Illegal marijuana grows can’t be allowed to destroy our communities

Southern California is facing a unique public safety crisis caused by the large-scale illegal cultivation of marijuana. Over the past several months, residents of San Bernardino County and beyond have faced intimidation and coercion. Sheriff’s deputies have been shot at on their way to calls for service. Our public lands have been degraded through trash pollution and the use of dangerous illegal pesticides, and every day over three million gallons of water are stolen from our communities to support this illegal activity, even as law-abiding citizens are asked to cut back on water consumption.

These dangerous realities are the result of large-scale illegal marijuana cultivation that has taken hold across the High Desert, Morongo Basin and Eastern Sierra, invading our public lands and our rural neighborhoods, and threatening our communities and our fragile ecosystems. As of today, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department has approximately 1,000 potential grow sites under investigation, and the number of illegal grow operations in Southern California has increased in some areas by over 300 percent since 2019.

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