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Mexican Marijuana Cartels Sully US Forests, Parks
ABC News ^ | October 11, 2008 | TRACIE CONE

Posted on 10/11/2008 2:31:25 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana

Mexican marijuana cartels use pesticides, herbicides that pollute US parks, forests

National forests and parks — long popular with Mexican marijuana-growing cartels — have become home to some of the most polluted pockets of wilderness in America because of the toxic chemicals needed to eke lucrative harvests from rocky mountainsides, federal officials said.

The grow sites have taken hold from the West Coast's Cascade Mountains, as well as on federal lands in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Seven hundred grow sites were discovered on U.S. Forest Service land in California alone in 2007 and 2008 — and authorities say the 1,800-square-mile Sequoia National Forest is the hardest hit.

Weed and bug sprays, some long banned in the U.S., have been smuggled to the marijuana farms. Plant growth hormones have been dumped into streams, and the water has then been diverted for miles in PVC pipes.

Rat poison has been sprinkled over the landscape to keep animals away from tender plants. And many sites are strewn with the carcasses of deer and bears poached by workers

-Snip-

As of Sept. 2, more than 2.2 million plants had been uprooted statewide. The largest single bust in the nation this year netted 482,000 plants in the remote Sierra of Tulare County, the forest service said.

Some popular parks also have suffered damage. In 2007, rangers found more than 20,000 plants in Yosemite National Park and 43,000 plants in Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park, where 159 grow sites have been discovered over the past 10 years.

Agent Patrick Foy of the California Department of Fish and Game estimated that 1.5 pounds of fertilizers and pesticides is used for every 11.5 plants.

"I've seen the pesticide residue on the plants," Foy said. "You ain't just smoking pot, bud. You're smoking some heavy-duty pesticides from Mexico."

(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; Mexico; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: 0bama; aliens; califorinia; cartels; crime; drugs; illegals; immigrantlist; immigration; kentucky; mcbama; mcqueeg; mexico; nationalforests; tennessee; westvirginia; wod; zer0bama
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Doing the jobs that Americans wont do ?????
1 posted on 10/11/2008 2:31:27 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: 1COUNTER-MORTER-68; 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten; 3AngelaD; alice_in_bubbaland; aligncare; AliVeritas; ...

Mexican Drug Cartel PING


2 posted on 10/11/2008 2:33:12 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana (McCain/Palin Now that's a ticket that deserves a tagline)
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To: Tennessee Nana

“Mexican cartels...pesticide...national forests.”

I can’t stress this enough folks—

buy your weed from Canada.


3 posted on 10/11/2008 2:34:04 PM PDT by Natchez Hawk (What's so funny about the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Amendments.)
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To: AuntB; T.L.Sink; Tolerance Sucks Rocks; SwinneySwitch; ExTexasRedhead; fieldmarshaldj

Celebrate diversity!


4 posted on 10/11/2008 2:35:44 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued (If Islam conquers the world, the Earth will be at peace because the human race will be killed off.)
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To: Tennessee Nana

God forbid though you ride an ATV through the parks. You might be thrown in jail.


5 posted on 10/11/2008 2:36:26 PM PDT by OpusatFR (Comrade Zero barking for the elite against those bitter religious creepy gun nuts in small towns)
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To: MaggieCarta; jddqr; indylindy; roamer_1; calcowgirl; djsherin; Sunnyflorida; SoConPubbie; ...

Thank you, Juan and 0bama.

The Juan McCain Truth File.

"I have great respect for Al Gore."
—John McCain, October 2, 2008

FR Keywords: mccaintruthfile, mcqueeg, mcbama

Please tag all relevant threads with the aforementioned keywords.

This can be a very high-volume ping list at times.

To join the ping list:
FReepmail rabscuttle385 with the subject line add  mccaintruthfile.
(Stop getting pings by sending the subject line drop mccaintruthfile.)


Republican Commissar’s Warning: By joining this ping list, you may be subjected to the delusional rants and ramblings of McCainiacs, of "moderate" Republicans, of pragmatic conservatives resigned to voting for the lesser of two Democrats, and of countless GOP shills who simply want to meet a new overlord.

6 posted on 10/11/2008 2:36:52 PM PDT by rabscuttle385 (Baldwin/Castle '08 - Gilmore for Senator from Virginia '08)
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To: Tennessee Nana
Plant growth hormones have been dumped into streams, and the water has then been diverted for miles in PVC pipes.

Thank God the water got diverted in those PVC pipes.

That keeps the the chemicals out of the regular streams.

Kick ass environmentalism from the dope growers.

7 posted on 10/11/2008 2:40:14 PM PDT by humblegunner (If you're gonna die, die with your boots on.)
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To: OpusatFR
God forbid though you ride an ATV through the parks. You might be thrown in jail.

