<story><title>Legal Marijuana Is Almost Here, If Only Pot Farmers Were on Board</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/09/us/california-marijuana-growers.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>the_evacuator</author><text>Article doesn&amp;#x27;t really highlight the environmental hooliganism practiced by these guys. They rip up a meadow in a national forest, or on BLM land, and they irrigate like crazy people, eroding everything rapidly, and they drive up and down the mountainside in their giant pickups. When they are done they leave everything including their trash and their toilets. When ordinary people go motorcycling in these public lands the growers chase them, shoot at them, and set booby traps. The whole thing is a public menace.&lt;p&gt;I think with legalization should come some kind of harsh regime for these pirates. Ruining public lands should be a serious felony.</text></comment>
<story><title>Legal Marijuana Is Almost Here, If Only Pot Farmers Were on Board</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/09/us/california-marijuana-growers.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>gozur88</author><text>Legal weed is not &amp;quot;almost here&amp;quot;.  It&amp;#x27;s still a schedule 1 controlled substance at the federal level, and in theory you can spend a year in a federal penitentiary for possession of any amount.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s what I&amp;#x27;d like to see changed.  This legal twilight zone isn&amp;#x27;t good for anybody.</text></comment>