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Sheriff to Musk: Help us stop illegal pot grows By Terri Harber Updated: May 30, 2022 09:17 AM A A Most recent social media request was directed to billionaire CEO of Tesla Siskiyou County, California, Sheriff-Coroner Jeremiah LaRue has again taken to Facebook to seek help in dealing with the area’s illegal marijuana growing operations. This time LaRue is pleading for help from the wealthiest person in the world: Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc. On Friday, LaRue added a message to Musk on Twitter and included a link to his original May 16 Facebook post about some of the issues stemming from illegal marijuana growing in his community with the title “@elonmusk Please help us!” Musk is said to have an estimated net worth of $268 billion, according to a report by Investopedia on May 6. The Siskiyou County government website, https://www.co.siskiyou.ca.us/, directs people to a Facebook page authored by LaRue to obtain information about his department and its activities. One of the people commenting about the sheriff asking Musk for help said they were doubtful Musk would be interested. “Elon is a busy, busy man,” the person noted. “... Seems like Siskiyou is running out of ideas and this is a last resort.” “We aren’t running out of ideas,” LaRue replied in a comment. “... We are simply asking for assistance. It doesn’t hurt to ask and it creates dialogue and brings attention to the problem we are facing.” LaRue had previously taken to social media to get the attention of California Gov. Gavin Newsom in an effort to get help with enforcement against the growers. In that earlier post, the sheriff specifically asked Newsom to declare a state of emergency and “acknowledge the rampant black market industry endangering our communities.” LaRue wrote that once the state of emergency was in effect that California’s elected officials could help law enforcement better handle the myriad problems that come with these growers and their illegal activities. That would include state legislators creating laws to address the various issues that come with these enterprises, supporting enforcement of those laws against the illegal cultivators, and providing funding so law enforcement can better “confront the problem,” he explained. LaRue has also sought assistance from other state and federal elected officials. On Facebook, he invited them to come to the area for a tour so they could “come and experience this disaster first-hand.” The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors adopted an emergency resolution in January 2020 and most recently extended the resolution in March, according to board meeting minutes. Aerial view video was used to determine that roughly 5,000 greenhouses and outdoor sites are being farmed for illegal cannabis crops on government and private property in Siskiyou County and it is also posted on the sheriff’s Facebook page and other sites. It’s a quantity of illegal farming that’s “astronomical,” LaRue has stated. Siskiyou County has had an interim zoning moratorium against creation of commercial cannabis operations in its unincorporated areas since August 2017. It was first approved by the board of supervisors as an urgency measure and has since been extended twice. LaRue’s mid-May social media post also includes a short video of what deputies have seen on these farms. It highlights animal cruelty and open swimming pools containing delivered water being used as water tanks for the crop. Other problems that come with this agricultural activity include overuse of water, environmental degradation, labor exploitation and an overall increase in crime, the sheriff has asserted. LaRue has attempted to use more code enforcement and other non-criminal tools to crack down on these farms, including attempting to ban water deliveries to an unincorporated area where a large amount of this farming occurs. The Mount Shasta Vista subdivision of Big Springs is home to a large number of Hmong farmers and many illegal marijuana farms. A federal judge issued a temporary injunction against the county to stop it from halting delivery of water by truck to those farmers, according to The Associated Press. The injunction stems from a suit brought by Hmong farmers against Siskiyou County’s water ban ordinances. U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller said the county’s action raised “’serious questions” about racial discrimination and leaves the growers without a source of water for drinking, bathing and growing food,“ The AP wrote in September 2021. The case is expected to resume next month, according to a Siskiyou County government staff member. The sheriff’s office is closed for non-emergency business and walk-ins on Fridays. And this week, it was also closed on Monday in observance of Memorial Day. Attempts to obtain answers to two lists of questions directed to LaRue and a Siskiyou County representative since the sheriff’s original post have been unsuccessful.