Illegal pot trafficking threatens Colorado state forests - Watchdog.org:
"When Colorado residents passed a ballot initiative, Amendment 64, decriminalizing marijuana within the state for anyone age 21 and older, proponents of the measure argued that if marijuana was decriminalized, the illegal drug trade would fade, but
since 2013 the number of illegal pot grows is sky high.
International drug cartels have trafficked in Colorado for many years, but even worse, during the first experimental years of legalization, cartel operations in Colorado increased, defying all the rosy predictions the opposite would occur.
Unfortunately, the impact of illegal pot growers and traffickers goes beyond legal and law-enforcement concerns.
Cartels and petty criminals—many of whom are illegal aliens–involved in Colorado’s illegal marijuana trade are wreaking havoc in some of the states most treasured wildlands.
Illegal marijuana growing operations are being placed by traffickers deep within national forests.
The operations are often sophisticated, equipped with surveillance cameras, motion sensors, and even armed guards.
Camouflaged from the air and ground by dense foliage and high trees, these operations are becoming more common and pose increasingly greater danger to local, state, and federal officers, not to mention hikers, hunters and other backcountry explorers who might stumble into an illegal grow.
It is also a
common practice for illegal growers to clear out natural vegetation to make room for pot plants, and to place poisoned bait around a grow to kill birds and mammals which could damage the marijuana plants.
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