By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

The medicinal use of marijuana may be legal in California, but growing the plants on trespassed land is not, and U.S. Representative Mike Thompson, Benicia’s member in the House, said he applauds actions that would reduce environmental destruction caused by such illegal operations.
The United States Sentencing Commission has adopted tougher sentencing guidelines for high-level offenders that would become effective Nov. 1 after a six-month Congressional review. The guidelines have received the support not only of Thompson, D-St. Helena, but also U. S. Representatives Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, Sam Farr, D-Carmel, and Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale.
Thompson said the commission “has taken action to increase public safety and stop the environmental destruction caused by trespass marijuana grows on our public and private lands.”
The commission announced last week it had adopted increased penalties for high-level offenders who were determined to cultivate marijuana on trespassed private or public lands.
Thompson, Huffman, Farr and LaMalfa joined California’s two U.S. Senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, in writing the commission last November, asking for the stricter sentencing guidelines.
The four House members previously introduced a bipartisan bill that would direct the Sentencing Commission to establish new penalties for environmentally destructive practices. Feinstein and Boxer introduced a companion bill in the Senate.
“Illegal marijuana grow sites that threaten lives, destroy public lands and devastate wildlife have become far too common,” Thompson said.
He and his colleagues said the marijuana growing operations use highly toxic and illegal pesticides and rodenticides. In addition, he said drug trafficking organizations have become involved in violent activities.
“Trespass marijuana cultivation makes our public and private lands unsafe for all of us,” Huffman said.
He explained that in the midst of California’s “devastating drought,” many grow operations illegally divert streams and tap groundwater, “with untold impacts on downstream water users and wildlife.”
He said the growing of marijuana “must be done lawfully and responsibly.”
While California has legalized the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, the plant remains a controlled substance at the federal level. Federal law classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act, and repeated efforts to reschedule marijuana or cannabis have failed.
In 2005, the United States Supreme Court ruled that under the Constitution, Congress may criminalize the production and use of home-grown cannabis, even when states have approved its use.
Last year, bills again were introduced that would acknowledge state laws regulating marijuana use and treat cannabis like alcohol.
“As we move toward more rational marijuana policies, it’s critical that we address the immediate threat to our environment and public safety posed by trespass growing operations,” Huffman said.
Farr concurred. “As our nation moves forward with more sensible laws to address marijuana use, we have to develop better policies to deal with the bad actors,” he said. “I am glad that the Sentencing Commission is changing their guidelines to address trespass marijuana grows.”
“While illegal marijuana cultivation has made many of our public and private lands unsafe, it also does untold damage to our forests and waterways,” LaMalfa said.
“When these operations illegally divert streams, contaminate water supplies and leave refuse behind, property owners and local governments are stuck with thousands of dollars in cleanup costs,” he said.
“The Sentencing Commission’s recognition of these impacts will go a long way toward ensuring that those who disregard our nation’s laws are held responsible.”
When David Ferrell, director of law enforcement and investigations for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, addressed the U.S. Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control in 2011, he called the illegal cultivation of marijuana in the National Forest system “a clear and present danger to the public and the environment.”
He described illegal cultivation sites in 67 national forests in 20 states.
Ferrell said the marijuana cultivation sites were established by “drug trafficking organizations that are sophisticated, and include armed guards, counter-surveillance methods, logistics support and state-of-the-art growing practices.”
He said illegal cultivation sites have threatened some wildlife through the use of the pesticide warfarin, an anticoagulant.
“Growers clear native vegetation before planting and install miles of plastic tubing to transport large volumes of water from creeks for irrigation, which reduces stream flows for fish and aquatic habitat,” Ferrell said.
The overuse of herbicides and pesticides has killed both competing vegetation and wildlife, and after harvest winter rains caused severe soil erosion and washed poison, human waste and abandoned trash from the grow sites into streams and rivers, he said.
Ferrell said in California, the Forest Service has cleaned up and restored 335 sites, removing more than 130 tons of trash, 300 pounds of pesticides, five tons of fertilizer and nearly 260 miles of irrigation piping.
He said an average illegal marijuana plot has 1,000 plants and requires up to 5,000 gallons of water each day.
In addition, Forest Service and other law agency officers have faced “several deadly assaults” by armed people posted as sentinels at illegal cultivation sites, Ferrell said in his address to the Senate caucus.
“I’m glad that the Sentencing Commission has taken strong action to help keep our communities and public lands safe,” Huffman said.
Thompson echoed those thoughts.
“These new sentencing guidelines will serve as a strong deterrent against these illegal grow sites, and they will help make sure criminals who wreck our public and private lands are held fully responsible for the harm they cause,” he said.

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