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Bud Business



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See why California is considered the marijuana growing capital of the U.S.
lauraling

28 responses // Bud Business

  • great pod, sad to watch such a wonderful plant being so badley treated, but you shouldnt expect anything less from the american feds. would love to see a pod done on the history of the plant and why it is banned and what would really be cool would be to see experts from both sides putting there two cents in. let the truth out. the emperor DOESNT wear clothes
    n1cky
  • http://current.com/contentItem.htm?masterId=1284728
    width="486" height="407">
    The Biggest Marijuana Plantation in the World!
    For some reason, I've covered a lot of pot issues. It was amazing to see just how much marijuana is being harvested in our national forests and how much easier it is for traffickers to operate on our soil as opposed to smuggling marijuana across the border. But if you think a lot of pot is grown in California, check out this pod about the cannabis industry in Morocco.
    lauraling
    1 response to this
  • For half a dozen years or so, starting in the late '90s, as meth use swept the U.S., California was the methamphetamine manufacturing capital of the world. Then the U.S. government made it tougher to get psuedoephedrine, the common cold medicine that is used to make meth. Now America's meth is made in Mexico. But the Mexican national trafficking organizations that were originally making meth in California decided to stay there and grow high-value marijuana in the Golden State's vast forests. Even as this is happening, the news is California this year is full of stories of police finding indoor marijuana grows in suburban homes... So maybe Vanguard will look into that trend...
    MitchKoss
  • http://current.com/items/76269762_narco_state
    Watch Narco State
    Watch Narco State
    Watch the second part of this series here.
    spuglisi
  • Vanguard once again tracking trends that impacts our lives. The trafficking of illicit drugs is one of the subject areas Vanguard has been pretty robust in covering. From a whole series on the methamphetamine epidemic to our coverage of opium production in Afghanistan, Vanguard journalists have been delving deep into the drug cultures that permeate all borders.
    Kaj
  • Glad to finally see some people dealing properly w/ the illegal substance abuse. I am pro sobriety, and have walked away from many friends for their choices to consume this and other illegal substances. There are many positive ways to get an ecstatic feeling, many legal ways to make yourself feel good. I have neurological reasons to self medicate but I make the choice to use other methods so the efforts to enforce a sober society looks positive from here.
    KrisRaah
  • Fantastic job once again! The only thing I was left wanting to hear more about was the negative environmental impact of growing marijuana in national forests and people who use this to argue for the legalization of pot. But wonderful reporting on an important topic!
    sarahbelle
  • Let the trimming begin.
    JayFunk
  • What a shame killing all those plants...I wonder how much those officers took home before they burried it...They're just gonna keep on growing...decriminalize weed
    DreSandoval
  • Legalize it ...
    Don't criticize it ...
    Cause i will advertise it...
    bestbet
  • laura, did they let you take some for yourself?
    jogglef
  • so why doesn't that 4 billion dollars be turned towards education and health care. Is it impossible? What's the worse that could happen? We could solve alot of issues if that could be done, including putting a dent in drug wars and the loss of innocent lives caught in the cross fire.
    chris_fish
  • Tax dollars hard at work. Please mention something about this! This war is a useless and harmful as the one in Iraq. Prohibition DOES NOT WORK!!!
    Its good to know that some single mother is busting her chops working two jobs in st.louis to put food in her kids mouth and to pay for this. Good work reporting that.
    boonpraiser
  • I see so many people here in San Francisco smoking marijuana. Since the medical kind is legal here the police really dont crack down on the use. Ive even seen people smoking the drug in front of the police but they dont do anything.
    Ice_cream_Man
  • awe!! such a waste!!
    jade_azul16
  • those guys waste so much of their time chopping down such a small part of all the illegal growth in the US. they arent even putting a dent in the sales of marijuana so just stop wasting your time and legalize it.
    oJAYRAYo
  • I immediately sgned up after watching this. I have heard aboud feds using marijuana to help them make more money for the government.

