The recreational use of marijuana, legalized by Proposition 64 in 2016, has not eliminated illegal marijuana grow sites in many rural areas throughout the state. The illicit marijuana market continues to thrive, financed by consumers seeking to avoid taxes imposed on sales at legal dispensaries.In our own region, huge illegal marijuana farms have been seized over the past few years. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said that in two years it located 1,576 illegal grows, with 2.5 million plants. The human toll can be staggering, including murder. At a grow house east of Temecula, seven people were found shot to death in 2020. Sadly, child labor is sometimes used and the sites are often patrolled by armed guards, are frequently booby-trapped and can contain other hazardous narc
