippies
and their descendants compete with large-scale growers who illegally
bulldoze forest areas to make farms hidden from view — or at least
hidden from the ground.
From the air, it’s clear
that Ireland and his team have their hands full. On a flight funded by
the U.S. Forest Service, Ireland identifies dozens of potentially
illegal marijuana farms scattered in the mountains near Eureka . While
Humboldt County’s marijuana is legendary for its quality, the terrain
doesn’t lend itself well to farming. Trees cover the steep hillsides,
and getting supplies from town can mean hours of driving. And forget
about getting access to legal irrigation water in many places. If
growers want water, they often just steal it from rivers, police said.
“It’s basically been unregulated agriculture,” Brady said.
'Long view'
Using
environmental and business-regulation laws to fight these operations
has local lawmakers hopeful. But even with better tools at hand, they
face the daunting and possibly insurmountable challenge of better-funded
growers.
The new county rules, authorized by a
broader statewide law, require growers to register industrial-scale
cannabis operations and to comply with basic environmental regulations,
the same kinds of rules that conventional farmers or orchards have to
follow.
Since the country rules took effect in
January, about 40 growers have completed the registration process.
That’s a literal drop in the bucket, but it's a start.
“This
has been an issue that’s developed over four decades. It started out as
a little here and a little there but it became very businesslike.
People are making a lot of money, so over time, specifically in the past
10 years, there’s been something akin to a green rush," said Humboldt
County's Fennell.
Fennell said the new county rules
are intended to take a “long view” of the problem and will likely take
years to have a significant impact. The rules require growers to
cultivate marijuana only in prime farmland, which could make most of the
county’s mountainous areas off-limits.
Marijuana-industry
analyst John Kagia, who visited Humboldt County this summer, predicts
the county’s new regulations will only persuade a small number of
growers to cooperate. Steep black-market profits will likely prove too
tempting for some growers, and they’ll just continue to run the risk of
getting caught, including those who illegally farm in the national
forest.
“The reality is that enforcement of
regulations is still going to face vast challenge, because those
(black-market) growers have the least motivation to transition into the
regulated market,” said Kagia, executive vice president of industry
analytics for marijuana-data firm New Frontier Data.
The
county hopes to slowly shift Humboldt County to a system where
responsible growers are officially welcomed and irresponsible growers
are forced out through a combination of targeted enforcement.
Watching
from the sky as thousands of marijuana plants soak up the afternoon
sun, Ireland marvels at the enormity of the task facing police and
regulators. He has seen the crime that accompanies black-market
marijuana. Those growers know what they're doing is illegal. Few care,
he said.
“Those guys are making millions of dollars each year,” he said. “They're going to fight for what they have."
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