Authorities Destroy $1 Billion Worth Of Marijuana Plants In California

BYCole Blake5.2K Views
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Marijuana
That's a lot of weed.

A joint investigation helmed by the Kern County Sheriff’s Office, with the assistance of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation found and destroyed $1 billion worth of illegally grown marijuana plants.

According to CNN, The team followed through on search warrants for 11 fields in the Arvin area, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, totaling 459 acres of land. Narcotics units from the Sheriff's Office "seized and eradicated" an estimated 10 million marijuana plants.

The plants were being grown under the veil of legal hemp production; however, The Food and Agricultural Code and Health and Safety Code limit THC percentages of this designation to under 0.3%. These plants were far above that. There is a research exemption “if that cultivation or possession contributes to the development of types of industrial hemp that will comply with the three-tenths of 1 percent THC limit established in this division," but that also does not seem to apply here. 

The Kern County Sheriff's Office wrote in a Facebook post, "Preliminary testing showed the levels of THC in these fields were well over the legal limit for industrial hemp production and were in fact cannabis. The investigation is ongoing." Follow the office on Facebook for future updates.


About The Author
Cole Blake is a current staff writer at HotNewHipHop based out of New York City. He began writing for the site as an intern back in 2018 while finishing his B.A. in Journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s covered a number of breaking stories for HNHH. These include the ongoing YSL RICO trial, the allegations surrounding Diddy, and much more. His work also extends outside of hip-hop, having written extensively about a myriad of topics including politics, sports, and pop culture. He’s attended several music festivals to provide coverage for the site as well, such as Rolling Loud and Governors Ball.
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