And I thought the Cold War ended ... article about "Illegal Grows"

Looks like Yahoo News has been taken over by Big Pharma and/or the DEA, someone who feels a need to scare the public about the simple act of growing Cannabis.

An article about "Pollution from illegal marijuana farms deep in California's national forests"

that ends with

"After a year or two, growers often abandon sites, leaving containers of chemicals so toxic a quarter-teaspoon could kill a bear."

OOOOH !! Be very scared !

The only thing a grower would have that could kill a bear (besides a firearm) ... rat poison maybe.

But then - most farmers have to come up with ways to deal with varmints that threaten their crop.


Why the Psy-ops against Cannabis @ Yahoo ?

Definitely a little ironic. The informal background for Yahoo founders Yang and Filo, in Silicon Valley is ... they definitely liked their weed, in the early days of Yahoo.


"WEAVERVILLE, Calif. (Reuters) - Pollution from illegal marijuana farms deep in California's national forests is far worse than previously thought, and has turned thousands of acres into waste dumps so toxic that simply touching plants has landed law enforcement officers in the hospital.

The volume of banned or restricted pesticides and illegally applied fertilizers in the woods dwarfs estimates by the U.S. Forest Service in 2014, when a top enforcement official testified that the pollution was threatening forest land in California and other states.

California accounts for more than 90 percent of illegal U.S. marijuana farming, with much of it exported to other states from thousands of sites hidden deep inside forested federal land, and more on private property, law enforcement officials said. The state is still developing a licensing system for growers even though legal retail sales of the drug will begin next year, and medical use has been allowed for decades.

Ecologist Mourad Gabriel, who documents the issue for the Forest Service as well as other state, local and federal law enforcement agencies, estimates California's forests hold 41 times more solid fertilizers and 80 times more liquid pesticides than Forest Service investigators found in 2013.

Growers use fertilizers and pesticides long restricted or banned in the United States, including carbofuran and zinc phosphide. In previous years, it was commonly sold fertilizers and pesticides that were used illegally, law enforcement officials said.

Exposure to the pesticides has sent at least five law enforcement officials and two suspects to hospitals with skin rashes, respiratory problems and other symptoms, court documents and state data show.

Use of any chemicals in national forests is against federal law, as pesticides have killed sensitive species and fertilizers can cause algae blooms and bacteria problems in rivers and streams.

According to unpublished data seen by Reuters, Gabriel, who has visited more than 100 sites in California and is widely considered the top expert on toxics at marijuana farms, calculated that federal land in California contains 731,000 pounds of solid fertilizer, 491,000 ounces of concentrated liquid fertilizer and 200,000 ounces of toxic pesticides.

If much of the pesticide and fertilizer were released into a single stream rather than scattered around the state in leaky containers, the volume would exceed the amount of chemicals spilled in 2014 into the Elk River in West Virginia, which left 300,000 residents without access to potable water.

"We're getting contamination over and over again at those locations," said Gabriel, as toxins move from unsafe containers into the soil and water.

At sites that state officials said they had cleaned up completely, his team found 30-50 percent of the chemicals were still there.

"They are like superfund sites," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Escobar, whose Fresno office has filed numerous marijuana-related environmental damage cases. Superfund sites are those targeted by the U.S. government for hazardous waste cleanup because of the risk to human health or the environment.

Federal prosecutors have also charged pot growers with environmental crimes in Alaska, Oregon and Washington.

The most toxic sites cost as much as $100,000 to clean up, leaving taxpayers with a bill that could reach $100 million or more in California alone.

"These places aren't safe to go into," said state Assemblyman Jim Wood, who has pushed for cleanup funding.

Use of toxics has grown over the past three to four years, and chemicals have been found at sites in Oregon and Washington as well, said Chris Boehm, the Forest Service's assistant director for enforcement and investigation. "In the last couple years we've lost a lot of the ground we had picked up in eradicating and cleaning up the new sites we find."

