I'd bet a lot of your "crime and problems" are do to the fact that you legalized the grows to begin with.
The 3000+ illegal grows you already had don't like the competition.
Amen to that! With 75% of the land in this county owned by either the Forest Service, BLM or the State of Oregon...
This county was very high on the list of the amount of Marijuana destroyed annually, being grown on governmental
owned property...
When it was put on the ballot, the Sheriff's and County Attorney Associations opposed its legalization...
and contributed roughly $500K to advertise against its legalization. The Hemp Industry and "Interests" outside
the state spent over $7.5 million on advertisement to legalize it.... who do you think is going to win that contest
regardless of what the subject is... its the amount of money spent.
States like Oregon and Colorado for example.....remind me of Canada during our prohibition in the 1920s...
Of course it is well known the amount of Booze ran across the border from Canada... you see it in almost ever
movie about Gangsters in the 20s and 30s.....What few people know is that Canada, also had prohibition during the
same period. However the Canadian Government Authorized the manufacture of alcohol as long as it was not
distributed in Canada. The Canadian Government made millions from importing it across the border into the USA.
Its how Seagrams got its start.
Oregon is doing the exact same thing, by most of what is grown locally in this county, going outside the state.
The News has reported large busts in places as far as Miami and Boston, that came from here.
Yet Jeff Sessions sent a letter to the Governor of Oregon, Kate Brown inquiring about this and what the state
was doing to prevent the product leaving the State. Her and Senator Jeff Merkley both "ASSURED" the Justice
Dept that the State of Oregon was making sure the product wasn't leaving the state, and it was being consumed
locally. Don't know if that made the news nationally or not.. certainly made the local talk radio circuit within Oregon.
Anyone involved in the industry in this county, even the local people who just work at these grows for $20
an hour just to trim the plants, can tell you that 85 to 90% of what is grown in Josephine County is going
out of state. Part of their job is to help load the vehicles... its not being done at 3 in the morning with a tight
group of people....
But as Cal pointed out... its in competition with the illegal grows that were here before the state legalized it.
On a trip back home to Oregon when I was doing a trip to the East Coast back in 2012, I was crossing Utah and
out off of I 80 half way between Salt Lake and the Nevada border, their was some scruffy looking guy broke down
off the hwy in a ratty look Dodge Mini Van with Oklahoma Plates.... he has some gal with him also..
he has a gas can and said he ran out of gas, and could I give him a ride back to where he could get some fuel..
like 40 miles away or so....ain't much on I 80 in that stretch but nothingness... he left his GF and the dog to 'guard the min
van'....
So we are talking as we drive along, and he asks where I'm from.. I tell him Grants Pass OR...
Then he tells me how he just came from Grants Pass... he and his GF make 3 to 4 trips a month
from Grants Pass to Oklahoma City.... I didn't have to ask what that was all about.
So yeah, Cal is right... its not like this stuff wasn't going on before legalization.
Its just increased a thousand fold.. its no longer being grown out in the woods on Federal Land...
People are coming in with lots of money and buying property with Water available, and jacking
the pricing thru the roof for what the local economy can afford...
and even tho there is suppose to be a limit on how much can be grown on a 'legal grow'
which is a small number of plants, in ratio to the size of grows you see everywhere in the local area.
There is only a small part of what is supposedly "legal", actually following the law...
both in size of the grows, along with where the finish product is going...
I personally hope the Feds start enforcing it being against Federal law.. at least the part
of it crossing state lines to where it isn't legal....
But I maintain, the real money on all of this is going into Governmental Officials pockets,
and the DemocRATic Party's Coffers....thru corruption....
Obama and the Clintons have made corruption an "In Thing" to do for Governmental Officials,
Translating that it is OK to do so, where it was illegal before hand...
They haven't increased corruption so much, as they have legitimized it....
DemocRATS have nothing on South American Dictatorships when it comes to Corruption...
Latin America is second string....
