Answer Addiction

Tag: marijuana growing

  • Florida Lawyer To Pay Massive Fine For Telling Clients Marijuana Grow Was Legal

    Florida Lawyer To Pay Massive Fine For Telling Clients Marijuana Grow Was Legal

    The lawyer told his clients that they could legally grow medical marijuana in 2015 even though it would not be legal in the state until 2016.

    Ian Christensen, a lawyer based in Jacksonville, Florida, was ordered to pay former clients nearly $370,000 for telling them that they were legally allowed to grow cannabis in their homes.

    Christensen reportedly told his clients in 2015 that medical marijuana was legal and even provided them with cards that stated they were allowed to use it for medicinal purposes and a yard sign that announced that their homes were being used to grow cannabis.

    Too Early

    The problem was that Florida Amendment 2, which legalized marijuana for medicinal use, was a year away from passage at the time Christensen gave his clients the go-ahead.

    Two such individuals, Scott and Marsha Yandell, were arrested in 2016 for growing marijuana in their home, and subsequently lost their jobs. They sued Christensen in 2016 for lost wages due to their convictions, and won their case in July 2019. Christensen, who also lost his law license, offered no defense, according to court documents.

    According to the Florida Times-Union, Christensen told clients in 2015 that they would not face law enforcement intervention for using or growing medicinal marijuana. A statement on his website explained his position by claiming, “If a patient can prove to a law enforcement officer that cannabis is the safest medication available to treat a diagnosed condition, they are NOT subject to arrest.”

    He also sent a letter to the Florida Sheriff’s Association that outlined his position.

    His Service

    For $800, Christensen would reportedly even provide clients with cards that appeared to give them the right to use cannabis for medicinal purposes, as well as “grow signs” that informed their neighborhoods that their home was being used to cultivate cannabis.

    The Yandells discovered in 2015 that the card’s claim of “official legal certification” was invalid when police were dispatched to their home by a 911 caller who had seen the “grow sign” outside their home. When asked if they were in any legal jeopardy, Christensen reportedly told the couple that they were within their rights to grow cannabis.

    One month later, they discovered this to be untrue when a SWAT team raided their home and arrested the Yandells on charges of possession and trafficking of cannabis in excess of 25 pounds, among other charges.

    The Yandells pled guilty to the charges and accepted three years’ probation as well as a $15,000 fine and 100 hours of community services. They were also sued by their landlord for $25,000 in lost rent and damages to the couple’s home during the raid, and both Scott and Marsha lost their respective jobs as an engineer and nurse—work they had both held for more than a decade.

    The couple sued Christensen in 2016 for lost wages due to their arrests. Court documents showed that Christensen claimed that his decision was based on being “inexperienced, young and naïve” in regard to marijuana-related issues.

    He stopped practicing law in 2015 and lost his license in early 2019. A judge handed down the decision regarding the lost wages in late July 2019.

    According to the Yandells’ new lawyer, Andrew Bonderud, Christensen has shown no indication of voluntarily paying the fee, and no longer lives in Florida. “It will be incumbent upon us to discover assets or discover income sources and to go after them,” he said.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Illegal Marijuana Growers Are Damaging The Environment

    Illegal Marijuana Growers Are Damaging The Environment

    The use of toxic pesticides on public land has increased dramatically over the past several years—exposing surrounding wildlife and people to their harmful effects.

    Illegal marijuana growers are inflicting a significant amount of damage on the environment. So far, 160 toxic illegal grow sites have been reclaimed (cleaned) in California. But 830 more are on a waiting list.

    Part of the reason why this process is so taxing is the health hazard posed to authorities and cleanup crews who encounter these sites. According to a recent feature in Playboy, the use of toxic pesticides has “increased dramatically over the past several years”—exposing surrounding wildlife and people to their harmful effects.

    Federal officials in California have shifted their focus from regulating the legal marijuana industry to cracking down on these toxic illegal grow sites established on public land, according to U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott of the Eastern District of California. “This isn’t about the marijuana, it’s about the damage that’s being done,” said Scott. “What is happening here is illegal under anybody’s law.”

    Hurting Wildlife

    The threat to the environment, wildlife and public health is concerning. One pesticide of particular concern is carbofuran, said to be so powerful that a quarter-teaspoon can kill a 300-pound bear, according to researcher Mourad Gabriel.

    Aside from the chemical contamination of the soil, water, plants and wildlife, illegal growers leave behind thousands of tons of trash that require a helicopter to be airlifted away. Water theft and diversion and land erosion from irrigation are also hurting the natural ecosystem.

    Playboy met with Gabriel, fellow Integral Ecology Research Center (IERC) researcher Greta Wengert, and law enforcement officials as they examined one illegal grow site near Plummer Peak in Northern California.

    In 2012, carbofuran was detected in 15% of illegal grow sites visited by the IERC. In 2018, that number reached almost 85%. That year, 89% of illegal grow sites were confirmed or strongly suspected to be contaminated with “highly deadly toxic chemicals,” according to the IERC. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, there is no amount of carbofuran that is safe for people.

    Illegal marijuana growers are using the highly toxic chemical, and ones like it, to not only deter wildlife from the plants, but authorities as well. A suspect arrested during the 2018 growing season in an illegal grow site in Trinity County “strongly implied that illicit growers are increasing carbofuran use in part to deter enforcement actions, and some have adopted the practice of leaving carbofuran containers and other signs of use in plain view so teams will leave the sites without eradicating the plants,” according to a safety notice issued last September.

    This speaks to the significant hazard the pesticide poses to human health. Carbofuran and other toxic pesticide exposure has landed environmental and law enforcement officials in the hospital.

    Side Effects From Toxic Pesticides

    Studies on the effects of smoking marijuana tainted by toxic pesticides is lacking, as Planet Natural noted. And because marijuana is still illegal at the federal level, pesticide use on marijuana is not regulated by the EPA.

    Symptoms of exposure to these pesticides include “nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, labored breathing, cyanosis, convulsions, and unconsciousness” according to one public health alert.

    Illegal marijuana grows exist outside of California as well. The presence of illegal drug traffickers has been found in 72 national forests in 21 states. It’s a “major national problem,” said U.S. Forest Service Chief Forester Vicki Christiansen.

    View the original article at thefix.com