Or worse - bring a firearm along on a hike or a camping trip. I learned long ago that only a fool goes such places unarmed.

8 posted on 10/11/2008 2:42:41 PM PDT by Charles Martel (Liberals are the crab grass in the lawn of life.)
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To: Tennessee Nana
Many years ago, I came across a "patch" that was about twenty feet in diameter while bushwacking in the north Georgia mountains.

Being by myself, I got the heck out of there as fast as I could, as one never knows whether anyone's watching the place, and, if so, how many.

I had no desire to be an unwilling participant in the "shoot, shovel and shut up" game.

9 posted on 10/11/2008 2:44:48 PM PDT by George Smiley (Palin is the real deal.)
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To: Tennessee Nana

wonder if they got a permit for that?

wonder if they paid the entry fee?

wouldn’t anyone wonder if a couple landscaping trucks
riddle with pvc pipe bought a day pass?


10 posted on 10/11/2008 2:49:19 PM PDT by machogirl (i)
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To: Tennessee Nana

Drug war nonsense...

Legalize the stuff already.


11 posted on 10/11/2008 2:51:47 PM PDT by Bobalu (Obama cannot win without the kind of people that Palin appeals to.)
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To: Tennessee Nana

So to boil this all down to one short sentence.

Prohibition doesn’t work.

It’s amazing that after the harsh lessons of what happened during alcohol prohibition that the nation still hasn’t learned anything. Imagine what could have been if Joe Kennedy hadn’t been able to make a fortune rum running. Imagine how different Chicago politics could be.


12 posted on 10/11/2008 2:55:43 PM PDT by Tailback
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To: Tennessee Nana

Seems like an awful lot of damage to this nation, be it financial, social, or environmental, is coming from south of the border, with direct encouragement and assistance by government, McCain having led a very active roll in all of this.


13 posted on 10/11/2008 3:02:24 PM PDT by wgflyer (Liberalism is to society what HIV is to the immune system.)
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To: Tennessee Nana

Some job our Federal Government is doing stopping this. Not


14 posted on 10/11/2008 3:11:11 PM PDT by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote.)
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To: Tennessee Nana

Our law enforcement officers have taken at least 200,000 marijuana plants from the National Forest so far. That is just scratching the surface. These are Mexican cartel grows which are in addition to local mom and pop operations.

There are folks who believe that the move by environmentalists, tribes and certain legislators to close the Forest down from human use in increments through endangered species, roadless areas and expanded wilderness is financially motivated and that there are links to organized crime and the cartels at high levels.


15 posted on 10/11/2008 3:37:09 PM PDT by marsh2
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To: marsh2
...Our law enforcement officers have taken at least 200,000 marijuana plants from the National Forest so far...

What we need are more regulations against this! Better yet, If we nationalize (socialize) all property, then goverment can ensure that it will only be used for good, clean and legitimate purposes! (barf)

16 posted on 10/11/2008 4:00:50 PM PDT by Theophilus (Abortion: #1 National Security Issue, #1 Economic Issue, #1 Moral Issue)
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To: Tennessee Nana
And to think people will vote for McCain despite his support of amnesty for illegals will only make matters worse. Unbelievable.
17 posted on 10/11/2008 4:17:53 PM PDT by Man50D (Fair Tax, you earn it, you keep it!)
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To: Tennessee Nana; raybbr; TADSLOS; AuntB

Mexican Marijuana Cartels Polluting and Drugging America?

Gol darn it-——the invasion gets more “special” by the minute.

Remember how amnesty cheerleaders assured us that once these illiterate peasants left their Third World hovels and came to America they would become so enamored of American freedom and democracy they would abandon their corrupt ways and embrace America and all it stands for (sob).

Golly-—my heart went thumpity-thump when Bush sent Karl Rove to tell La Raza US laws would NOT be enforced so that invaders could have a “better life” (sniffle).

(Course, Bush also believed the one about Iraqis greeting US soldiers as “liberators” who would throw roses at the soldiers’ feet.)

Now that Mexican Marijuana Cartels are Polluting and Drugging America, Bush will no doubt interpret this to mean US taxpayers will have to send $25 billion to “help Mexico deal with the problem in downtown Tiajuana.”


18 posted on 10/11/2008 4:47:27 PM PDT by Liz (Taxpayer: one who works for the govt but doesn't have to take a civil service test. R. Reagan.)
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To: Tailback

Prohibition does work if you execute the drug dealers


19 posted on 10/11/2008 4:58:10 PM PDT by dennisw (Never bet on Islam! ::::: Never bet on a false prophet!)
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To: Tennessee Nana

The unconstitutional War on Drugs continues to reap dividends...


20 posted on 10/11/2008 4:59:44 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Drill Here! Drill Now! Pay Less! Sign the petition at http://www.americansolutions.com/)
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