Congress Hears About Marijuana Trafficking in National Parks

Representatives of the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) on Nov. 17 testified before Congress about the increasing danger to rangers and visitors, financial costs, and environmental damage caused by marijuana cultivation and trafficking in America’s national parks.

According to NPCA, park rangers confront illegal drug cultivation and/or trafficking at Sequoia National Park and Whiskeytown National Recreation Area in California; Organ Pipe Cactus and Coronado national monuments in Arizona; and Amistad National Recreation Area and Padre Island National Seashore in Texas, among other park sites nationwide, including Yosemite.

During 2004, parks police eradicated 54,000 marijuana plants worth an estimated $30 billion on the street from Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks alone.

It’s a dangerous job, too. “In addition to employing armed guards, the [drug] cartels use booby traps to secure the marijuana gardens—shot guns with trip lines carefully hidden and positioned to shoot an unknowing victim in the face. Families that may have once worried about stumbling across a bear while hiking through Sequoia are now threatened by the hidden dangers of armed guards and booby traps,” an NPCA representative told Congress.

Also See:
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Medical Marijuana No Longer a Political Issue: Drug Czar