Reported by Kyle Jaeger

(Excerpt featured below. To read full report, go to: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/congressional-committee-pushes-to-eliminate-illegal-marijuana-grows-and-tackle-money-laundering-by-chinese-linked-cannabis-operations/)

A key congressional committee is calling for a stepped-up effort to eradicate illegal marijuana grows that are “not sanctioned” by state or tribal law, while also tackling money laundering issues associated with illicit Chinese-connected cannabis businesses.

The House Appropriations Committee included sections in reports attached to spending bills that are aimed at increasing federal resources targeting bad actors around the marijuana space.

As in past sessions, the report language for the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations legislation says the committee is “aware that trespassers illegally grow marijuana on public lands in California.”

“These unlawful activities harmfully impact the public, water, soil, and wildlife,” it says, adding that members support Forest Services “efforts to develop tools to detect and eradicate grow sites, including a potential remote-sensing survey of Federal public lands to identify grow sites and allow for the development of cost estimates for reclamation.”

Accordingly, Forest Services and the Bureau of Land Management are directed to work with state, local and tribal governments “on survey, reclamation, and prevention efforts to the maximum extent possible, including to prevent the displacement of criminal activities to illegal grow sites on non-Federal lands.”

Further, the covered agencies would be required to work with the Justice Department and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to “eliminate grow operations that are not sanctioned by State or Tribal authorities and provide a report to the Committee on its efforts and the estimated cost for reclamation not later than 180 days following the enactment of this Act.”