marijuana farm

16 Stories

Pot Farms Face Threat From Widely Spreading Pathogen

Nearly every growing operation in California has it, scientists say

(Newser) - California's marijuana industry is facing a major threat in the form of an infectious pathogen that scientists say has reached almost every pot farm in the state. The damage could run in the billions of dollars, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Hop-latent viroid grows unseen for months in cannabas...

LA County Seizes Illegal Pot Valued at a Record $1B

Sheriff warns growers for cartels: 'Your days are over'

(Newser) - In a 10-day operation in California's Antelope Valley, sheriff's officials said they seized 373,000 marijuana plants and 33,480 pounds of harvested marijuana. The estimated street value of the pot is more than $1 billion, officials said, making it the biggest haul ever in Los Angeles County,...

Officials Destroy 10M Pot Plants Masquerading as Hemp

Authorities destroy $1B worth of marijuana

(Newser) - Those 10 million "hemp" plants growing on 459 California acres turned out to not be hemp plants. The Kern County Sheriff's Office received a tip that led deputies to obtain a search warrant for 11 fields around Arvin, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles. Tests showed the...

Bob Marley's Son Is Growing Pot in a Prison

Calif. operation will supply medical dispensaries

(Newser) - In another state, Damian Marley's pot farm in a former prison might get him sent to, well, prison. But in California, it's totally irie, man. The youngest son of everyone's favorite stoner, Bob Marley, says he's partnering with Ocean Grown Extracts to turn the former Claremont...

Washington's Problem: Too Much Legal Pot

Growers are having a hard time offloading their marijuana

(Newser) - Washington's legal marijuana market opened last summer to a dearth of weed. Some stores periodically closed because they didn't have pot to sell. Prices were through the roof. Six months later, the equation has flipped, bringing serious growing pains to the new industry after a big harvest of...

Texan Discovers $2M Pot Farm on His Land

Someone was secretly growing 5,500 marijuana plants

(Newser) - A Texas rancher noticing suspicious activity on a remote section of his property has discovered that he was housing more than just squatters. After calling the local sheriff for help on Tuesday, the two hiked three-quarters of a mile through dense woods to get to an area inaccessible by vehicle,...

Cops Bust Pot Garden ... Using Google Earth

Guy was authorized to grow 30 plants; he had 94

(Newser) - Police say the view from space helped them bust a medical marijuana garden with too many plants in the state of Oregon. The Grants Pass Daily Courier reports authorities received a tip that 50-year-old Curtis W. Croft was bragging about all the pot he was growing on his property outside...

$100M Pot Farm Destroyed in LA Park Raid

34,000 plants growing in Topanga State Park

(Newser) - A $100 million marijuana plantation was destroyed by a police raid in Topanga State Park in Los Angeles on Friday. The 34,000-plant operation deep in the park's back country is the largest busted by cops in the Santa Monica Mountains in seven years, reports the Los Angeles Times ...

Pot Growers Head for the ... 'Burbs?

Housing crisis creating bargains for growers

(Newser) - America's green, leafy suburbs are becoming home to an increasing number of people growing a green, leafy product. The housing crisis has caused an influx of marijuana growers from rural areas and commercial zones to the suburbs, the New York Times finds. The growers are snapping up spacious homes...

Marijuana Plantations Ravaging National Forests: Experts

 Pot Plantations 
 Ravaging Our Forests 
say experts
Dec 13, 2011 9:15 AM CST

Pot Plantations Ravaging Our Forests

Minimal policing makes growing marijuana easy

(Newser) - Marijuana growers are devastating national forests and creating a "clear and present danger to the public and the environment," a top Forest Service official testified before the Senate last week. Major marijuana plots have been detected on some 67 forests across 20 states, and the trend is only...

Foreclosed Vegas Homes Turning Into Pot Farms

Empty homes are easy target for marijuana growers

(Newser) - With Nevada and Las Vegas among the hardest-hit housing markets in the nation, weed dealers are increasingly turning to the region's empty houses to set up marijuana farms, reports the New York Daily News . Cops have busted 130 indoor pot farms so far this year, up by nearly two...

Cops Find Huge Pot Farm in National Forest —Again

Chequamegon-Nicolet in Wisconsin is popular with growers

(Newser) - Authorities near a remote national forest in Wisconsin have issued an unusual appeal to drivers to steer clear of hitchhikers—because they might be illegal pot farmers on the run. Police found a marijuana farm of several acres within the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest whose plants (now destroyed) had an estimated...

68K Pot Plants Found in California Mountains

Authorities call it a record seizure

(Newser) - Call it a pot bust with a capital "B." Authorities in California discovered the largest outdoor grow operation in Ventura County history last week: some 68,500 plants worth an estimated $205 million growing in the mountains of the Los Padres National Forest. That's not all investigators...

Pot Farms Eat Up 1% of Nation's Electricity

Smoking joint like leaving light on all day

(Newser) - Bad news for eco-conscious stoners: That joint you just smoked hurt the planet. Marijuana grown indoors accounts for 1% of America’s yearly electricity consumption, or $5 billion worth of energy, a study finds. That’s equivalent to the annual energy bills of 2 million homes. And in terms of...

California Cities Scramble to Launch Pot Farms

Towns want marijuana-related tax money

(Newser) - In a bid to rake in even more pot-related tax revenue, some California cities are pushing to build government-OKed marijuana farms within city limits, the AP reports. In wine country, the town of Sebastopol passed a measure allowing for four medical-marijuana gardens—two of which are to function as communal...

Calif. Cops Lost in Pot Law Haze

They're left to sort out enforcement in whatever state

(Newser) - California cops can't wait until marijuana laws are clarified one way or the other because they're so confused right now that they might as well be stoned on the job. Take Deputy Sheriff Robert Hamilton of Humboldt County, the root of the state's wild west marijuana culture. He recently discovered...

16 Stories