Awash in illegal pot farms, Oregon plans millions for relief

By Andrew Selsky 

Theft of water during a drought. Exploitation of immigrant laborers. Intimidation of residents by armed criminals. A Democratic state senator from southern Oregon said his region, awash in illegal marijuana farms that are protected by gunmen, is starting to look more like a failed state.........

Seven years after Oregon voters passed a ballot measure legalizing the recreational use of marijuana and its regulated cultivation and sale, the state is grappling with an explosion of illegal marijuana farms that have brazenly cropped up, primarily in Josephine and Jackson counties in the south..........The illicit industry is generating billions of dollars in profits and is financed by well-heeled foreign criminal gangs and drug cartels, law enforcement officials said............Golden and two other lawmakers from southern Oregon, Rep. Pam Marsh, D-Ashland, and Rep. Lily Morgan, R-Grants Pass, previously said in a letter to Gov. Kate Brown that workers on the illegal farms are subjected to “conditions approaching slavery.”............To Read More.....