CHILDREN PAY THE PRICE OF EXPANDED MARIJUANA PRODUCTION IN AMERICA:
- CHILD-SLAVERY
- CHILD-TRAFFICKING
- KIDNAPPING
- CHILD-EXPLOITATION
- CHILD-LABOR
- TOXIC EXPOSURES
- INHUMANE LIVING CONDITIONS
- UNPAID LABOR
- GROTESQUE CHILD ABUSE
- MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS AND SUICIDE
- POISONINGS
- CHILD NEGLECT
- MEDICAL NEGLECT
- SEXUAL SLAVERY
Trafficking victims endured ‘horrible conditions’ in U.S. illegal drug operation
Police in California discovered dozens of people forced to work in illicit marijuana business after being brought across border
Dozens of human trafficking victims were forced to work on an illegal marijuana operation while living in “horrible conditions”, California authorities said.
The Merced county sheriff’s office in the state’s Central valley this week found 60 people, including men, women and at least one child, at an operation. The group arrived several days earlier and was promised good-paying jobs and a place to stay, law enforcement said in a statement.
“Once there, they were forced to process marijuana while staying in horrible living conditions to pay back the individuals that brought them across the border,” the statement continued, without giving details on those conditions.
California legalized marijuana in 2016, bringing a once clandestine industry into the mainstream, and now has dispensaries across much of the state along with delivery services and cannabis cafes. But the illicit market has continued to thrive as growers seek to avoid high tax rates paid by legal cannabis businesses.
Workers often face perilous conditions and exploitation in the marijuana industry. An investigation by the Los Angeles Times found that the largely immigrant workforce are “subjected to abuse, wage theft, threats of violence and squalid and hazardous conditions”. Earlier this year, the state created a team dedicated to addressing cannabis related labor trafficking.
In Merced county, deputies served a search warrant on Wednesday afternoon at a site on unincorporated land near the city of Merced and discovered the operation. Images posted online by the Merced county sheriff’s office showed trays, bags and boxes stuffed with what looked to be marijuana in a run-down interior space with ceilings that appeared to be collapsing.
“We literally have thousands of pounds of finished marijuana from an illegal grow and illegal source,” Warnke said in a video.
“These folks are indentured, they owe money … they’re scared to death,” Warnke said. “It’s heart-wrenching. So we’re going to try and take care of these folks,” he added.
Authorities did not disclose their countries of origin.
Three goats and two dogs that were not being cared for adequately were also rescued, according to the statement.
No arrests were made but investigators were “working tirelessly to find the individuals responsible”, the sheriff’s office said.
The men and women forced to work on the property have been connected to resources, the sheriff’s office said, and are not facing charges.
“They’re victims in this and it’s an active investigation,” a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office told the Merced Sun Star.
Inside Chinese-funded and staffed marijuana farms springing up across US : NPR
By Emily Feng
Last summer, New Mexico state special agents inspecting a farm found thousands more cannabis plants than state laws allow. Then on subsequent visits, they made another unexpected discovery: dozens of underfed, shell-shocked Chinese workers.
The workers said they had been trafficked to the farm in Torrance County, N.M., were prevented from leaving and never got paid.
“They looked weathered,” says Lynn Sanchez, director of a New Mexico social services nonprofit who was called in after the raid. “They were very scared, very freaked out.”
They are part of a new pipeline of migrants leaving China and making unauthorized border crossings into the United States via Mexico, and many are taking jobs at hundreds of cannabis farms springing up across the U.S.
An NPR investigation into a cluster of farms, which the industry calls cannabis “grow” operations, in New Mexico found businesses that employ and are managed and funded largely by Chinese people. They’re seeking opportunities in a flourishing U.S. cannabis market after the coronavirus pandemic led to a global economic crisis. But some of the businesses have run afoul of the law, even as states such as New Mexico have legalized marijuana.
Getting out of China
One of the workers encountered at the farm in Torrance County is 41-year-old L., who came from China’s central Hubei province a year ago. He asked NPR to use only his first initial because he is anxious about legal prosecution in the U.S. and China.
©2025 Beverly Newman, Ed. D. All rights reserved.
RELATED ARTICLES:
California’s 50,000 Pot Farms Are Sucking Rivers Dry
How Does the Legalization of Marijuana Affect Our Community, Youth and Health? – CentraCare
The post Marijuana Reclassification Maximizes Endangerment of America’s Children: Fullfills Long-Time Leftist Goals appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Beverly Newman, Ed. D.
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://drrichswier.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