    And the part that really annoyed me, is when they said 'they will bury it'.

    Seriously. They arent going to bury it they are probably going to stock it and sell it.

    If the government really wanted to get rid of the problem they would outright burn it. They would also spend more time looking for it and burning it.

    I watched this and was rediculed when they said that, it really sickens me that 'burying it' is the best they can do.
    Truthhurts
  • Oh the horror : ( now I need some glaucoma medication to ease my pain : )

    Drugs are bad kids, but keep taking your prescriptions, the side effects may be worse, but its ok as long as we can track where the money is going
    Wesnology61
  • And check this out while your here too

    http://current.com/items/89054403_man_gets_life_sentenc...
    Wesnology61
  • While I am in favour of legalisation, let's not forget who the people that are destroying our state and national parks and endangering the lives of the hapless American hikers or campers that stumble upon these "farms". Coming across one of these plots is extremely dangerous, and people out for a weekend suddenly find themselves risking injury or death from either the booby traps or the armed guards that patrol these farms. People who are citizens and pay taxes are suddenly under attack by thugs from another country who are taking over many of the remote areas of our parks for their personal gain.
    Put simply, this is an invasion by the bastards who are responsible for gunfights in the streets of Mexican villages and towns, who murder policemen and judges and their families, and who kidnap American tourists for ransom, so do not make the mistake of seeing these farms as harmless enterprises set up by a few well meaning potheads looking for a cheap high. While the subject is an important and timely one, the catchy, 60's style music on the pod downplays who the forces behind these illegal, extremely dangerous and ecologically ruinuous farms are.
    nyingma13
  • Wow. Wow. Wow.

    This pod got my blood pressure up.

    I can't believe they're doing this. Marijuana is one of the hundreds of things our government needs to take a step back from and re-evaluate. It's not even a situation in which a harmful or inconvenient policy is in place because it profits the government. Knowing the greed of our elected officials, I would expect them to jump at this opportunity to make extra money from taxes - and get good PR by eliminating the crime associated with this drug.

    If the government is not spending money to make alcohol illegal, they should not continue to spend money criminalizing marijuana.
    mynnx
  • Hey at least they are not wasting their tax money on unimportant things like education, healthcare, and I am sure that there isn't anyone in that state who is going hungry today because they can't afford to eat. It is just always so uplifting to see how far we are from the "government" and the "people" being one.
    Salad
  • awesome clip, kudos as always to laura ling! how is it possibe that current is permitted to interview and document such coverage?

    this could possibly be an incredible source of government tax revenue. if marijuana was made legal for certain purposes (e.g. treatment for terminally patients) and all these money trees were actually taxed to maybe hospital/clinics, the US government could be making at 10% of 4 billion dollars, 4 million dollars in revenue for what they may be throwing away in a single day's work of shutting down 2 farms.

    why is our government using tax dollars and manpower to shut down these farms? why not use it to focus more on real issues like increase policeforce to eliminate crack in low income areas where the vicious cycle sucks out more of our tax dollars (e.g. methadone clinics)?

    PLEASE let's get our priorities straightened out.
    myopicgirl
  • Counterproductive government programs like this are exactly what misinformation and the undeserved stigma attached to marijuana lead to. It’s such a waste of public resources. They’re not helping anyone. They're not providing services. They're not protecting anyone. So I just have to ask the policy-makers: Isn't there something better you could be doing?
    LakeHMM
  • this is just sad. really sad.

    a mass extinction of a plant species.
    rebot
  • dude thats terrible stop the deforrestation of such an amazing species
    Zouave
  • interesting.
    An argument for the legalisation of marijuana in my view. The American tax payer must be paying a fortune for those helicopters, trucks, employees etc. and still pot is everywhere. If they legalised it they could stop wasting money on the expense of chopping it and make money from taxes instead.
    blanch

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