Rim Fire: Did illegal marijuana growers start the blaze?

[SHRED]

FRESNO, Calif. — For the first time Friday, authorities suggested an illegal marijuana growing operation may have started the massive Rim Fire.
The fire chief of the town of Twain Harte also said it was caused by humans, noting there was no lightning in the area.
Officially, the U.S. Forest Service is just saying the cause is under investigation.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/local/authorities-illegal-pot-grow-may-have-caused-rim-f/nZhzF/

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If so then here is another avoidable tragedy. A tragedy that would not have happened if Cannabis was legal and regulated.
The war on weed affects us in negative ways we are continuing to discover.

I hope California and all the other states do as Washington and Colorado have done.

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[Bennyboy]

1. Do you honestly believe that?

I don't........................ not for one second do I believe that legalization will stop this type of growing operation. The demand

is high and the supply short, so people will cut costs and offer cheap, poorly grown weed. (Which is what these grows offer) Also many regulations will be in place after legalization making this type of grow even more attractive. Then there is the tax thing. Grow on your property you get taxed. Grow in a remote place with no structures and no taxes...

Don't get me wrong I am the biggest proponent of legalization but there is a LOT of wrong headedness about what will happen and how it will happen. The new CA initiative is full of stuff that is wrong (like growers paying little to NO TAXES on their crops) etc. The simple truth is if 10% of the CA population smokes an 1/8th a week, CA, just to supply it's yearly needs, 7 million one pound yield plants. And seeing how is harder to find people that don't smoke pot that it is to find people that do here in CA< that number is probably in the 20 million plant category....

[SHRED]

6. I will counter with...

I believe that the price for Marijuana will fall through the floor when people can legally grow their own. The main tax revenue generator will be agribusiness growing hemp and the cottage industries the plant use produces.

[MADem]

7. I agree with you. If people want cheap old weed, they'll put some in a pot on the balcony or in the

back yard. Plenty of people will grow it as a sideline, rules be damned.

People who want "primo" goods will pay a little more for fancy blends, but those sneaky "out in the woods" operations will be gone by the wayside.

In the middle east, the shit grows everywhere--in ditches, outside the police stations, as an "ornamental plant."

[displacedtexan]

22. Growing your own is already legal...

at least it is in San Francisco. I don't know anyone who actually buys it on the street. The 215 Recommendation that allows you to grow your own for personal use is cheaper than buying it. i don't know how much you'd have to grow to get the amount of stuff you need (I can't stand the smell!), but the people I know who grow it do it legally so they can control the quality. I've used their pot butter to bake stuff for them (because I went to pastry school several years ago), but I don't actually eat it.

My neighbor says it's $200 for the doctor's Recommendation and about $135 annually to keep the legal status.

Could be different in other parts of the state. I've only lived here a year.

[shanti]

27. It's a lot cheaper than $200 for a rec

Less than a hundred usually. Never heard anything about paying a yearly fee tho. When it expires, you go back and get another card (same cost as th first). YMMV

[Bennyboy]

32. see, and this is the thing

nobody wants to grow their own. People dont brew their. beer, grow food or slaughter animals for food, what on earth makes you think they will not go the easy way with pot? Fast food? People want convenience and, as someone who knows the CA dispensary biz well, it is about ten to one as to who buys clones and who buys finished goods.

And let me tell ya, the dispensaries are packed everyday in SF. I know a number of people that sell pot products everywhere at every event in the city.

(And yes I know that some people will grow their own, but not everyone will that is for sure.

Complete legalization, with store fronts etc, would require acres upon acres of weed.....

[Billy Love]

40. In colorado, dr recommendation is $65

and license is $35.

and many MMJ stores are encouraging to keep the license for at least one more year. I'm going to reup it when the 60 day period hit later this month.

[kestrel91316]

13. If it's legal they won't have to grow it in our national forests.

They will be able to grow it on private property without fear of having that property seized.

Having to hike in to a stealth grow and manage it is a royal PITA, and it's far easier to just grow it in a greenhouse or on open marginal farmland.

[etherealtruth]

19. Exactly! n/t

[Bennyboy]

33. but, when it comes to taxation

the stealth grow is preferential. And somewhere there is gonna have to be taxes paid on crops just like almonds or grapes.

[kestrel91316]

34. I don't see too many stealth grows of almonds or grapes, lol.

The big boys will want to get involved, and that means lots of documentation and openness. Just like when bootlegging ended and liquor became legal again.

[Politicalboi]

21. Because everyone grows their own tobacco

Or makes their own moonshine.

[backscatter712]

31. Most people just go to the liquor store.

If weed was legal, most people would just go to the dispensary/head shop/weed shop. And those shops would get their weed from legal farmers, so there would be no need or financial incentive for stealth grows in national forests.

[bemildred]

23. They don't call it weed for nothing.

Last edited Sun Sep 1, 2013, 02:47 PM - Edit history (1)

All this stuff about fancy weed is marketing bullshit. All you have to do is cull the males (scary idea, eh?) and you get good weed, and it's dirt cheap, literally, borders on free, if you grow your own.

