[the_evacuator]

Article doesn't really highlight the environmental hooliganism practiced by these guys. They rip up a meadow in a national forest, or on BLM land, and they irrigate like crazy people, eroding everything rapidly, and they drive up and down the mountainside in their giant pickups. When they are done they leave everything including their trash and their toilets. When ordinary people go motorcycling in these public lands the growers chase them, shoot at them, and set booby traps. The whole thing is a public menace.

I think with legalization should come some kind of harsh regime for these pirates. Ruining public lands should be a serious felony.

[Clubber]

We have too many things that are felonies. A proper punishment would be to clean up all their mess and pay a fine.

"Should be a serious felony," is how we got into the police state we are approaching. Just because it's emotionally distasteful to uglify nature doesn't mean it warrants years in prison, never being able to work again, and never being able to vote again.

[kec]

Some things can't be easily fixed. It can take years or even decades to restore damaged wilderness to something approaching its natural state.

[Clubber]

Yes, I mean if it is something like toxic waste like Love Canal, that's one thing, but if it's dumping trash, that's easily remedied. Also, once the trash is removed, nature will typically revert to it's natural state all by itself. Humankind has to actively prevent nature from engulfing cities.

But to say, "they left trash everywhere, FELONY!" is a seriously emotional reaction. Criminal justice should be a rational not emotional thing. Is dumping trash the same thing as rape, robbery or murder? Certainly not. Felonies should be reserved for the harshest crimes against people, not littering or ingesting things.

The US has more people incarcerated, not only per capita, but as a total number than any other country in the developed world. This includes China. That statistic shows a serious, systemic problem with our justice system.

http://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison-popula...

The American prison system is massive. So massive that its estimated turnover of $74 billion eclipses the GDP of 133 nations.

https://smartasset.com/mortgage/the-economics-of-the-america...

[briandear]

Kind of silly to compare China — they have very, very few murderers, drug traffickers and rapists in prison — their rapidly enforced death penalty sees to that.

[Clubber]

Even if China imprisoned rather than executed, we'd still have a much higher number imprisoned. The US prison population is 33% higher total than China and almost 7x higher per capita. I guess you don't realize how messed up our justice system is. When you look at the numbers, it's a real eye opener. China is a distant #2 in total imprisoned yet they are 4x more populated than the US.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/prisons/html/nn2...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_China#Ra...

The number of executions has dropped significantly since the Supreme People’s Court regained the power to review all death sentences in 2007; for instance, the Dui Hua Foundation estimates that China executed 12,000 people in 2002, 6,500 people in 2007, and roughly 2,400 in 2013 and 2014.

For actual numbers, we have 2.1 million people imprisoned and China has 1.6 million.

[mythrwy]

To be fair we probably have more violent and incorrigible people than China. For whatever reason.

[kec]

The problem isn’t trash, it’s clearcutting and soil erosion. Neither can be quickly or easily fixed, erosion especially isn’t going to be repaired without intervention.

[nine_k]

OK, we've caught the perpetrators, spent a lot of taxpayers' money on keeping them in prison, then pushed out, mostly unable to work (except low-paying jobs), almost inviting them to do some worse offense just to feed themselves.

How did all that help restore the ruined patch of land?

[kec]

Deterrent for others. Weed farming is lucrative, even large fines wouldn’t be a large deterrant.

[thomastjeffery]

Ruining a person's life is not a good deterrent.

[contravariant]

Scaring people away by shooting at them should be a more serious offence than just making a mess. Of course it already is, so I don't really see the point of adding more felonies.

Really the problem isn't that people demand more and more felonies, but rather that they demand felonies for things that are already illegal.

[briandear]

If it were a serious felony, then perhaps they wouldn’t do it? If they continue to do it despite it being a serious felony, then they’ve written their own check.

[Clubber]

Yes, that theory certainly eradicated drug use in the US.

[pstuart]

With legalization comes the ability to use existing agricultural land without fear, effectively rendering this point moot.

[bigzen]

Do you have further reading on these events? I agree with you 100% but I would argue that these growers are probably some of the lesser evils facing our public lands.

[the_evacuator]

Search for "trespass grow" to find a lot of magazine articles and videos on the subject.

I may shake my head at clear-cutting and overgrazing but I'll say that I've never been chased off public land by a rancher nor fired upon by lumberjacks. The marijuana growers are ... unique.

[harlanlewis]

You might be surprised by the scale. I know a few folks doing water management in California, and they've all independently brought up the exacerbating effects of unmonitored but significant water usage by illegal farms during the last few years of drought.

Don't have a link handy, though.

[Theodores]

As a cyclist I shudder at the thought of motorcyclists ruining the trails, making noise and generally trashing the place.

My hill walking dad curses the mountain bikers and their damage to the terrain - leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but memories.

[the_evacuator]

I hear you. The thing about a national forest is there are already roads, and already the sounds of logging. These are working lands. We set aside wilderness areas without roads, that are not even welcoming to horses, for those seeking peace.

Enjoy your lands.

[jmspring]

Pretty common occurrence - http://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1AM0C3

[jameskegel]

I'd rather run across an old composting toilet while biking than an old meth lab, so you have a point