Pubdate: Wed, 18 Jul 2012
Source: Merced Sun-Star (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Merced Sun-Star
Contact: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/284
Website: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2546

CALIFORNIA WILDLANDS THREATENED BY DRUG WAR

Pacific fishers, the weasel-like critters that live in California 
forestlands, have become the latest victim of the U.S. pot war. Over 
a five-year period, UC Davis researchers found for the first time 
that 80 percent of dead fishers recovered in remote stretches of the 
Sierra Nevada had high concentrations of a toxic chemical used by 
professional pesticide applicators to kill rats.

The dead fishers were found between mid-April and mid-May, the season 
when marijuana plants are just beginning to sprout the tender shoots 
that small rodents nibble on.

Illicit marijuana farms in remote forestlands throughout California 
have long been recognized as a threat to public safety. Innocent 
hikers who unknowingly wander onto these sites have been attacked by 
armed growers out to protect their illegal drug operations.

The threat to the environment and to wildlife from massive and 
increasingly sophisticated marijuana grows is even greater. Pot 
farmers use powerful pesticides and herbicides to kill rodents and 
weeds that reduce their yields. Not just fishers, but porcupines, 
beavers, deer, bobcats and owls have died after eating poisoned 
pellets or feeding on animals that have eaten the pellets.

The deaths are not pleasant. The poisons cause massive internal 
hemorrhaging, turning the exposed animal's organs to mush.

Growers regularly dam creeks and divert streams to irrigate their crops.

They chop down trees to clear fields and to provide more sunlight for 
their plants. After the pot is harvested, growers often abandon the 
poisons, diesel fuel and other chemicals used in their farm 
operations. The toxic waste washes into creeks, killing fish and plant life.

State parks officials have raided dozens of marijuana farms on state 
lands in the last few years and pulled up hundreds of thousands of 
plants. Even when they raid a farm and pull up the plants, an 
overwhelmed and underfunded park service frequently doesn't have the 
resources to clean up the mess growers leave behind.

Tougher regulations may be needed to make it more difficult to 
purchase the most deadly forms of rat poison, which are available to 
commercial pesticide applicators and at farm supply shops. As the UC 
Davis research shows, illegal pot farmers apparently have no 
difficulty getting the stuff. That should prompt users of marijuana 
to consider what's in the smoke they inhale.

As for the state and the U.S. Forest Service, both lack the capacity 
to rid our natural areas of pot farms. That means these places will 
continue to become collateral damage in a drug war that offers no 
hope of victory. A recent New York Times Magazine article documented 
how the federal crackdown on Mexican marijuana smuggling has prompted 
the drug cartels to increasingly grow their crop in remote parts of 
California and other Western states -- closer to the markets. Our 
most pristine areas are doomed to become pockets of illicit drug 
cultivation unless we can somehow reduce the demand (unlikely) or 
recognize that current crackdowns on marijuana smuggling are merely 
shuffling these problems around to different venues.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom