Marijuana Growing in the Adirondack Park

Though the Adirondack Park is different from the rest of the United States in many respects, the Adirondack Park is still affected by some highly debated topics such as marijuana growing. The expansive and often uninhabited forests of the Adirondack Park provide a prime location for marijuana growers to plant with little worry of discovery. Though the soil and climate of the Adirondack Park are not commonly viewed as ideal farming conditions, the park’s large, anonymous forests make the land extremely appealing to marijuana growers, who grow on both public land as well as large, unmonitored plots of private land. In recent years, county drug task forces have strengthened their efforts to locate and destroy marijuana growths in the park. They often use helicopters to spot plants from above during the late summer and early fall, which are the peak harvest period for the marijuana plants. Though police often find a few plots of plants each season, it is often extremely difficult, if not impossible, to arrest anyone in connection to the growth operations. In order to make an arrest, police would need to find the plants at the exact time the grower is tending to them, which is highly unlikely and would require a huge pool of resources.

The Adirondack Park is not only a haven for marijuana growers, but is also heavily involved in the marijuana trafficking trade. Clinton, Franklin and St. Lawrence Counties, which share 100 miles of Canadian border with 12 border crossing points, were classified as High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas in the summer of 2009. This classification provides them with federal funding for equipment and a network of enforcement agencies to aid their effort to halt the drug trafficking trade in the area. According to an estimate provided by Franklin County District Attorney Derek Champagne, nearly 75% of the hydroponic marijuana shipments from Quebec travel through the Adirondack Park.

            Though marijuana growing and trafficking have been present in the Adirondacks for many decades, this issue has been brought to light in the media recently as a result of the Compassionate Care Act enacted by Governor Cuomo last year. This legislation states that five licenses to grow medical marijuana will be issues in the entire state of New York. Out of the thousands of proposals for these licenses, a sizable portion of them comes from areas in the Adirondack Park. Many local governments within the park such as Plattsburgh County and Washington County have backed the proposals for the growth of medicinal marijuana in their jurisdiction. Their decisions are supported by the possibility for job growth and increased tax revenues that would result from the emergence of a legal market for medicinal marijuana in the park. Legislators and law officials are at a difficult crossroads where they must decide if they want to continue harshly policing marijuana growers or embrace the new legislation to transition the booming black market industry into a profitable, legalized industry of small farms within the park. 

Sources:

http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/27525/20150217/can-the-north-country-chase-a-marijuana-gold-rush-and-wage-a-drug-war

http://www.adirondacklifemag.com/blogs/2012/05/08/grass-roots/

http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2015/03/mining-company-could-grow-first-legal-adirondack-pot.html