What is the problem?
Whatever your personal opinion may be, cultivating marijuana on a commercial scale is still illegal. There is big money involved, which has prompted Mexican drug cartels to set up pot farms in Nevada and other western states to avoid the hassle of trying to smuggle weed in from south of the border. Pot with an estimated street value of over $40 million was found in Nevada in 2010, on both public and private land. How much escaped detection and made it to the marketplace is anyone's guess.
Workers hired to tend the pot patches usually put them in remote places where the chances of detection are low and law enforcement seldom patrols. However, hikers, hunters, backcountry travelers, and government workers do tend to visit out-of-the-way places in Nevada's outback and are the ones most likely to encounter growing operations.
This is not a minor issue - growers guard their plots with boobie traps and guns. In 2008, three BLM employees were held at gunpoint after they came across a big farm in Humboldt County. In another case north of Winnemucca, hunters were confronted by men who warned them away from the area they were traversing in the Santa Rosa Mountains. In 2010, a hunter exploring an area near Boomtown came across the largest marijuana farm ever found in Washoe County.
The other huge problem with pot farms is environmental damage. These operations frequently use water from natural streams, a scarce commodity in Nevada's remote areas. Diverting water disrupts the natural landscape and deprives wilflife of a critical survival resource. These criminals pollute the water with pesticides and fertilizer and damage natural vegetation by clearing land for growing plots. They also poach wildlife to eat since they spend months at a time camped far away from any source of supplies.
Clues to the presence of a pot farm
If you run into one or more of these clues when out and about in rural Nevada, be alert to the possibility of an illegal marijuana garden operation in the vicinity...
- Fertilizer or other chemicals and their discarded containers.
- Concealed campsites away from usual camping areas.
- Unusual traffic to remote locations.
- Discarded supplies that might be a trash dump site.
- Irrigation equipment and gardening tools.
- People who are concerned with your presence in the area.
- Presence of chicken wire to protect plants from animals.
What to do if you find a marijuana farm
If you should actually find a pot plantation on public land, the Nevada Department of Public Safety (DPS) recommends these steps to protect yourself and to help law enforcement deal with the problem...
- Leave immediately and report the sighting to law enforcement.
- If possible, leave the area using the same route traveled to get there.
- If you have a GPS device, note location coordinates and/or make note of landmarks and travel time back to the trailhead.
- Do not attempt to explore the area.
To report a pot farm find, call local law enforcement for the jurisdiction where you happen to be. In most cases, that will be the county sheriff. Otherwise, use the toll-free Nevada tip line at (866) 273-7678. Another method is the online DPS suspicious activity report form.
Sources: Nevada Department of Public Safety, Reno Gazette-Journal.