The expense and danger of cleanup has created a backlog of 639 illegal marijuana farms awaiting restoration in California, according to U.S. Forest Service data compiled for Reuters. Each farm covers up to 50 acres.

Gabriel said that figure understated the problem, and pointed out that toxics are used at thousands of illegal farms on private and tribal land. After a year or two, growers often abandon sites, leaving containers of chemicals so toxic a quarter-teaspoon could kill a bear."

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/toxic-waste-u-pot-farms-alarms-experts-100944016.html

Their concerns clearly need much stronger funding...
Usually like to make references to gang actives .

War never ends because it is very profitable. War on drugs, terrorism, poverty, its all the same, a profit stream.

-Funk

See what prohibition has done to save this country?

I saw the pics on Reuters about the devastating pollution that is being caused, by illegal grows in Northern Cali. Sickening! Just plain sickening!

^ would be nice if they would post some pics of damage caused by fracking or many of the other legal state sanctioned industrys,

but prolly too much to ask for any MSM outlet to actually not have an agenda

Am not for fracking or nuclear energy... but still i am also not for growers that are
totaly unawared if they use synth nutes,dangerous protectives and polute our and
only one nature.

If folks use organics then i am OK cause with organics you will not polute
and made ireversible damage to a nature,also if bears found your bag of fishmeal
they will be much fatter and happier,no one dies except those fishmeal..

Lies! People ending in the hospital by just touching plants which grow in 'polluted' areas...
What do they think we spray on the plants 'Agent Orange' and Napalm?
All those pesticides and fertilizers are just store bought and used in any other agriculture.

Just a sickening story filled with lies!!! Just wait karma will find you. And punish you for all those lies.

I don't agree that people are using chemical nutrients and pesticides on protected land. Better go organic.

Yes, DogStar

Most people will probably agree that those that been polluting our National Parks and other places with their grows are not acceptable. . .

but most people here are also aware that this is being done mostly by the cartels up from Mexico, and the growers are often told to produce or lose their life and their family could probably lose theirs also. . .

but what I was responding to from original post, ( if I am correctly understanding the spirit of it ) is that this kind of news article is being used as a tool to sway public sentiment against the "new outlaw growers" (that are not the same as these cartels grows), but being equated with them for the purpose of the state agenda.

This polluting grows are not new, been happening at least 10-15 years already. . .

but what is new is Californias new legal cannabis production industry.

There is serious oversupply already, this article seems to be propaganda to sway public sentiment for purpose of getting rid of the people that have been supplying the market up till now.

Yes there are growers in the national forests using high nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers that are bad for the ecosystem.
But plants so toxic that it's landing cops in the hospital? From touching them. How does that even get printed? These reporters are doing zero research, I'd like to know names, hospitals, what disorder they're being treated for etc.
Compared to the wine industry, fruit and nut trees, all the other big agriculture going on in California. Cannabis growing uses far less water and pesticides.
Comparing cannabis grows to Superfund sites is beyond idiotic.
Now that big commercial grows are legal in a limited way in Cali they are trying hard to vilify anyone that is a threat to their tax dollars. Prosecuting people for environmental crimes for growing pot!
Watch the list of chemicals and fertilizers approved for their large scale commercial grows. It will blow away anything the Mexicans are doing in the national forest.
The worst thing about the Mexican operations, they trash places. Garbage, human waste, etc. everywhere. When they're done for the year they leave it all over the place. I'd be more worried about landing in the hospital from the e coli then from the chemicals..

therevverend said:

