5 Acre Marijuana Farm Found and Destroyed in Redwood National Park
On Wednesday a 5 acre marijuana farm located in Redwood National Park was raided by over 60 park rangers and other cooperating law enforcement officials. The farm was located less than six miles away from the world’s tallest tree. It is the first major marijuana growing operation to have been found in the well-known park.
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The marijuana farm was located near an area known as Redwood Creek and contained an estimated 9,564 plants. They were immediately chopped down and removed by helicopter. A drug operation such as this one can be very hazardous to the environment as chemicals and fertilizers can significantly pollute park habitats. In a press release the National Park Service explained that “a graphic information system specialist went in with the raid teams for the first time in NPS history to perform an immediate evaluation of the impacts to natural resources during the raid. This documentation will be very beneficial for the restoration process.”
The plants growing on the illegal drug farm were estimated to be worth about $35 million dollars. The operation was first seen by an airplane flying above several weeks ago, and consequently the park’s staff was notified promptly. It is unclear for how long the farm had been operating.
Several Mexican citizens, 4 men and a woman, have been detained by law enforcement officials for questioning and are possibly connected to the operation. On the same day as the raid in the park, law enforcement officials also carried out several additional raids on growing operations nearby. Illegal drug operations are becoming increasingly more common in the U.S. inside and near national parks and forests. Raids are becoming a necessity.
An article published several days ago in USA Today quoted the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy as saying that 75%-80% of marijuana grown outdoors is on state or federal land. Mexican drug cartels are thought to be increasingly responsible for these illegal operations in national parks and on other protected lands. Smuggling drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border has become more challenging for them.
Other national parks where large marijuana farms have also recently been found and shut-down include North Cascades National Park in Washington and Sequoia National Park in California.
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Photo Credit: Michael Schweppe on Flickr under a Creative Commons license
AKA, your opinions are not based on facts you ignorant twit. Your comment screams, “I am an idiot.” Please go drink yourself to death.
AKA must be trolling.
Now if they would only remove 9,564 illegals from california as well.
AKA….
http://www.chroniccorner.net/profiles/blog/show?id=2306016%3ABlogPost%3A2197
nuff said, the fact your trying spout incorrect information shows you’ve never tried it and/or your paid by the man spread rumours
either way get your fact straight before commenting.
this government makes me sick
Cannabis has a ton of medicinal values, or the fda would not have approved marinol, a synthetic version of THC, the active ingredient of cannabis. As a counselor for an HIV organization I have seen the benefits. People going from 110lbs to 180lbs. People being able to handle toxic combinations because the cannabis provides them with relief from nausea and other issues.
AKA, your definitely clueless and not a medical practitioner or a scientist. To verify this, this month at the hospital I volunteer at has seen no cannabis issues and an average of 2 prescription drug issues a day and 11 alcohol related issues or injuries (from dui’s) daily. I have seen more people come in for health issues from a poor diet and smoking cigarettes than anything else.
Legalization for medical use is needed, and if we can get drunk legally, why can’t we use cannabis for recreation? Is this not a free country?
This growing on public land must stop. It is usually black market growers that would be out of business if people could have their own plant or two in their back yard.
Legalization ends prohibition. But it also ends a huge amount of high end law enforcement jobs. (Gee maybe we could balance our budget in California if we taxed it?)
Unbelievable, that people like AKA are still out there, I would bet AKA is a bigot as well.
Here are the numbers 450.000 die from Tobacco related deaths, 150.000 from alcohol related deaths and 100.000 from prescription drug deaths.The total number of people to die from illegal drugs and this is the whole gambit 10.000 now you go look that up then come back and try and explain it once again.
Doesnt it least make you a little bit curious that while we occupy Afghanistan there opium production has gone up 300% since we have been there, do you really think thats some coincidence? The pharma companies own this place, and anything thats going to effect there bottom line will not be tolerated. Its just simple math, nothing extraordinary here.
wat the fuk!!!!!!! no matter what the government does 2 stop,ppl 4rm smokin up! ppl will smoke,knw wat i mean- some one who wants to smoke will smoke~no can do nething abt it! so?????
betta legalize it!
I agree with all of the replies to AKA. We need to legalize marijuana. I like the fact that my teenage daughter (now 18) hangs out with her friends and listens to records or MP3s…they could be doing much worse things. They stay out of trouble. She is an honor role student and a great speaker to the public.
BTW - Legalize hemp and stop associating it with pot. It could help a lot of our power concerns. Try smoking some hemp rope sometime…it’ll give you a headache! Brazil uses sugar cane, we can use hemp.
Europes take on cannibis is very simmilar to americas its only places like amsterdam in which its legal.
Class B in England