Pubdate: Sat, 10 Aug 2013
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Richard Simon
Page: A8

POT FARMS ON FEDERAL LAND ARE TARGETED

Congress Wants Added Penalties for the Farms, Which Cause
Environmental Harm.

WASHINGTON - Scientists have likened the illegal marijuana-growing
operations in remote areas of the West to leaking chemical-weapons
stockpiles, with the heavy use of fertilizers and pesticides posing
risks to the environment, including to waterways and wildlife.

In response, Congress is moving to toughen the penalties for
cultivating pot on federal land.

The Senate recently approved a measure that would add - on top of the
sentence for illegally growing marijuana - up to 10 years of prison
time for those cultivating the drug on federal land. The measure, a
little-noticed addition to the immigration overhaul bill, also calls
for new penalties for environmental damage such as that caused by the
use of toxic chemicals.

In a rare instance of bipartisanship, a similar measure has been
introduced in the House by unlikely allies - freshman Reps. Jared
Huffman (DSan Rafael), a San Francisco Bay-area liberal, and Doug
LaMalfa (R-Richvale), a conservative Northern California farmer. Rep.
Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) is a cosponsor.

California, with its hospitable climate and stretches of remote land,
had 1 million pot plants eradicated from federal land last year, by
far the most in the nation, according to the Drug Enforcement
Administration. Angeles National Forest ranked in the top 10 national
forests for illegal marijuana groves for the last three years,
according to the U.S. Forest Service. Last year, Los Padres National
Forest ranked first, followed by Sequoia and San Bernardino forests.

The legislative push follows a recent study that said pesticides used
in marijuana-growing operations may be taking a toll on the fisher, a
weasel-like mammal. The study found higher mortality rates for female
fishers living near marijuana-growing sites in the Sierra.

"Very few people realize that the illegal marijuana gardens in the
Western U.S. are not mom-and-pop efforts," said Craig Thompson, the
study's lead author and a U.S. Forest Service wildlife ecologist at
the Pacific Southwest Research Station. "But instead they are actually
industrial-scale efforts by foreign nationals, using large quantities
of toxins that are banned in the United States."

During a raid last year of an illegal marijuana-growing operation in
Sequoia National Forest, authorities found oak trees chopped down to
make way for about 10,000 marijuana plants. They also found
fertilizers and pesticides dispersed throughout the site, including a
banned rat poison.

"These illegal chemicals are poisoning public lands, killing wildlife
and endangering people who come in contact with them," Benjamin B.
Wagner, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, said
last fall after charging the suspects in that case.

Taxpayers often are left with the tab for cleaning up the
marijuana-growing sites, officials said.

The tougher penalties were included in the immigration bill at the
urging of Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), who says that Mexican drug
traffickers use immigrants brought into the country illegally to
cultivate and guard the pot farms.

The measure would direct the U.S. Sentencing Commission to draw up
guidelines to increase the punishment for diverting water, using
poison or other hazardous chemicals, possessing a weapon or setting a
booby trap while cultivating marijuana on federal land.

Dan Riffle, director of federal policies for the Marijuana Policy
Project, which promotes legalization, was skeptical that tougher
penalties would help end environmental damage.

"In our view, the best way to end destruction of federal land by
illicit marijuana grows is not through further criminalization, but
through regulation," he said. "The only permanent solution is taxing
and regulating marijuana like alcohol. There's a reason we don't read
headlines about Mexican cartels growing illicit fields of hops and
barley in our national parks."

While Huffman is cosponsoring separate legislation to decriminalize
marijuana at the federal level and leave it to states to decide
whether to allow marijuana for medicinal or recreational use, he says
he sees no inconsistency in his support for cracking down on
marijuana-growing operations that cause environmental damage. "As we
move toward more rational marijuana policies ... it's important that
we address the immediate threat to our environment and public safety
posed by trespass growing operations," he said.
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