XPost: alt.los-angeles, talk.environment, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   From: yourdime@outlook.com   
      
   In coordinated raids in September, multiple California agencies stormed a   
   network of illegal cannabis-growing warehouses across Oakland while state   
   cannabis regulators singled out a salmon-colored warehouse complex   
   surrounded by 7,000-volt security fencing.   
      
   The warehouse building — home to two licensed cannabis operations — was   
   “highly-likely” the conduit that illegal growers used to ship their   
   product into the legal market, a state agent told a judge. Inside the   
   rooms, inspectors found 43,000 plants growing beneath high-intensity   
   lights. None had the tracking tags required to be placed on legal plants.   
      
   But the surprise was what was found in the men’s room.   
      
   Beside Hot Shot insect foggers and jugs of familiar chemicals were bags   
   labeled in Chinese. Inside each were cellophane packets of wood shavings   
   soaked in unknown pesticides.   
      
   The same kinds of packets had been found earlier last year on illegal   
   farms in Siskiyou County, where lab tests had revealed a cocktail of   
   dangerous insecticides and fungicides that when burned would emit a cloud   
   of pest- and mold-killing smoke. Among the unusual substances was   
   isoprocarb, which is not permitted in the United States; profenofos, an   
   organophosphate so harmful its use here was discontinued in 2016; and   
   fenpropathrin, an acutely toxic insecticide that is fatal if inhaled.   
      
   Additional tests would show the warehouse plants were tainted with some of   
   the same pesticides.   
      
   Contraband Chinese pesticides present a new challenge for California   
   cannabis regulators as they struggle to keep harmful chemicals out of   
   licensed products. Some of the poisons are so unfamiliar that few chemical   
   analysis labs in the state would be equipped to test for them if   
   California required it.   
      
   A Los Angeles Times investigation based on confidential state records,   
   public files, online sales and social networks found that in the last   
   three years, the use of contraband Chinese pesticides on cannabis farms   
   has spread across California.   
      
   Yet officials have not issued warnings to alert those working on cannabis   
   farms about the dangers of these chemicals, or mandated that cannabis   
   products sold to the public be tested for them.   
      
   But their presence has prompted multiple warnings to law enforcement   
   personnel, including by the state Department of Pesticide Regulation, the   
   California National Guard and the state Environmental Protection Agency.   
      
   Internal state warnings caution that short-term exposure to the   
   contaminants can cause headaches, irritated eyes, nosebleeds and sore   
   throats. Hazardous-materials statements and scientific literature show the   
   greatest harm is likely from long-term exposure to low doses, carrying the   
   risk of cancer, memory loss, psychosis, developmental problems in children   
   and death.   
      
   “I think the scariest thing with this stuff is what’s going to happen down   
   the road,” said Sheriff’s Det. Sgt. Cory Persing of Siskiyou County, where   
   in 2022 a county environmental health officer, armed with Google Translate   
   on her cellphone, first deciphered the labels on similar packages.   
      
   Environmental citations issued by the California State Water Resources   
   Control Board show the Chinese-labeled fumigants predominantly appear on   
   Asian-owned farms, in keeping with agricultural practices.   
      
   Smoke fumigation is not common practice in the United States, but is used   
   frequently in China in place of pressure sprayers to aerosolize chemical   
   treatments.   
      
   Some of the products appearing on cannabis farms are registered pesticides   
   in China and sold online by vendors in Asia. Others are unbranded, bearing   
   only links to WeChat accounts with California phone numbers and monikers   
   that translate to “whatever bro,” “Spider 1” and “Spider 2.”   
      
   An online marketplace aimed at Chinese immigrants in California also   
   carried the unbranded fumigants for sale, as did a Chinese-language site   
   devoted to cannabis cultivation. Both turned out to be associated with a   
   San Joaquin County businessman, Adam Yang, whose social media account   
   included a video demonstration of burning the pesticides inside a cannabis   
   greenhouse and whose Pinterest site offered photos of customer text   
   messages for door-to-door delivery of the contraband pesticides in Los   
   Angeles and nationwide shipping.   
      
   The ads even told buyers they could fumigate on buds to be trimmed and   
   sold for smoking. “Rest assured that it can be used normally during the   
   flowering period,” the ads stated.   
      
   Yang acknowledged his sites promoted the pesticides, but said they were   
   part of a “collaboration” with a partner he declined to identify. “My role   
   was limited to platform management, and I was not involved in the direct   
   sales or endorsements,” he said by email.   
      
   The Chinese-labeled pesticides have shown up now in at least six   
   California counties, at both illegal and licensed growing operations. The   
   poisons were present on half of 25 illegal farms in Siskiyou County raided   
   by a state task force during a July 2023 sting operation that saw three   
   officers require medical treatment after suffering exposure.   
      
   They were also present on five farms raided by Siskiyou County sheriff’s   
   deputies in late April, accompanied by a county health officer who wore   
   protective gear and a respirator to safely bag the pesticides. On one   
   farm, deputies retrieved a large box holding dozens of the Chinese-labeled   
   pesticides from the food pantry, where it had been stashed next to a large   
   sack of rice. More of the fumigants were in a hutch, and inside two   
   greenhouses half-cut beer cans sat by the walls, their interiors filled   
   with the black char of burned pesticide.   
      
   One of the farm’s cultivators — who gave only her first name, Feng — said   
   she did not believe the fumigants were dangerous. She pointed to a   
   surgical mask on her face, indicating that she wore protection when   
   burning them.   
      
   Reports from a California National Guard lab and a Humboldt County ecology   
   company show most of the packages found initially in Siskiyou County   
   contained blends of insecticides and fungicides. Those tests identified 21   
   hazardous chemicals. California screens legal weed products for only six   
   of those substances, meaning the bulk of the hazardous pesticides would be   
   undetected in the legal market.   
      
   “These sites are highly contaminated with a diversity of chemicals and   
   concentrations,” the report from the Integral Ecology Research Center   
   cautioned, noting each bag contained at least one chemical fatal if   
   inhaled and telling law enforcement personnel to use “extreme caution   
   during all operations.”   
      
   The chemicals included five pesticides never permitted for use in the   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)