Category: Public Safety

‘No-go’ zones: Cartels setting up marijuana farms in US

Jorge VenturaUpdated: JUL 12, 2023 / 06:30 PM CDT (NewsNation) — The sheriff’s department in Riverside County, California, is waging a war on so-called “no-go” zones in the rural desert, where drug cartels are paying cash for land and setting up illegal marijuana farms. Coined by the residents in the area, these zones are run and protected by Mexican…
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Bay Area cannabis grows linked to Chinese organized crime

Lester Black, SFGATE March 23, 2023 Overseas Chinese organized crime groups are behind many of the illegal cannabis operations in Northern California, officials say. “The [California Department of Cannabis Control] has reason to believe that Chinese triads have been participating in illegal cannabis cultivation for several years in Northern California,” David Hafner, a DCC spokesperson, said…
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New York Seeks Marijuana Dealers ‘With Experience’

Of course, what state would hire inexperienced dope dealers. That would be dumb. – ed New York state seeks people “with experience” to help establish what could become the biggest legal marijuana market in the country. The explanation sounds like a punch line: New York will offer licenses and subsidies to people with marijuana convictions…
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How California’s legal cannabis dream became a public health nightmare: It’s a class B drug in the UK – but in the US state it’s led to spiralling addiction, psychotic illnesses and hospitals facing a deluge of poisonings

By EVE SIMMONS FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY 2 July 2022 |  A row of luxury ‘healing’ creams is guarded by a locked glass cabinet, gilded in gold trim. The packaging is stylishly minimal – clean and white with small black typeface – and beside the tubs sit decorative, artificial fruit and images of sprawling fields, with…
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From the field: Oregon: Urban Oregon Legalized marijuana, but rural Oregon is paying the price

CARTEL TYPE BEHAVIORS It was Urban Oregon who legalized marijuana, but it is rural Oregon that is paying the price, and it was the Oregon legislature who redefined marijuana as an agricultural crop, which allowed large commercial marijuana grows to set up next to our rural residential farming homes bringing with them cartel type of…
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2018 Video – Supervisors show strong support for neighborhoods So what happened after that?

April 2018 Cannabis Study Session – Board of Supervisors expressed lots of concern about protecting our rural neighborhoods from pot grows. They sound like a group of neighborhood advocates. Whatever happened after that was a shocking transformation. Below clip summarizes their comments from that hearing most interesting to us: The 2 min version: Full meeting:…
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They call us NIMBY’s

Dear cannabis lobby, Calling your opposition NIMBYs is fun and easy! It’s a great way to erase myriad valid arguments against commercial pot production in rural neighborhoods. Just throw a label on them and BAM everything gets simple. They’re just NIMBYs. Damn clueless, selfish NIMBYs trying to stop progress. They just don’t get how good…
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Green pharming and retail dispensaries – Just Ag and just another neighborhood business. Nothing to see here.

Community Message: Marijuana Business Burglary and Vehicle Pursuit; Case 19-17040 On Saturday, December 14, 2019, at 3:36am, Santa Rosa Police Officers responded to a marijuana business in the 900 block of Piner Place for a burglar alarm activation. Officers arrived to find a burglary crew actively stealing marijuana from the business. The suspects, believed to be…
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The wrong way to plan for cannabis cultivation

On April 16, the Board of Supervisors will decide whether to direct Permit Sonoma to address the severe compatibility problems with cannabis cultivation in rural neighborhoods. Last year the supervisors publicly committed to amending the cannabis ordinance to fix these problems, but ultimately failed to do much. The supervisors need to acknowledge the fundamental problem.…
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From the field: The downside of having a secret garden

Story of how 1 woman’s property was invaded, in this case by illegal growers. Thousands of feet of irrigation hose, 10 – 55 gallon drums littered her remote property. Police informed her that this goes on all over the County. Legalization has not stopped it. When these littering, trespassing, polluting growers become legal, do they…
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