Marijuana, medicinal and recreational, is legal in California. Advocates of legalization talk about removing the profit motive for the gangs who traffic in marijuana by making it cheaper and more readily available, but that argument, no matter how it may work elsewhere, falls apart when a jurisdiction taxes and regulates the substance so that there is still incentive for a robust black market; and, for marijuana, as for any illicit drug, there will always be a black market.
Now, in California's scenic Siskiyou County, Chinese-affiliated gangs are conducting large-scale marijuana growing operations, and they are making that county unlivable. City Journal's Christopher F. Rufo and Haley Strack have seen it for themselves.
Siskiyou County is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. It sits against the towering backdrop of Mount Shasta and is surrounded by more than a million acres of farmland and forest. But in recent years, Chinese nationals have invaded this serene Northern California paradise to build an illegal cannabis empire.
Chinese nationals, including some associated with the Chinese Communist Party, run massive illegal marijuana operations just beneath Mount Shasta. They and the county’s other illegal growers rake in billions of dollars per year, and terrorize the rural community with shootings, gang violence, and trafficking. This massive criminal enterprise operates in the shadows of America’s most populous state.
The Chinese connection would appear to be real. And it seems the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is profiting in more ways than one.
We met local law enforcement, spoke to policy experts, and rode along for an early-morning raid in a primarily Chinese area of the county. The picture that emerged was shocking. Growers operate massive illegal weed operations with impunity. County authorities have seized bags and bags of toxic, unregulated, and banned pesticides from Siskiyou pot farms. An expert told us that Chinese nationals are running illegal grow operations on U.S. soil to poison Americans. One group seems poised to benefit from the mayhem: the Chinese Communist Party.
Consider what's in this for the CCP: Aside from their financial cut- and you and I know that if the CCP is assisting in this effort in any way, then they are getting a piece of the action - it's in the interest of the CCP to destabilize the United States in any way they can. Operations like this, criminal enterprises that are overwhelming the ability of local law enforcement to deal with them, are destabilizing, and that's for sure and for certain. And overwhelmed they are.
Siskiyou is desperate. Residents have been shot and killed. Authorities have found people suspected of marijuana cultivation murdered.
“There is this dread out here of the criminal enterprise doing all kinds of things, from violent crime to stealing water,” LaRue said. “With this illegal enterprise that we have, we have people that show up and are being kidnapped, or they’re being tied up, they’re being robbed, they’re being shot . . . imagine having that as your neighbor.”
There are other problems. These farms are applying restricted and illegal fertilizers and pesticides with abandon. In 2025, Siskiyou County declared a state of emergency over the "...escalating threat posed by the illegal use of highly toxic pesticides associated with illicit cannabis cultivation and processing operations. The county has, according to the press release announcing the declaration, identified over 27 pesticides in use, including some alleged to be foreign-sourced. These pesticides also present a danger to wildlife, to livestock, to firefighters, and to law enforcement in the event of a fire. They can get into groundwater and the water table; some of these chemicals can persist for years underground.
It gets worse. There are indications that the gangs running these operations are tied to human trafficking, and that they are employing involuntary labor - slaves, in effect - to work on the illegal farms. And, again, there seems to be a China connection.
Human trafficking is one of the many detrimental effects of Siskiyou County's illegal marijuana cultivation sites. Unregulated labor trafficking is taking place with migrants from China being recruited to work in the farms of Shasta Vista, one of the counties largest sites supplying black market for marijuana.
Sheriff LaRue from Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office explained how the traffickers are finding their victims, on China's primary social media Wechat and sometimes on Craigslist. "People will come from all over and we talked to them here before and they say they're promised prosperity, and what we find is that they're not really paid," Sheriff LaRue said.
So, in summary, we have massive illegal marijuana growing operations, run by gangs, many of whom seem to have connections to the Chinese government; they are using illegal chemicals, illegal and involuntary labor, and they are heavily armed and prepared to defend their turf. The situation here would seem to be completely out of control, and it would appear that local law enforcement is overwhelmed.
Government, any government at any level, has one primary purpose: To protect the liberty and property of the citizens. In Siskiyou County, California, the local and apparently even the state authorities are overwhelmed and cannot carry out this primary function. Unlike the many situations in which people too carelessly toss around this word, this situation is a no-Schiff emergency and should be treated as such: With a localized declaration of martial law, if necessary. These farms and the people that run them need to be - if you'll forgive the term - rooted out.