Yes there are growers in the national forests using high nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers that are bad for the ecosystem.
But plants so toxic that it's landing cops in the hospital? From touching them. How does that even get printed? These reporters are doing zero research, I'd like to know names, hospitals, what disorder they're being treated for etc.
Compared to the wine industry, fruit and nut trees, all the other big agriculture going on in California. Cannabis growing uses far less water and pesticides.
Comparing cannabis grows to Superfund sites is beyond idiotic.
Now that big commercial grows are legal in a limited way in Cali they are trying hard to vilify anyone that is a threat to their tax dollars. Prosecuting people for environmental crimes for growing pot!
Watch the list of chemicals and fertilizers approved for their large scale commercial grows. It will blow away anything the Mexicans are doing in the national forest.
The worst thing about the Mexican operations, they trash places. Garbage, human waste, etc. everywhere. When they're done for the year they leave it all over the place. I'd be more worried about landing in the hospital from the e coli then from the chemicals..

Click to expand...

Big ag has been dumping chems like roundup all over, but cannabis get the big spotlight.

Funny how there's no mention of water tables being contaminated by dairy farm excrement. Know of a race track whose dung/pee saturated into water table for years and the race track is uninhabitable, sitting vacant. Hmmmm.

Or the toxicness of the Salad Belt using nutrients on farms in the San Joaquin Valley...no different other than it's for the masses buying produce vs. select thousands buying cannabis.

Can only imagine the fertlizer products used in illegal grows destroying areas. It's not new news...read about reports back from 2009....it's just more of a problem now, I'm guessing.

St Phatty also right about Yahoo

From front page today, Reefer Madness 2017 ( not title of article )

https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/e20be433-e0a4-3013-9dc8-9b79c0c529c7/ss_marijuana-devastated.html

they also been called out numerous times for stirring race pot, go figure. . .

same folks that wanna run your life and control what you think, also seem to want to keep America divided. . . gee, I swear I heard of this technique used somewhere before. . .

Yahoo news seems to be the FAKE NEWS capital or the SKY IS FALLING point of view.

Yes, CO has benefitted from pot taxes, but see the yin/yang, too. More social service agencies are strapped due to the thousands moving to SO CO and not being able to find work. Emergency rooms seeing more incidents of pot toxicity from tourists.

Anyone thinking there would be no impact, bad or good, has their head in the sand.

aridbud said:

Yahoo news seems to be the FAKE NEWS capital or the SKY IS FALLING point of view.

Yes, CO has benefitted from pot taxes, but see the yin/yang, too. More social service agencies are strapped due to the thousands moving to SO CO and not being able to find work. Emergency rooms seeing more incidents of pot toxicity from tourists.

Anyone thinking there would be no impact, bad or good, has their head in the sand.

Click to expand...

article today in Yahoo about how cannabis has "devastated" Colorado, and that other states should refuse to legalize it. crime up, businesses moving away, tax money down, children poisoned, hospitals overwhelmed by idiots etc. no links to factual reporting, reliable statistics etc. same old horse-shit sky-is-falling nonsense.

I have often thought much of the reason 'the drug warrior" types are so rabid, is that they were originally made up of unemployed anti- alcohol crusaders who have always remembered what that period of unemployment was like, and never wish to see it repeated.
Really do imagine that for many it is as simple as bread and butter.
When I combine that along with an ever increasing drift to the right, it almost makes sense to me.

It always happens like that when I set the bong too soon.

Gry said:

I have often thought much of the reason 'the drug warrior" types are so rabid, is that they were originally made up of unemployed anti- alcohol crusaders who have always remembered what that period of unemployment was like, and never wish to see it repeated.

Click to expand...

make work government jobs

courtesy the War on Drugs

and all the other wars.


The US economy is 110% dependent on government spending.

Betterhaff said:

I agree AOH, no facts or stats to back it up, just the same old scare tactics. That Colorado article is actually from USA Today. The author is the VP of Public Policy at Colorado Christian University. Just sayin…

Click to expand...

Just sayin'....after living in the Pueblo County area, here's articles regarding what I mentioned earlier.....

https://www.chieftain.com/pot_topic/requests-overwhelming-agencies-
Requests overwhelming agencies - but is it pot that's bringing more poor to Pueblo?

