Pot on Public Land a Growing Problem *By Judy Keen*
, *USA Today*
posted: *23 MINUTES AGO*
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CHICAGO — Mexican drug cartels are stepping up marijuana cultivation in
national parks and on other public land, endangering visitors and damaging
the environment, law enforcement and National Park Service officials say.
John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, says
75%-80% of marijuana grown outdoors is on state or federal land. The Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) says there were more than 4.8 million
marijuana-plant seizures at outdoor sites in 2006.
The Pot Problem at a
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Joe Liuzzo, The Post Journal / AP
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*The Trend:* Mexican cartels are using public land in the U.S. to grow
marijuana. Up to 80 percent of marijuana grown outdoors is cultivated on
state or federal property, said John Walters, director of the Office of
National Drug Control Policy. Here, authorities handle the illegal plant
during a 1998 bust.
(Note: Please disable your pop-up blocker)
Tighter border controls make it harder to smuggle marijuana into the USA,
so more Mexican drug networks are growing crops here, Walters says.
"We are finding more marijuana gardens in the park year after year," says
Jim Milestone, superintendent of Whiskeytown National Recreation Area in
Northern California.
"We're dealing with some bad characters," Milestone says. "We are arresting
people … who have criminal records in Mexico, and almost all of them are
here illegally with false papers."
The number of marijuana plants confiscated on public land in California grew
from 40% to 75% of total seizures between 2001-2007, says the state's
Campaign Against Marijuana Planting task force.
Hunting and cleaning up after pot growers diverts resources at a time when
parks face chronic funding shortfalls, says Laine Hendricks of the
non-profit National Parks Conservation Association.
Recent busts:
• A site with 16,742 marijuana plants was raided last month in North
Cascades National Park in Washington state. It was operated by a Mexican
organization, says park Superintendent Chip Jenkins.
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People living at the site downed trees, dammed creeks and left 1,000 pounds
of trash, he says.
• Thousands of marijuana plants were seized last month in Utah's Dixie
National Forest. Ignacio Rodriguez was charged with drug and immigration
offenses, says Michael Root, a DEA special agent.
The problem is worst on the West Coast, but law-enforcement pressure on
growers, Root says, "has pushed them out this way."
• Last month, officials burned thousands of marijuana plants seized in Cook
County, Ill., forest preserves. Drug organizations use the Chicago area as a
base for distributing marijuana across the Midwest, says DEA special agent
Joanna Zoltay.
• In July and August, officials seized more than 340,000 plants, some from
Sequoia National Forest and Kings Canyon and Sequoia national parks.
Ranger Alexandra Picavet says Mexican cartels are responsible for many sites
in those parks. They leave behind car batteries and propane tanks and poach
deer and birds, she says.
Visitors to wilderness areas are at risk, says Shasta County, Calif.,
Sheriff Tom Bosenko. "We have found marijuana within a half-mile of public
beaches and very short distances from campgrounds and highways," he says.
"It's a shame."
--
"Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over
their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change."
- Malcolm X, Malcolm X Speaks, 1965
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