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Trigger Warning: This article may contain triggering and/or sensitive content that some readers, especially potheads, may find upsetting, please proceed with caution. California authorities destroyed 10 million marijuana plants worth a street value of $1 billion after receiving a tip.
An anonymous tipster informed the Kern County Sheriff’s Office that there was a marijuana farm growing illegal cannabis. The Kern County Sheriff’s Office got a search warrant and raided the fields in Arvin on October 25th with assistance from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The farm had 11 different fields across more than 459 acres of land, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles.
While marijuana is certainly legal in the state of California, there are some rules. The farm was supposed to be growing hemp, which the Food and Agricultural Code and Health and Safety Code define industrial hemp as containing less than 0.3% THC, which is the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. The plants that were on the alleged hemp field had illegal levels of THC, essentially making them cannabis and not hemp, which is used to make rope, durable paper, food products, and cannabidiol (CBD).
“Preliminary testing showed the levels of THC in these fields were well over the legal limit for industrial hemp production and were in fact cannabis. The investigation is ongoing,” the Kern County Sheriff’s Office wrote on Facebook. You know another weed producer called the cops to shut down the competition, possibly Randy Marsh at Tegridy Farms?
“The Kern County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics units seized and eradicated approximately 10 million marijuana plants,” the Facebook post stated. “These plants have an estimated value of over $1 billion on the black market.”
The 10 million marijuana plants were estimated to have a “black market” value of over $1 billion. Authorities did not reveal if any further legal action would be taken. It’s probably safe to say that destroying $1 billion of marijuana plants is far enough punishment.
So how did they destroy the 10 million marijuana plants? One would surmise that they may have destroyed the 10 million marijuana plants by burning cannabis fields. U.S. military members burned down poppy fields in Afghanistan to eliminate income opportunities from drugs for the Taliban.
So when you’re working for the U.S. government and ordered to destroy an entire field of weed, do you tell your supervisor that you’ll oversee the burn personally? “Don’t worry boss, I’ll stand next to this field pf marijuana plants until every single one of them has been burned.”
Then again, maybe burning fields of pot plants isn’t a super great idea when half of California is already on fire. Second thought, lighting up large fields on fire and the people supervising the controlled blaze are higher than the audience at a Phish show may actually exacerbate California’s wildfires.
[FoxNews]