Is legalized marijuana bringing more poor people to Pueblo County?

For local nonprofit agencies that are the front line in dealing with indigent people, there is no question more poor single people and families have been knocking on their doors in the past few years.

Eva Matola spoons food onto trays for them every day at the Pueblo Community Soup Kitchen. The men and women, often wearing all the clothes they own, sit against the brick wall of the soup kitchen waiting for its doors to open for lunch each weekday.


“We’re feeding about 160 people a day and that’s about 30 more than we were doing last year,” said Matola, who is the director of the soup kitchen. “And I’ve had several families in here saying they’d come to Pueblo because pot is legal here. They aren’t shy about telling you.”

Anne Stattelman, director of the Posada emergency housing agency, has developed a reputation as a community scold on marijuana over the past two years because she’s been telling Pueblo County and city officials that legal pot is bringing more indigent people to town.

That’s because many of them end up in Posada’s parking lot, asking or demanding some kind of housing for themselves and their families.

Some say they want to find work in the marijuana industry. Some just want to be able to use the drug legally.

An old SUV from Kansas was in Posada’s lot just a few weeks ago. There were three or four children and several adults from Wichita. They told Stattelman they’d left Wichita — where they had assisted housing and food stamps — to come to Pueblo and they needed a place to stay.

For some time now, Posada has been reserving its small inventory of emergency housing units for Pueblo County residents first and Stattelman has built a close working relationship with Pueblo police — who told the Kansas family their best bet was to turn around and take the children back to Wichita rather than end up on Pueblo’s streets.

“Fortunately, that’s what they did,” Stattelman said. “Or what they said they’d do.”

Unlike government agencies, Posada’s staff does ask people coming to them for help why there are here in Pueblo. Two years ago, 231 people asking for help — both individuals and families — said they hoped to find work in the new marijuana industry.

That grew to 273 people in 2015, she said.

Stattelman argues there are three major reasons poor people are coming to Pueblo: legalized marijuana; the fact that Colorado has expanded its Medicaid health insurance program for the indigent (as part of the federal Affordable Care Act); and the county’s now-national reputation as a cheap place to live.

“Expanding Medicaid is certainly one reason people are coming to Colorado, but I still rank pot as the biggest attractor,” she said.

County officials report that there about 67,000 residents here who receive some kind of disability payment.

If you are poor and want federal assistance in finding housing, you are looking for something called a Section 8 housing voucher. The Pueblo Housing Authority oversees that program locally. Once a person has qualified for that federal assistance, they can take that voucher from state to state — except for Hawaii and Alaska.

Laurie Linn of the housing authority said that agency has about 1,470 vouchers it administers. There are another 500 people on its waiting list (there is turnover) and the agency is about to “open” the list for more applications. Some Section 8 programs, such as Denver’s, haven’t opened their waiting list in years — which is one reason why more people wanting to move to Colorado are calling the Pueblo Housing Authority, Linn said.

In 2014, the agency received just 38 applications for Section 8 housing from out-of-state residents. Last year, that jumped to 452 applications. Part of the increase could be linked to the agency putting its Section 8 voucher application process online.

But Linn points out that whether the applicants are interested in legal marijuana or not, there is an indisputable surge in interest in moving to Pueblo County from people wanting housing assistance.

“The catch for Section 8 applicants is they are not allowed to use drugs in our houses, period,” she said. “Marijuana is still against federal law and we make all our voucher applicants sign a letter of understanding that no marijuana is allowed, regardless of Colorado law.”

Homeless say marijuana drew many people to Pueblo
BY JON POMPIA | JPOMPIA@CHIEFTAIN.COM JUL 23, 2016
I got arrested for a DUI,” John said. “And then they took my car, my dog, my property. So here I am: homeless on the street.”

Ironically, John said he neither possesses a medical marijuana card nor uses cannabis. He does, however, know at least “30 or 40 people on the street” who were drawn to Pueblo by the allure of legal marijuana.

