By Martin Estacio
Daily Press, Victorville, Calif.
SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY, Calif. — Fields of green have sprung up in rural areas in San Bernardino County.
But unlike oases, which can offer comfort to a desert traveler, these sites — with hundreds or thousands of marijuana plants baking in the sun — offer no pleasure to many of the residents living near them.
With illegal marijuana cultivation comes the threats of environmental harm, excessive water usage, electricity theft and violence, law enforcement officials say.
And illegal growing has been on the rise since the passage of Proposition 64, which legalized cannabis and lessened penalties for cultivation in California.
In a resolution passed by the county’s Board of Supervisors Tuesday, officials said the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department had seen a 224% increase in the seizure of marijuana plants, and a 620% increase in firearms discovered during search warrants at illegal farms since the law’s adoption.
While commercial cannabis cultivation is allowed in some cities in the county, it is prohibited in all unincorporated areas.
More help may be on the way, though, as the supervisors on Tuesday also allocated $10.4 million in the county budget to address several community concerns, including beefing up enforcement related to illegal marijuana cultivation.
Sheriff John McMahon told the board the funding would help deputies — who are already overwhelmed — target the farms specifically.
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“We were able to keep up with the workload in the beginning but, man, I’ll tell you what. It’s been increasing at a rate that we can no longer keep up with,” McMahon said.
The sheriff said that instead of just one five-person Marijuana Enforcement Team, the department would create up to five METs along with “staffing up” gang intelligence and other enforcement teams.
A county spokesperson said officials were still drafting a plan as to how the $10.4 million will be divided and could not say how much will be allocated specifically to marijuana enforcement.
A lack of consequences
When voters passed California’s Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA), or Prop 64, in 2016, supporters said the act would, in part, help alleviate pressure on the courts by reducing penalties for minor marijuana-related offenses.
With its passage, the mandatory penalty for marijuana cultivation was reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor.
While those with certain felony convictions or registered sex offenders can face stiffer penalties, typically, a person older than 18 caught growing more than six marijuana plants faces either a county jail sentence of no more than six months, a fine of no more than $500, or both.
“Simply going after them criminally is not going to solve the problem until we can get the change from a misdemeanor to a felony,” McMahon said during Tuesday’s supervisors’ meeting.
In a social media post earlier this week, sheriff’s officials said they had received reports of more than 850 illegal grow sites in the county, with another 200 likely unreported.
“The subjects at these locations are intimidating the residents by brandishing firearms and not allowing them access to the areas,” the sheriff’s department wrote. “The individuals illegally cultivating become territorial, shoot at each other, and steal the cannabis being grown.”
In the past two weeks leading up to Monday, there were two incidents where suspects at grows had fired weapons at patrol deputies, according to authorities.
McMahon said one gunshot round went through a patrol vehicle’s windshield.
One public commenter at the supervisors’ meeting said she supported a resolution on the agenda that would ask the state’s legislature to amend AUMA to impose felony penalties for cultivation.
“If the people at these illegal grows have no respect for our law enforcement, they have no respect for the residents in the area, and people are afraid,” she said.
The supervisors later passed that resolution.
Dangerous chemicals used at grows
Some politicians and experts say illegal grows pose not only a threat to people living in the surrounding area, but also to the environment.
Congressman Jay Obernolte, the 8th District’s representative, signed a letter last month along with 10 other Republican members of Congress from California asking that Attorney General Merrick Garland assist with the cultivation problem.
“We request that you utilize whatever authority is available to you to address this growing crisis in our communities, including prosecuting these criminals to the fullest extent allowable under the law to cut off the escalating fear and violence in our districts,” they wrote.
According to the May 11 letter, illegal marijuana farms were consuming between 3 and 9.5 million gallons of water daily by the end of 2020.
Meanwhile, almost 95% of the state faces a severe drought, with about 85% experiencing extreme drought conditions, government data shows.
The pesticides some growers use can also prove hazardous.
Two hazardous chemicals were found during the discovery of a grow deep in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, NPR reported in 2019.
One was the extremely toxic insecticide carbofuran, which the Environmental Protection Agency banned in the U.S. more than 10 years ago.
In 2019, nine of every 10 illegal marijuana grows raided in California contained traces of pesticides that were “poisoning wildlife and could endanger water supplies,” according to an Associated Press report.
The county sheriff’s department said if a particular chemical is found at an illegal grow, all the cannabis is destroyed for “fear that the chemicals ingested would kill those who contact it.”
Whether lawmakers will agree to change AUMA as it relates to cultivation remains uncertain. An amendment requires a two-thirds vote by the state Legislature.
Until possible stiffer penalties are enacted, it appears the black market of marijuana shows no signs of slowing down.
From mid-September through January, grows throughout the region were targeted during “Operation Homegrown.”
Deputies seized more than 255,000 plants, over 29,000 pounds of processed marijuana and recovered 105 firearms. More than half of the search warrants served were in Lucerne Valley, the Daily Press reported.
In May, however, the sheriff’s Marijuana Enforcement Team were back in the area, seizing and destroyed more than 76,000 plants at a grow that claimed to have been cultivating hemp, officials said.
Travel trailers at the site were reportedly dumping sewage into containers buried below the desert floor.
Two weeks later, deputies said they discovered more than 6,400 plants, five pounds of marijuana and three guns during search warrants served at locations in Lucerne Valley.
Four men were cited on suspicion of cultivation of cannabis.
They face possible punishments that McMahon told county supervisors were likely the root of why the farms keep popping up.
“To be quite honest, a $500 fine is not deterring this criminal behavior,” he said.
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(c)2021 Daily Press, Victorville, Calif.