Federal lawmakers investigate illicit grows

ILLICIT
Lawmakers say the Chinese Communist Party is running an illicit cannabis network in the US

Driving the news: A Congressional committee on Thursday held a hearing on the rise of Chinese-controlled illicit cannabis grows that critics have said are a major component of money laundering between Chinese Communist Party and Mexican drug cartels. 

While concerns at the hearing included xenophobic histrionics about foreign powers using drugs to infiltrate the country, legitimate concerns have been raised about the use of human trafficking and the prolific use of harmful pesticides that regulated markets would otherwise ban. 

What they’re saying: "Hundreds of pounds of illegal, contaminated marijuana has been produced that ends up in the hands of people all over the United States, from Oklahoma to New York,” Rep. Josh Brecheen said during the Congressional Committee on Homeland Security hearing. 

“This is just one example of how Chinese grow operations come to communities all across the country." 

Medical use is popular: There was a general acceptance that cannabis has medical benefits even from conservative lawmakers

"There's also people that use it for PTSD and have success with it. There's medical uses of marijuana, but the American people have no idea that Chinese transnational criminal organizations are involved and that it's leading to other extremely terrible and dangerous crimes," said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. 

Go deeper: Illicit grow sites operated by Chinese nationals have reportedly become a major problem in Oklahoma, Maine, and other states with legal cannabis markets. 

Oklahoma voters legalized medical cannabis in 2018, but regulations did not limit the number of licenses available. As long as they resided in the state for two years, anyone could get a license. In hundreds of cases, operators paid straw buyers to obtain licenses which were then used to illegally produce cannabis for out-of-state export. 

Meanwhile, Maine's loose caregiver regulations, which allow individuals to grow and sell cannabis without having to track their products, has made it easier for scofflaws to start open illicit operations that allegedly sell their product out of state. 

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