Dozen illegal pot grows uprooted in El Dorado County
El Dorado County sheriff’s deputies have been making a concerted effort to rid neighborhoods of illegal marijuana grows. In the last four months deputies have closed down a dozen commercial cultivation operations in the Lake Tahoe Basin. They were primarily housed in rental houses.
Complaints from neighbors is how most of them were located.
“These grows also use a great deal of electricity, far more than the residential power grid was designed to deliver to a single residential consumer. Within these houses substandard wiring is the norm, as is extensive damage due to moisture and mold,” Sgt. Michael Seligsohn said in a press release. “Frequently structural modifications to the house itself are found in order to accommodate more plants and deliver more water to these plants. The extensive use of chemicals in these grows creates an environmental hazard and in many instances excess chemicals are disposed of through the public utility sewage system creating an added public expense and degrading the water supply. In other instances chemical infused soils have been found dumped in back yards where it runs off onto neighboring properties and it leaches into the ground water creating an environmental hazard.”
Proposition 215 allows medicinal marijuana patients to grow for their own needs or people they directly and physically care for. It does not allow growing marijuana as a business.
The fire marshal is also brought out to inspect structures for substandard wiring, water damage, mold, or structural degradation. If there is an issue, power is cut off to the house and the building department will red tag the structure.
In the 12 raids, deputies have seized thousands of plants, several dozen pounds of processed marijuana, tens of thousands of dollars, and several drug processing laboratories. These grows of 100 to several hundred plants have consumed as much 40 percent of the floor space of a single-family home. In every case the fire marshal’s inspection revealed that wiring installed to support the grow was substandard and dangerous.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
your quote doesn’t have an end, “ Proposition 215 allows medicinal marijuana patients to grow for their own needs or those of persons they directly and physically care for. It does not allow growing marijuana as a business.
how do the clubs get there marijuana then?
Glad to see this happening. Maybe it will shut down the guy who sells across from me. I hope! I really, really do.
We can’t deny that there is a substantial demand for cannabis and whether we like it or not it’s a trend that is not about to end any time soon. On one side we have all those people that support the war on cannabis, their perception is biased thanks to 40 years of lies and propaganda. On the other side we have the commercial growers who rather keep the status quo to guarantee their profits. Users are stuck in the middle, they hope for a total decriminalization and legalization that would allow them to grow and consume cannabis in all forms. I can see a near future that will make consumption legal but as for cultivation, the government will make sure they get their cut by over regulating the industry to limit the access. The irony is that in 20/30 years from now, cannabis won’t be taboo and will be perceived as a valid and substantial medicine. I trust and believe the new generations to be smarter and to realize they have the power to fight the tyranny of the elite. Cannabis is just the tip of the iceberg and the corpocrathy is terrorized by the idea their domination is coming to an end.
It’s a mess but things are changing and evolution is inevitable. Buckle up!
Tahonymous,
I’m sure you already realize THC is kinda treated the same as alcohol in Colorado and Washington.
Good job by the Sheriff’s Office, The danger of fires and house explosions is something that the entire county should be vigilant of and if seen or suspected, these growing operations should be called in, these rigged and stolen power supplies are very dangerous to every house around and this should be a criminal act in itself. The owners not checking on the renters of properties and what their properties are being used for are also going to be on the hook for negligence.
I don’t care if people smoke weed, I just hate the stench in the air and the worry that my house might burn down because some idiot is Mickey Mousing the electrical wiring to the house. I’m glad they are going after them because they are ruining homes that don’t belong to them.
Im so mad because the cops left out my neighborhood in this raid. EVERY DAY my neighborhood stinks like a skunk farm. The authorities have been called, emailed and they didnt do anything, yet. I hope that the message goes out to the growers and cookers that our neighborhoods are not for pot farms. Come on cops and check out the neighborhoods around tahoe valley elementary school. You wont be disappointed.
Jonathan Moore says and “go figure says” ,
If you really want the sheriff to show up in your neighborhood, you have to contact the sheriff with an address, not just a street name or area description. You are probably both hiding behind anonymous phone tips that the sheriff won’t take seriously.
Actually specific address have been submitted at the city web site. That has a specific area to submit a suspected or known grow house, also ive talked to the person in the planning dept who handles the permitting process. I think its just a bit of time and slutheing before the scat hits the fan for our neighborhood. The growers are obviously oblivious to the stench eminating from their house. From what I was told there are no known permitted houses in my neighborhood. That is as specific as they could get with personal info.
