Drug cartels are buying vacant lots and houses to create large greenhouses and farms that drain much-needed resources from Californians struggling under water rationing and electric brownouts, state Sen. Melissa Hurtado told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday.
Mariposa County Sheriff Department Sgt. Mike Charman added that Mexican cartels have been doing this on a small scale for decades, but now the problem is much worse.
"The punishment is so minimal and the reward is so great, there is no incentive to follow the rules," he said. "If you get caught, it's no big deal. The teeth to the law are just not there. The state wanted to bring in revenue with marijuana licenses, and now, we have this problem."
Unlawful marijuana cultivation and possession with intent to sell are misdemeanors, even if the violator has hundreds of thousands of plants.
Hurtado said that the repercussions of California being the first to legalize medical marijuana in 1996 are that thousands of farms statewide are currently using billions of gallons of water annually that could be going to homes and farmers.
"We are going to have to start prioritizing what is important to us, and it boils down to water for health and water for food," Hurtado told the Washington Examiner. "The status quo for legal marijuana is not going to cut it for us. My fear is that it's going to be too late before people realize the legalization of marijuana was a mistake because of the cost to the environment."
Hurtado said "the problem is that there hasn't been a focus from the state to partner up with the federal government to tackle the illegal groves. They are out of control. Unless you have the federal government looking into the actual company, there is only so much the state can do and find out about these bad actors and their financial schemes."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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