Business Insider published a harrowing account of the expansion of illegal marijuana grows on public lands in California and the ways these grows are damaging the environment. “The lethal poisons these growers use to protect their crops and campsites from pests are annihilating wildlife, polluting pristine public lands, and maybe even turning up in your next bong hit,” writes Julian Smith, the report’s author. He follows agents from several federal and state agencies assigned to eliminate illegal grows and clean up the areas they have damaged. The agents’ lives are endangered not only from armed growers who may be present at the sites but from pesticides and rodenticides that are so toxic they are banned in the US, Canada, and the EU. Containers of a neurotoxic insecticide called carbofuran, for example, are often strewn around such sites. It can cause such symptoms as nausea, blurred vision, convulsions, and death. Small animals who eat the poison can pass it on to larger animals. One study of barred owls in the Pacific Northwest found 80 percent tested positive for such pesticides. Agents are concerned that the poisons used in grow sites could contaminate the water supply of cities and towns downstream. The author says  nationwide  legalization  would bring an end to illegal grows.  However, states that have legalized find illegal grows increase so growers can undercut the cost of commercial marijuana.

Source:    We recommend you read full story at:  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/cartels-growing-marijuana-illegally-california-194700553.html   8th April 2017