“I do see a lot of people coming in from out of state for the marijuana,” he explained. “They’re just using, not trying to work in the industry or become growers — panhandling just to get the pot because they’re addicted . . . they have to have it.”

Many of the homeless, John said, have been here for years, dating back to the time medical marijuana was approved by voters.

Martin, also no last name given, is 54, a Pueblo native who has “moved away and come back, moved away and come back. But this time, I didn’t come back because of marijuana.”

Having been in and out of the Pueblo Rescue Mission, Martin has, as much as anyone, his finger on the pulse of the homeless community.

“In my experience, a lot of the guys came here for marijuana, to try to get their medical license, and a lot of them wanted to grow and try to make some money,” Martin said. “But mainly they came here to smoke because it’s legal.”

Colorado, Martin explained, has been especially appealing for pot enthusiasts from Texas “because of the strong anti-marijuana laws down there. They been caught a few times and they figure if they get caught again they are going to do serious time. So they’re coming to a state where it’s legal.”

Martin said he personally knows several of these Texas transplants, including one who is looking to become a grower.

“He’s been down on his luck but he’s got a good idea, a good plan. It’s just a matter of getting it off the ground. I know some other people who are growers that are doing pretty good.”

In estimation, Martin said that as many as half of the transients on the street during any given day “came here for the marijuana. So they panhandle to get smoke or whatever else. It’s bringing in a lot of shady people.

https://www.aappublications.org/news/2017/05/04/PASMarijuana050417
Emergency visits related to marijuana use at Colorado hospital quadruple
Visits by teens to a Colorado children's hospital emergency department and its satellite urgent care centers increased rapidly after legalization of marijuana for commercialized medical and recreational use, according to new research being presented at the 2017 Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting in San Francisco.

The study abstract, “Impact of Marijuana Legalization in Colorado on Adolescent Emergency Visits” on Monday, May 8 at the Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco.

Colorado legalized the commercialization of medical marijuana in 2010 and recreational marijuana use in 2014. For the study, researchers reviewed the hospital system’s emergency department and urgent care records for 13- to 21-year-olds seen between January 2005 and June 2015. They found that the annual number of visits with a cannabis related diagnostic code or positive for marijuana from a urine drug screen more than quadrupled during the decade, from 146 in 2005 to 639 in 2014.

Adolescents with symptoms of mental illness accounted for a large proportion (66%) of the 3,443 marijuana-related visits during the study period, said lead author George Sam Wang, M.D., FAAP, with psychiatry consultations increasing from 65 to 442. More than half also had positive urine drug screen tests for other drugs. Ethanol, amphetamines, benzodiazepines, opiates and cocaine were the most commonly detected.

Dr. Wang, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, said national data on teen marijuana use suggest rates remained roughly the same (about 7%) in 2015 as they’d been for a decade prior, with many concluding no significant impact from legalization. Based on the findings of his study, however, he said he suspects these national surveys do not entirely reflect the effect legalization may be having on teen usage.

“The state-level effect of marijuana legalization on adolescent use has only begun to be evaluated,” he said. “As our results suggest, targeted marijuana education and prevention strategies are necessary to reduce the significant public health impact of the drug can have on adolescent populations, particularly on mental health.”

https://www.chieftain.com/pot_topic/hospital-sees-rise-in-pot-related-visits/

Doctors at St. Mary-Corwin Medical center say they are treating more people who have marijuana in their system than ever before.

From January to late June, at least 836 people who were seen had taken marijuana in some capacity, according to hospital statistics, and 85 of them did not live in Pueblo County. In 2015, 132 of the 768 patients who admitted to hospital officials that they had smoked or consumed marijuana did not have an address in Pueblo; and in 2014, 131 of 830 patients were not living in the county.

“We saw a dramatic increase in patients who smoked or ingested marijuana since it became legal,” said Kevin Weber, who has been an emergency room doctor at the hospital since 1993.