If you want to amp it up, you can make hash oil out of just about any stuff, you just may have to use a lot, but hey, it's free. Lot's of MMJ users do exactly that.

The "shortage" is entirely artificial and the result of prohibition. Like distilled spirits: the innate cost of grain alcohol is pennies per drink.

And nobody would be doing these forest grows without the incentive of black market prices, it's expensive to do that way, like the grow houses.

[hobbit709]

2. A FOX affiliate?

[Brother Buzz]

5. KTVU is a Fox-affiliated television station that airs Fox entertainment, not FAUX news.

[Dreamer Tatum]

3. So...because the grand exalted cannabis may have a role in the fire

it is the fault of nonlegalization?

What a goddamned pantload of horseshit.

[Jesus Malverde]

8. If cannabis was legal you would not be growing it in the forests.

You would be growing it in California's central valley next to the tomatoes and almond trees.

The only reasons that marijuana is grown in the forests of northern California is the remoteness of the area, hippie culture and the ability to hide your grows.

Here is a not very well hidden 22 greenhouse grow



that same production could be done on half/quarter of the land in the central valley, and they wouldn't have to steal water.

[Dreamer Tatum]

12. "Your honor, yes, I DID kill my wife. But if murder wasn't illegal, I wouldn't be here."

"So I blame the law. Now can I go, please?"

[bemildred]

35. On the edge of a clear cut, at the top of a ridge, it looks like.

That's not hiding at all.

[Comrade Grumpy]

10. Dude, you sound very angry. Take a toke, relax.

[Jesus Malverde]

15. +1...nt

[Orrex]

18. I'm worried that he isn't angry enough

How can we know for sure?

[bakpakr]

4. My Take

My take is that at this point they really do not know what started the fire.

With all the positive news that Cannabis is receiving lately pertaining to legalization, this is a way to make Cannabis seem like a big bad monster to the population.

You have the DOJ backing off on Washington and Colorado. You have statistics that driving deaths are falling due to substance use in the states that have some form of legalization be it medicinal or outright legalization. Also all the studies coming out that Cannabis does in fact have positive health benefits.

We saw not long after the DOJ and Eric Holder stated that they would allow the states to go forward with their legalization laws that law enforcement released a statement that they are highly opposed to that position.

Also public opinion for the end to the war on Cannabis is becoming more in favor ending the war.

So they need to and are scrambling to find anything that will allow them to maintain the War on Cannabis. I see more of this in the future until such time as the war on cannabis is officially ended.

[Comrade Grumpy]

9. This is, of course, pure speculation. Not a shred of evidence.

[GeorgeGist]

11. As in perhaps ...

LEOs were burning an illegal crop and it got out of control?

[kestrel91316]

14. ^^^THIS^^^

[RiffRandell]

17. That's exactly what I was thinking. nt

[Politicalboi]

24. That sounds more like it

[SammyWinstonJack]

28. That's more likely.

[In_The_Wind]

37. That's plausible.

[FirstLight]

16. ...

I have a friend who is very familiar with that area and has worked at the park for years ...he and I were actually discussing that it could have been a DEA raid that went wrong. all they had to do was ignite some fertilizer and *poof*
but they of course will find a way to blame the growers...

there has been a huge increase in grows inside the park over the past few years...

[Jesus Malverde]

20. It's easier than that, I recently saw a sign that advised caution

Parking in tall dry grass
Dragging chains
Using a weed wacker with a metal blade
Basically anything that could spark off a rock.

Raid teams often have a heavy footprint with trailers etc, it's possible but unlikely.

[Orrex]

26. I just realized that I don't care for the use of "grow" as a noun

Not saying that other people shouldn't use it, rather that the usage seems odd to me.

I mean, I wouldn't say "I'm having an eat of food for dinner."

But I would say "I'm having a drink of water."


Gosh, I just can't decide.

[Jesus Malverde]

36. Farmers work at a farm

Growers work at a grow.

The question is why are they called growers and not farmers.

Which headline do you like?

Police raid cannabis farm, arrest farmer who faces 30 years.

or

Police raid marijuana grow, arrest grower who faces 30 years.

or

Police raid cartel grow, arrest growers who face 30 years.

[mick063]

25. All the more reason to legalize it

And grow the stuff in regulated farms, driving down the black market price, and putting those that grow on US government land out of business.

[JEB]

29. Did tobacco smokers from some US city start the fire?

[NuclearDem]

30. No, Glenn Beck did

[madrchsod]

38. 500 or so dollars and some seeds

grow a few plants in the closet or spare room.keep it yourself or sell a bit to your friends. gets rid of the criminal organizations.

[FarCenter]

39. In the old days, the forest service and the bootleggers had an arrangement

The wardens wouldn't tell the revenuers where the stills were; the bootleggers wouldn't set the forest on fire.