Lt. Van Arnum should post a phone number for residents to “put on notice” offensive neighbors. There should be a person to speak with. Those complainants should also leave a call-back contact number. Long gone are the days of being completely anonymous. It is time to take back our neighborhoods.
Well done EDSO deputies…you know who you are! Keep up the good work! You will get your kudos…from where you least expect them.
It is really amazing to hear such ignorance(hopefully) or stupidity(most likely). If a grower destroys a home they are renting that is absolutely unacceptable, and they should be responsible and held accountable. You have to ask yourself what drives the growers to be underground in the first place? hmmm perhaps the ridiculous war on cannabis. What has created such a profitable black market for cannabis? hmmm perhaps the absurd war on cannabis. Wake up folks caffeine, nicotine, your prescription pills, even peanuts are more likely to harm you than cannabis. Full legalization, regulation, taxation would destroy the underground market and bring cannabis to a level of accountability that the users desire. In fact it would also achieve what non-users desire(safety and revenue), for example I have never paid a dime in taxes related to cannabis nor have I been asked for identification for age verification, oh wait one time in Colorado last month where it is LEGAL! The quasi-legal status that cannabis currently exists in isn’t enough for people to feel comfortable to register their grows with the city or even put their name on a list as a medical patient. The prohibition is an absolute failure and clearly SLEDNET is scrambling to pay their bills, and justify their existence. There are plenty of burglaries, assaults, car theft, vandalism cases, and lets not forget about the unsolved MURDER cases that these resources should be allocated to. Fight crime not cannabis! This is worse than the parking tickets the city was issuing last summer!
Gotta love…many of the criminals that you mentioned were stoned on pot when commiting their special crime. Or commited their crime to support their drug (of choice) habit. Its pretty ignorant to think that smokeing pot has no side effects or causes no harm to anyone in any way. I really dont care if someone smokes pot or drinks booze or takes pills. We all make personal choices. However when I have to explain to my son why it smells like a skunk farm in our yard, and house if I have my windows open, than it becomes personal and the grower beware. Why should I have to smell the stench? The growers in our area are very inconsiderate and they need to be shut down.
go fig…that is an absurd statement to make “many of the criminals were stoned on pot when committing their special crime,” they all drank water that day as well, yep its got to be the water! Someone needs to pop the bubble you live in. There needs to be major reform of our marijuana laws, and we need to end demonizing cannabis use. Legalization will eliminate the profits and the black market dies off and problem solved. If you think that being “stoned on pot” would lead someone to commit violent crimes against another clearly you have no idea of what the effects of cannabis use are. There must be some confusion as to the term “Stoned,” it does not refer to the current practice of public execution that goes on today in our beloved oil saturated middle eastern countries, it simply indicates that your actions will be similar to a stone, as in not moving or doing anything(which is why your opening statement is senseless). Regarding the smell… Although I do agree that you to some extent, I think we are being a little overly dramatic and running out of any realistic excuses as to why these evil pot growers should be shut down. FIrst of all I am wondering if you actually have skunks living under or near your house? Might want to call an exterminator for that. Now here’s a novel idea, talk to your neighbors… tell them the smell is a concern for you and your family, and that they need to address the issue, and while you’re at it ask them for a brownie so that you can actually try cannabis for yourself and understand its effects rather than getting your information from “Refer Madness.”
GotaLuv. The growers are not “personal” growers, but commercial growers and need to behave as such and move to farming areas. I have seen a lot of critters in South Lake Tahoe over the decades, but not Skunks.
The first time I smelled one of the many grow houses on my morning walk around the neighborhood, I thought ,” It’s a skunk and it’s bad enough we have bears in the neighbors trash”.
After awhile I realized what it really was. Stupid me!
I don’t have a problem with people smoking pot or growing for personal use. What does bother me is when the house behind me caught on fire thru jerry rigged wiring to bypass the electric meter, and came damn close to catching the nearby houses on fire, mine included.
The cabin owners main concern? “I lost 70 plants in that fire”. That burned out place stil stands, boarded up and red tagged by the city. That was a year and a half ago since the fire. Place looks like hell.
The smell of people growing doesn’t bother me anymore, I’m used to it now, but house fires in this heavily wooded area? Well that is cause for concern.
Go ahead and grow for personal use, just be considerate of your neighbors and do it SAFELY!!! OLS
OLS agree 100%, I dont know why respect and common sense are so hard to come by these days.
Hero Cops Go fot it! all you have to do is call EDSO Dispatch. 573-3300 and they will pay attention. They took down another one yesterday on Meadow Vale! If it is in the city, you have to call the police. The Sheriff’s Deputies rock!