Trimigrants Busted: 1000 Pot Plants Seized on North San Juan Ridge Pot Garden

North San Juan is a ridge that runs from the covered bridge at Bridgeport, near Lake Englebright, all the way east to the top of the Sierras. It is around 35 miles or dirt and gravel roads, chapparal oaks, pines, and the three branches of the Yuba River. Its rough country, nearly undeveloped, and most of it is BLM or National Forest. Pot growers squat there, camping and growing dope for processing and sale after the harvest in the Fall. The nearest grocery stores are in Grass Valley and Nevada City, so these people rub elbows with us when they come into town. They also borrow books and DVDs so they have some entertainment while they rest. Most of these places have no power or water, so the trimigrants don't have any to spare for washing, thus stink. I'm grateful when they bathe before visiting my library.

Pot is a cash crop and while there are permits which allow for a certain amount of plants for those people licensed to grow, most of the growers only use the license system to protect themselves from arrest, and to play shell games with the deputies coming to seize the plants in excess of the legal limit. Modern pot is 1000 times stronger than the stuff in the 1960's, thanks to selective breeding, and it is possible to OD on it, like with Hashhish. Honey Oil is hash oil, if you didn't know. Making honey oil requires butane and a pressure vessel, and these tend to overheat and burst, causing really bad fires. Most of the structure fires in this county turn out to be honey oil lab fires. Renting out your spare guest cottage to a college graduate could result in the place burning down. This has created serious distrust between the owners and renters, for good reason. The local apartment buildings often reek of dope smoke, and honey oil fires there risk the lives of everyone inside, which could be 50-200 people and all their belongings. Of course, the police don't bust them for smoking dope because the law lets "medical marijuana" exist, so the honey oil fires will keep happening.

Deputies hunt for the violators. Unfortunately, most of the growers are clever and have multiple sites, keep the plants in 1 gallon or two gallon plastic pots so they can move them from site to site and thus sell more than they admit to having. It is all profit for them. Attempts to tax pot growers have failed. They underreport their crops and sell the excess for cash so barely pay any taxes. Despite the risk of major fires (and there's been HUGE fires) caused by processing pot plants into honey oil, these people were processing in a rural area with no fire suppression. It could have burned up a lot of land and cost the county and state millions to fight, just like the Trailhead Fire, nearly out, did. The Butte, Lake, and Alta fires were all caused by honey oil processing labs, and homes were lost. But Democrats remain convinced that dope is harmless and my county suffers. Screw you, Democrats. I hope you get cancer from your dope.