Feds Create Toxic Mess by Destroying Marijuana Grows – News

Marijuanamoment.net/feds-dont-properly-clean-up-after-marijuana-raids-report-finds/” target=” blank”> have been failing to properly clean up these sites, as reported by Marijuana Moment. The U.S. Forest Service says they have removed over 2.6 million cannabis plants from federal lands from 2014 to 2016.

Illegal cannabis grows not only pose a threat to the legal cannabis industry, but also to the environmental health of local plants and wildlife. Unhampered by regulations, illegal cannabis farmers often use federally-banned pesticides among other chemicals to protect their crops.

Cleaning up the mess left behind by these illegal growers falls to the Forest Service, but authorities have apparently had more success busting these pot farms than mitigating the environmental damage done by the farmers. The USDA Inspector General’s report states that the Forest Service “does not always reclaim and rehabilitate marijuana grow sites after plants are eradicated, and FS is unaware of the overall impact these marijuana grow sites pose to the forest ecosystems,” Marijuana Moment reports.

The report also notes that Forest Service officials are not keeping track of grow sites after their raids, and are failing to detail exactly what kinds of hazardous chemicals are discovered at each site. “Without these data, FS is unable to determine the presence, types, and locations of hazardous materials left on the national forests,” the report notes. “Consequently, it cannot prioritize grow sites for reclamation and rehabilitation efforts to minimize the sites’ risk to the public and wildlife. “