By Rayner Ramirez, NBC News
and Adam Yamaguchi, Current TV on assignment for Rock Center
California's San Joaquin Valley is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the country. It is also where, among the fresh fruits and vegetables, an estimated half-a-million plants of marijuana are growing openly, some allegedly being sold for non-medicinal purposes.
"In the last two years, we've seen large-scale commercial farming operations of marijuana and explosions of backyard marijuana grows," said Lieutenant Rick Ko of the Fresno County Sheriff's Office. Ko says the spike in cannabis cultivation is a result of California's booming medical marijuana trade.
California was the first state to legalize medical marijuana almost 16 years ago to help people manage the nausea and pain associated with serious illnesses such as cancer and HIV.
Law enforcement authorities say traffickers are hiding behind California's medical marijuana laws and distributing the drug illegally. Although medical marijuana is prohibited under federal law, 16 states and the District of Columbia have legalized use and enforcement of federal law is often limited to the worst offenders.
In California, Lt. Ko's team is attempting to limit the abuse of state and local medical marijuana regulations.
"We're looking for the people that are diverting medical marijuana from legitimate uses to either organized crime or profiteering activities," Ko said.
Some patients in California are getting doctors' recommendations to grow up to 99 plants of medical marijuana.
Federal sentencing guidelines are stiff for those caught growing more than 100 plants. However, Lt. Ko says even the lower amount is more than any single patient could ever need for personal use. Cannabis plants cultivated in the San Joaquin Valley can grow up to 18 feet high and yield up to three pounds of medical grade marijuana.
"Let's just take a conservative estimate of a pound per plant. And if you have 99 pounds then you are looking at over 89,000 doses in a year," Ko said. "So you would have to smoke a joint every six minutes of every hour of every day for a year to use the 99 plants."
What's more, some patients form growing collectives, amassing numerous state-sanctioned medical marijuana cards to grow multi-acre fields of marijuana. Last year, the Fresno County Sheriff's Office along with federal agents raided a 54-acre farm with more than 25,000 marijuana plants.
"There's kind of uncontrolled, explosive growth of huge cultivation operations here which are resulting in marijuana being sold in huge amounts being shipped all over the country," says U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner, whose region includes the San Joaquin Valley.
Last fall, U.S. Attorneys in California vowed to work with local authorities to crack down on medical marijuana, targeting growers and dispensaries alike. Last year, Wagner prosecuted traffickers who moved more than half a million dollars worth of marijuana from a Fresno farm all the way to Massachusetts.
The federal crackdown on medical marijuana has sparked critics like Ethan Nadelmann, the Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance, an organization based in New York City that advocates for the decriminalization of drugs.
Nadelmann says that the raids on medical marijuana farms and dispensaries are a waste of government resources in a time when, according to recent Gallup polls, fifty percent of Americans are in favor of legalizing marijuana.
"When the gangsters are making billions of dollars off of providing a commodity that tens of millions of Americans want, you make it legal and you tax it and control it and regulate it," Nadelmann said.
California State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano is sponsoring a bill that would do just that. A long-time proponent of medical marijuana, Ammiano now wants to tax the $14-$15 billion dollar illegal marijuana trade in California.
"We estimated that if marijuana were legalized, it may result in maybe two billion bucks more ... in California's budget," the Democratic assemblyman representing San Francisco said.
Law enforcement authorities disapprove of efforts to expand marijuana's legalization. During an interview conducted in a Fresno residential neighborhood, Lt. Ko argued that marijuana cultivation in California has already spiraled out of control.
"Right now, you can hear an ice cream truck. You can hear kids playing. You have, probably, kids next door, kids in this house, school kids walking down the street," he said. "Right around a marijuana grow."
Leave a Comment:
If California wants to get out of the gutter they should legalize and tax marijuana.
Instead of smoking, I'm going to get wasted on booze. I'm going to start fights, break things, hit on women I normally wouldn't, and puke my guts out. I'm just kidding, but taking a certain legal substance could get you to do the things stated above, while if I was under the influence of pot, I wouldn't. Where's the equality?
