Pubdate: Sun, 11 Aug 2013
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA)
Copyright: 2013 Media General Communications Holdings, LLC.
Contact:  http://www.timesdispatch.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/365

POT FARMS ON U.S. LAND TARGETS OF NEW PENALTIES

Crackdown Largely Aimed at Curbing Environmental Damage

WASHINGTON- Scientists have likened 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 in prison
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, D-Calif., a San Francisco Bay-area liberal, and Doug LaMalfa,
R-Calif., a conservative Northern California farmer. Rep. Mike
Thompson, D-Calif., is a co-sponsor.

California, with its hospitable climate and vast stretches of remote
land, had 1 million pot plants eradicated from federal land last year,
by far the most in the nation, the Drug Enforcement Administration
says.

Last year, Los Padres National Forest ranked first for illegal
marijuana groves in a national forest, followed by Sequoia and San
Bernardino forests, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

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 momand-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 a 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 sites,
officials said.

The tougher penalties were included in the immigration bill at the
urging of Sen. Orrin 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.
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