National Parks Being Doped With Chemicals

Herbicides and pesticides are being used to grow pot in National Forests, and now the news has finally hit the national news radar for some reason. It's been a long time coming, and for some areas the attention comes to late.

The Mexican Pot Cartel has been using federal lands for decades, and since the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001 when stricter border controls clamped down on drug trafficking across the southern border, the Mexican Drug Cartels moved north. The problems have been horrendous in regards to the damage done to the national forests including Yosemite, which is near this reporter and which is being devastated in the regions not easily accessible by the average National Park tourist. In the back country areas of Sequoia National Forest, Stanislaus National Forest and others nationwide, the Mexican Drug Cartels are smuggling banned herbicides and pesticides across the border to use on the grow sites. Why the problem is gaining national attention now is a mystery but Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California has reportedly made enquiries regarding the clean-up needs of the areas affected in California. The problem stems from the pesticide, herbicide and growth hormone residue left behind after plant eradication efforts are over. When we consider the five million plants which were eradicated by law enforcement last year in California alone, the scope of the problem becomes staggering.Considering the number of plants removed, the number remaining is unquantifiable but must be large enough to sustain the business of the growers. The growth hormones which are used by the Mexican Drug cartels are simply dumped into the streams above the diversions placed to carry water to the grow sites. As regards the pesticides used:

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."

The toll on the pot smokers health is another open ended question considering Mexico doesn't have the same standards for toxic chemicals used on plant materials grown for human consumption. And the Mexican Pot cartels wouldn't care anyway.

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.

The complete scope of the toxic soup being dumped into some of the most scenic areas of the country is not known yet, but the scope of the problem which is known is a disaster in the making.

Scott Wanek, the western regional chief ranger for the National Park Service, said he believes the eradication efforts have touched only a small portion of the marijuana farms and that the environmental impact is much greater than anyone knows.