Yeah but you might stay home and watch movies and play video games and eat potato chips so we have to keep it illegal.
Or you might blog about what you're doing, on News Vine.
Hmmmm, I don't have any potato chips, but I have pie.... Ooooh and ice cream!
Just 5 more yars and I will retere from my prison gard job with full penson @ 55 yars.
Im tired off looking after all these pot heads but a pay check is a pay check, my duhter is apling for a position at Folsom just like her dad.... let these laws stand. To heck with the pot heads.
"Ignore this author" as he cannot make the simple connection between unjust laws that incarcerate users of a plant with his important job. It's users of cannabis that caused the author to get lousy grades in school, limiting him to a job he clearly doesn't respect. As always: blame somebody else for your own shortcomings. Reminds me of the saying "there will always be more stupid than smart people", the former applying TO YOU!
Yeah and he can't spell too! I guess the correctional guard entrance exam includes crayons.
$70,000 a yar with full midical now, when I retere about $40,000 a yar for life
whos the dummy here.
By your apparent illiteracy... I'd say it was you. Or are you just too smart for spell check?
It scares me how many people can't see sarcasm.
i really think thats how dumb some prison gaurds are. I dont think it is sarcasm
How much will that get you when you drop dead a year after retirement since you are obviously full of misery?
Exactly, it's already there, people are already doing it. So, legalizing will change nothing but stop Federal and State governments from spending billions on a prohibition that so far, has amounted to nothing.
Stop trying to prop up the profits of paper, synthetic fiber, privatized prisons, and pharmaceutical companies. For once, just do something that will benefit the people of the United States.
Just because you legalize something, doesn't mean you're going to make new users overnight. If heroine were legalized tomorrow, I wouldn't be going out Monday to score some smack. Wake up, shed these tired and useless arguments and just decriminalize already. Give it an age restriction, like alcohol, like cigarettes, and arrest those who supply to minors.
From what I have been reading here, some of you are BUI (blogging under the influence)
Not much else to do, when you get home from work at 4:20 in the morning.
Oh for F*** sake! LEGALIZE IT! We would all be better off if those who want to get high could smoke pot instead of drinking alcohol.
The problem is historic: states' rights vs. the Federal Governments'. Until we get Federal legalization, there will still be problems even if California goes ahead and regulates and taxes it as legal produce. Only a 3rd political party can facilitate the change in mentality that would accomplish this. Democrats are too spineless and Republicans have been hoodwinked by the narrow minded, right wing hypocrites. Both parties are in the corporations' pockets and everybody knows it yet there are no viable alternatives. If only Ron Paul wasn't so _________— (fill in the blank with a synonym for unelectable).
Yeah, it's unfortunate, but Ron Paul does have some other stances I just can't tolerate. So, it is what it is.
I think it's pretty preposterous though, that 50% of the populace is ok with legalization, and it's still illegal. Arrests eclipse those of all violent crimes combined, annually. Such a pathetic waste of our taxes.
I wonder why we aren't holding State and Federal Governments more accountable for such an abysmal track record in this regard. We talk about waste, and the inefficacy of legislation....and then you look at the Marijuana prohibition which is having the EXACT OPPOSITE effect, of what is intended.
It makes no sense.
Gary Johnson 2012.
It's the lobbyists and big campaign contributors who buy the the continuation of prohibition. It doesn't matter who the president is, bills like HR-2306, the Ending federal marijuana Act of 2011, would still get held up in committee by shills for Big Oil, like Lamar Smith (R) Texas. Now that the medicinal benefits have become known, if Oil doesn't buy somebody off, Pharma will.
OOps, HR-2306: The Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011.
Hopefully it will be re-introduced this year.
What a bunch of fear-mongering. It's a plant. That IS ALL. Just a plant. It grows anywhere- hence people from all around the world have smoked marijuana, throughout history.
