[St. Phatty]

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-wast...100944016.html

[Gry]

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

[FunkBomb]

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

-Funk

[Douglas.Curtis]

See what prohibition has done to save this country?

[Puffin13]

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

[geneva_sativa]

^ 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

[Dog Star]

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..

[Cvh]

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.

[geneva_sativa]

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.

[therevverend]

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..