Illegal marijuana growers and violent crimes are taking over the small county of Siskiyou in the northernmost part of California—according to the county’s sheriff, Jeremiah LaRue.
With a population of about 44,000, the county is “inundated with illegal marijuana growers,” LaRue said on a recent episode of EpochTV’s “California Insider.”
There are about 5,000 illegal marijuana greenhouses in the county, with each containing up to 1,000 marijuana plants, according to LaRue. Each plant can yield a little over a pound of marijuana three times per year, and one pound can cost between $1,000 to $2,000.
Starting in 2015, he said, about 100 people came to Siskiyou County from Minnesota and other surrounding states and began cultivating cannabis with just 100 plants, LaRue said.
Before long, the greenhouses multiplied, with more people coming from all over California and other parts of the country to set up illegal grows.
The greenhouses have created disastrous side effects for county residents, according to LaRue.
“This isn’t about a war on cannabis, it’s a war on the negative effects and consequences of cannabis cultivation when done illegally,” he said.
Among the concerns is environmental damage to the county’s soil.
Some of the chemicals, pesticides, and herbicides that growers use aren’t allowed in California, according to LaRue—yet growers use them “uncontrolled and unchecked.”
But one of the biggest consequences is a rise in violent crime, according to LaRue.
“People often show up to purchase marijuana and get into a disagreement of some kind, and there’s a shootout,” he said. “What other crop has people show up and get murdered over a purchase?”
Additionally, LaRue said the quality of life for greenhouse workers is substandard. People working on the grows often live in unpermitted structures made from plywood—and most don’t contain proper electrical wiring, fuel, heating, or sewage.
LaRue said the state’s policies on marijuana growers often have been a hindrance to law enforcement’s work.
“There are so many loopholes in the law, and we are suffering the consequences of those,” he said. “You could be caught with seven or 7,000 plants, and you would only be fined $500. It’s a meaningless statute at this point ... because business is so lucrative.”
LaRue said he’s reached out to state legislators to crack down on illegal marijuana growers but said he has been largely ignored.
“We are asking for help to combat a problem that was created by the legislation,” he said. “The [cannabis legalization] rollout was an absolute failure. When people are getting murdered over something that [came] through the legislation, people need to be held accountable for that.”
He continues to call on lawmakers to work with law enforcement to create better laws around marijuana grows.
“I think the thought was, if there’s a legal way to do this, people would do the right thing, but we always know there’s going to be a criminal piece to that,” LaRue said. “So there needs to be a fresh look involving law enforcement to work with the legislature to actually look at the problems and identify where the dividing line is between misdemeanor and felony.”