The fear mongers have always been cowardly pea-brains who want everyone to be just like them: narrow minded, unhappy, and full of hate. What they really fear is an open mindedness that might lead to positive social change. The horrors!
It's not fear, it's diversion, just like Reefer Madness. It's always been about giving people the impression of fear, while covering for the fact that it's really just a way to keep certain big businesses reaping massive profits.
Paper, synthetic fiber, privatized prisons and pharmaceuticals. That's what it's about, not some 'fear' of a pot head going crazy and beating his wife. If we truly feared that, then alcohol would be illegal.
It has never been about anything but discrimination against brown people, and protecting the interests of Big Business anyway. Mexicans and Blacks smoked it, and once William Randolph Hearst found out that paper could be made cheaper and easier from hemp than from wood fiber, it was on. He had huge amounts of $$$ tied up in forest land as a source to make paper for his newspaper empire.
Don't believe me? Look it up for yourself then!
@DoneBendingOver: No offense, but they didn't really need added laws to aid their discrimination back in the 30's. It was already being done quite readily. The prohibition of Marijuana was intended to keep the safe the profits of Hearst and DoW chemicals.
Not that I approve of discrimination, but c'mon, it was the 30's...discrimination was already rampant.
Who's the plaintiff if you get busted for pot? Answer: No One!! A state is a fiction period. Just ask the judge who filed a valid claim of right? They usually get pissed because they know the laws are bogus. Only a human can argue with another human. Only a living being can file a valid claim of injury. Can a state argue with another State? Not without a human . . Wake up America!!
I think it is clear that most of the politicians in California have been smoking it for years....judging this by there lack of ability to handle one of the largest economies in the world.
Well California is doing better economically than your state. That's an undeniable fact. It's the largest GDP in the US and larger than the majority of the countries on the Earth. What does that say about your pathetic little theory?
The laws are unconstitutional to start with. Either ban alcohol, cigarettes, and pharmaceutical drugs or the government needs to shutup and let people live their lives on their own terms instead of according to how special interests want to force people to live.
California has a largest prison industry complex in the world. The correction union here in California is considered the most powerful labor union in the US. Keeping marijuana illegal means job security for them. LEGALIZE IT!!!!
Pesonally I don't care who smokes pot...but I won't hire them everyone that I know who smokes it are lazy.
With a name like beach bum.......
STFU! Everyone I know who partakes probably gets more done by 10am than you do all day!
Are you sure that these people are actually lazy, or could it be your perception of marijuana users leads you to believe they are lazy, with out actually knowing anything about them....? Or possibly, from your experience, everyone who uses marijuana is exactly the same and smoking it magically turns people into carbon copies of a few people lazy people you've encountered in your life? There are many different types of marijuana users. Those who use it because they have cancer and suffering through awful treatments (like my 25 year old friend who his going through his 2nd bout of cancer), those who use it daily for relaxation, those who use it recreationally, those who use it for fun occasionally, and those who are total, lazy, burn outs. Typically, the only thing two marijuana smokers have in common is that they both smoke marijuana, other than that, they are just as different and varied as the rest of humanity....So, avoid painting your fellow man with a broad brush.
Lt. Ko's scare tactics jump right off the page at you. Notice he doesn't mention that probably over half the houses where those same kids are playing have alcohol in a cupboard or in the fridge. What an @!$%#. Marijuana production and use is small potatoes to the benefits hemp production could bring. There are over 25,000 commercial uses for hemp. How many jobs in how many industries would that create? How much tax revenue? We all know that street gangs selling drugs creates crime, in which the cops have had miserable results with their efforts. I'm tired of the scare tactics, the lies, and the obvious fund-grabbing efforts of law enforcement regarding pot. Lt. Ko, we do not support your position and in fact see it as destructive to our safety and welfare.
He must think reefer madness was a documentary
So long over due....Legalized it ASAP. Hey Obama and congress....will you listen to common sense please!!!!!
Legalize it for everyone over 18. Tax and regulate like tobacco or alcohol.
