Legalizing marijuana has downsides and upsides. The toll it takes on public lands is undeniable.
For example, I personally have been shot at from growers here in CA while walking on one of my claims. I have found two substantial grows on my claims (because I had a continual water source). We have found car batteries, fertilizer bags, trash, cans, flashlight batteries and other junk dumped into the creeks. Most of the time, these locations are far from a road and is a real bitch to haul their trash out, which we do every time.
Read this article and see the impacts this industry has on our own public lands.
I don’t know bud. I’m not pro marijuana, but I do not think using a blanket statement on all growers is a wise decision. A majority of growing operations on state and public lands are from Cartels, and criminal organizations. these organizations have been doing this for a long time. A lot longer than the legalization issue, in fact.This is not the locals. So is this a legalization issue? or is this an organized Crime issue? I don’t think blaming growers, that work their own private property, should be blamed for this issue. Just like Miners dont want to be blamed for wrecking the environment either. Neither group wants to be blamed for the actions of the few individuals that will not respect the law, and our precious land. This issue is not as simple as people make it out to be.