Cannabis, both legal and illegal, might increase rural crime - Entrepreneur Generations

Santa Barbara County
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One of the popular arguments for legalizing marijuana is that it might reduce crime, but some California officials are worried that legalization might increase crime in rural areas. Medical marijuana has been legal in California for years, but recreational marijuana became legal on Jan. 1.

The problem is that some pot farmers don't want to sell their product legally, since they can make far more money selling it in states where marijuana is still illegal. These illegal growers sometimes steal equipment from local farmers who don't even necessarily grow marijuana themselves. Senior Deputy John McCarthy, who has worked on rural crime for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office for nearly 20 years, says he investigates between 100 and 160 rural crimes a year in his county. "The most common crime McCarthy deals with is the theft of equipment — water pumps, irrigation lines, tractors and, more recently, tractor batteries," Mike Hodgson reports for the Lompoc Record.

"We’ll see an increase in the theft of chemicals and drip irrigation lines at the start of the marijuana season,” McCarthy told Hodgson. "That will be taken out into the backcountry for the illicit grows."

Legal cannabis growers sometimes get their plants stolen, McCarthy said. Their money is at risk, too. Because marijuana is illegal at the federal level, most banks won't allow growers, processors and dispensaries to open accounts. About 75 percent of medical marijuana operations don't have bank accounts, which means they're dealing mostly in cash.

"Khurshid Khoja, general counsel of the California Cannabis Industry Association, recently related how a dispensary testing agent was attacked inside his lab by a man armed with a hammer," Hodgson reports. "Another man involved in a cannabis operation was kidnapped and driven out into the desert, where he was tortured to force him to give up the location of his money."

And beyond stolen equipment and robbery, illegal grow operations can bring with them the problems usually seen when dealing with drug cartels, including kidnapping and murder.

from The Rural Blog http://ift.tt/2qf5kG9 Cannabis, both legal and illegal, might increase rural crime - Entrepreneur Generations

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