Okay. I've seen far too many people use little old harmless marijauna, and within months go back to so called "hard" drugs - and die. Alcohol and Marijauna ARE NOT harmless drugs. They KILL
And some people cant stop drinking and die as alcoholics. The truth is, some people have addictive personalities. Its a mental health issue. The vast majority of people who drink dont become alcoholics.
It has nothing to do with pot being a gateway drug. These people would find hard drugs with or without pot, because they are looking for something to escape with. They are addicts before they ever do a drug. Some people are addicted to food, and eat themselves to death, are you going to blame food?
I san it myself, many times you never know what marijauna is cut with for every 10 pepole who lite up at least 2 will die and 5 will get hooked on meth after using it just one time, 2 will end up in the emergesy ward. Marijauna is 20 times worse then drinking a case of beer. And it also causes brain cancer and hert desiease.
Legalizing it would keep criminals from lacing it with harder drugs. It would also put it in stores away from kids.
No one has ever died from smoking Marijuana! Booze kills thousands of people every year.
Can you expand on how a person dies from smoking pot?
Nice bunch of bogus completely made up statistics. This coming from the "expert" who can't even use spell check or implement the English language successfully. Stay in school kids, or you'll end up like this ignoramus.
Law enforcements efforts to stamp out marijuana is about like the effort to stamp out alcohol during prohibition in the 1930s. It has created a major crime wave of murders in the US and Mexico and it is a costly failure. Legalize grass and apply taxes like they do on tobacco. At least that way we are generating some tax revenue rather than uselessly paying out our tax dollars on a failed effort to keep people from getting what they are going to get anyway if they really want it. No one is saying it is safe. Tobacco, alcohol, soft drinks loaded with sweetners are all unsafe and they all kill people in one way or another. The same free loading, conservative Tea baggers who don't want to have to pay for universal health care are the same ones who want to take away everyone's personal freedoms.
Tea party people are freeloaders because they don't want to pay for healthcare for everyone...aren't the people that don't want to pay for there own things the freeloaders?
No because when they finally go to the Emergency room with ulcers, cancers, and diabetes from all the fast food we end up paying their medical bills because they're not covered. It raises the price of the rest of the population's insurance premiums.
So you see, in effect they are not paying their own bills they're passing it on to us.
There is a simple answer to this problem. Legalize it. It doesn't do near the damage done by alcohol or tobacco. It's silly to spend time and money on policing this when there are real problems.
Gotta love the description of the innocent kids playing near some marijuana plants. As if Bars, Liquor stores and all the pro Booze Advertising is hidden from kid's views.
Don't forget cartoon characters like Joe Camel telling kids smoking cancer sticks is cool.
Legalize it and tax it. End the so-called "war on drugs".
Legalize it. I demand the government legalize it and quit wasting money, and screwing-over free citizens. Its nobodies business who smokes marijuana.
The government is wrong and way out of line on this. Stop persecuting free citizens for their lifestyle choices. Stop wasting billion in taxes over this harmless activity. These laws are doing far more damage to society, then pot ever will.
How many ruined lives? People saddled with criminal records for life? For what? NOTHING. No on has ever died from smoking pot! ITS HARMLESS.
Millions of people smoke it everyday. MILLIONS! The war on drugs was lost long ago. The public is never going to allow the government to dictate to it. You could jail the entire country and you still will not win this war.
Colorado: Vote YES on 64!
I just watched the 1st minute or so and had to chime in about the lb. a plant. That's clearly not accurate because you have to remember indoor and outdoor yields are completely different and a pound per plant is rediculous. Get smart politicians and tax it and get rid of the outragous debts we have with the unnessisary bailouts and the debts we have in the cost of war. Get your info correct guy. We've got bigger issues to worry about. Why not ban alcohol???? How many lives does that take every hour?? Is it really a "gateway drug"? All the people that I know that partake in marijuana started DRINKING before the ever started getting high. Do your research buddy!
The last paragraph was frightening.:)
You scoff.. but for the lactose-intolerant, ice-cream trucks can be horrifying
yeah, to broke parents...