Marijuana Cultivation On Public Lands
Ron Pugh Special Agent, US Forsest Service, California
I have been a special agent for the US Forest Service for nearly 30 years. I am about to finish my career by serving as the supervisor of law enforcement for the Forest Service in state of California. Throughout my career, I have pursued those who threaten our precious national forests through various criminal acts. These include timber thieves, serial arsonists, artifact looters, poachers, hazard waste dumpers, and more. I am very proud to know that I have arrested and convicted dozens of individuals in these activities.
What I have experienced in the past 10 years, however, is more alarming than any of these threats described above. Currently, we estimate there are at least 3,000 armed foreign nationals engaged in the commercial production of marijuana on national forest lands in California. I am not talking about a couple of hippies growing a little pot for their personal use and perhaps some of their friends. I am talking about widespread, commercial operations involving thousands of plants, on every national forest in California, and many others throughout the United States.
Almost all of these individuals are armed, and all of them are causing significant resource damage. They are armed to protect their crops, and they have demonstrated on many occasions they are willing to use those weapons against any threats to their investments that they perceive. The resource damage is rampant and when most "first timers" observe what occurs, they are outraged and disgusted. I am outraged and disgusted.
In the past year, the US Forest Service has determined that this situation is our number one national priority. We are not a drug enforcement agency, but rather a land management agency. But we cannot ignore the fact that this drug related activity is resulting in huge resource issues, which include:
- - Timber and trees cut and removed to clear growing areas.
- - Numerous varieties of chemicals (herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers) introduced into locations at random.
- - Routinely diverted streams and other water sources, sometimes as much as 3 miles.
- - Human waste and garbage, by the tons, left after they complete their harvest.
- - Unlimited poaching of wildlife and game for their subsistence while they occupy the site (which typically involves 2-8 people for 5-7 months).
To respond to this issue, every public land agency is partnering with all other law enforcement agencies to develop strategies to combat this crisis. Unfortunately, this issue did not occur over night, and it will not be resolved over night.
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6 Comments
Never have I seen such a blatant piece of propaganda put together by National Geographic. I expected so much more than a "half baked" pro drug war "documentary."
You want organized criminals to stop performing illegal acts to grow pot? Legalize it. This is nothing more than a multi-decade prohibition. The parallels between this and the roaring twenties are near identical.
Legalize it, regulate it, provide licenses to produce it. We'll stop shipping cash overseas, the tax revenue will be much appreciated by the federal and state governments, and domestic crime/arrests will plummet providing a relief from law enforcement to focus on more serious crime.
Any way it is analyzed "pot" is not the problem. The laws have created the problem.
I'm truly disappointed NGC.
I couldn't agree more Anti Propaganda. Although there were a few moments of reality in this piece the frivolous activities and waste of tax payer funds displayed by the Drug Warriors was revolting. Why not comment on the carnage these "creators of woe" have caused this country and many others.
The Drug Warriors (and all other prohibitionists) are the creators of the very entity they say they are fighting. Prohibition is not the control of a substance it is giving up all rights to control a substance. And who have Drug War advocates given this control, that's right, the drug cartels and dealers that don't ask our children for ID. They entice them to try hard drugs which addict and create a more frequent return customer.
I don't see how Drug Warriors can sleep at night knowing (and yes they know) that they and the marijuana laws they promote cause so much harm. All this strutting their wares and boasting of their "kills" have amounted to nothing. Oh, it has caused one thing... more marijuana available and used then anytime in history, arrest rates over 800,000 last year alone, and overcrowded prisons.
Earlier when I said "I don't see how Drug Warriors can sleep at night"? Well actually I do... As long as drug cartels and dealers are around the Drug Warriors have a job. Taxation and legalization would put 70% of both these bedfellows out of business.
Nat Geo… You failed on the “full-truth-o-meter” this time.
I liked this documentary, but I would've liked to see more on the pros of marijuana. It gave a little information at the end, but approximately how much paper, clothes, rope, or oil can be created from the marijuana plant? Is it cheaper and faster to grow than trees or wherever else we get our resources to make these products?
I would have also liked to hear about the consequences of legalization. For example, how much would crime and violence decrease from legalization? Would drug lords still be in business if someone can get it legally? How much would the government make from taxing marijuana as opposed to throwing it away in the losing battle of enforcement? We know we are throwing away billions of dollars each year to enforce drug laws, but how much money could the government possibly make by legalization?
I thought this was a good documentary and I'd like to see a part 2 that could cover some of these questions.
What a surprising piece of garbage from NatGeo, sad really, they can usually be trusted to provide quality material. The text written above is a disgusting chunk of propaganda as the first commenter has already stated.
The video embedded within the story is a little bit more interesting. I completely agree with Lisa - It is truly shocking to see the militaristic methods used against cannabis consumers.
We have 1 out of 100 in jail here in the U.S. and were worried about people are putting into their bodies? The War On [certain] Drugs is a failure, as was alcohol prohibition..
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have"
- Gerald Ford
Kudos to Ms. Ling and NatGeo for Marijuana Nation program.
Very educational. Xcellent coverage of the cannabis plant.
Thank you for the program.
Eco
The overreaction to this show surprises me - propaganda? Give me a break. It was a well-balanced show - there are multiple sides to every issue. I walked away with not a lot of new information, but certainly not a lot of bias either. In fact, I thought they were very fair in the coverage - plus showing a woman getting stoned on camera and that 'pot jungle' - I mean come on, that's awesome stuff!
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