From January to late June, physicians at St. Mary-Corwin saw at least 43 people under the age of 18 with marijuana in their system, according to statistics. In 2015, 50 were seen, and in 2014, there were 48.

“Before it was legal, I can’t remember any kids coming in with marijuana in their system,” Weber said. “One day a couple of weeks ago, we had a 10-month-old baby that had altered mental status because of marijuana. The same day, we had an 8-year-old come in totally spaced out. The 8-year-old got a hold of a marijuana brownie and ate it.”

From January to May, 15 newborn babies tested positive for marijuana at the hospital. In 2015, 31 were born with marijuana in their system.

“If a newborn tests positive for marijuana, we report the positive drug screen to the Department of Social Services,” said Wendi Dammann, administrative director of business development at St. Mary-Corwin.

Three people in the last three years were admitted to the hospital for at least one night due to adverse reactions from marijuana, according to statistics.

“We’ve seen a huge increase in the number of what we call cannabis hyperemesis syndrome. Some people who smoke a lot of pot will get nausea and vomiting that’s extremely difficult to control. . . . We give them fluids and then often it takes several different types of nausea medication to control the symptoms,” Weber said.

Weber admits that although marijuana can be dangerous, there may be benefits for certain people who use it.

“I think people use it for a lot of reasons that don’t have proven benefits,” he said. “I do think that people with cancer who have lack of appetite can use it and it can help with pain control, so I have no problems for people using it for that. There’s the cannabidiol which is largely free of the mental effects that can be used for seizures.”

Parkview Medical Center didn’t have as many statistics but did say they’ve seen patients with marijuana in their system.

“We have had 43 inpatient admissions over the last three years where marijuana could be a causal, contributing or co-existing factor noted by the physician during the hospitalization,” said Jeff Tucker, public information officer for the hospital. “We are aware of three (out-of-state individuals) that have had an emergency room visit where marijuana use was likely a causal or strong contributing factor to the underlying reason for the emergency room visit.”

During a recent conference, both Pueblo hospitals came out in support of a ballot measure that would outlaw recreational marijuana in the city and county.

Growing Pueblo’s Future is a group that opposes the ballot measure.

“Those fighting to remove legal, regulated cannabis businesses in Pueblo claim they are trying to improve our local public health. As a doctor, I believe they would achieve the opposite — an environment where sales and consumption would be pushed instead into an unhealthy, unsafe and unregulated black marketplace,” Dr. Richard Rivera told The Chieftain on April 27, the same day Growing Pueblo’s Future responded in opposition to the ballot measure.

The Chieftain contacted several Denver hospitals to compare the statistics with Pueblo; however, only one hospital was able to provide data.

“Out-of-state visitors to the emergency room for marijuana-related symptoms accounted for 78 per 10,000 emergency room visits in 2012 compared to 163 per 10,000 visits in 2014 -- an increase of 109 percent,” The UCHealth’s University of Colorado Hospital study stated. “Among Colorado residents, the number of marijuana-related visits was 70 per 10,000 in 2012 compared to 101 per 10,000 in 2014, a 44 percent increase.”

Although not dramatic increase- there has been an impact in SO CO.

Just sayin…I actually hate that phrase and have no idea why I used it. Thank you for the articles aridbud, at least you can back up your statements. And I agree, there will be ramifications with reform, both good and bad. Unfortunately with the case of cannabis the bad really gets exaggerated. Not downplaying the homeless situation, that’s an issue nationwide, especially in urban settings where social services are more readily available. Its unfortunate the availability of cannabis is another added factor.

It’s funny, I travel to Denver periodically and over the last 5 or 6 years I haven’t seen a major shift, it almost seems business as usual. Sure there is the influx of cannabis themed things but I don’t see a city on the verge of collapse because of the cannabis scene. Colorado is unique, I would venture a big portion of the new “legal” cannabis business is done with out of state customers.