By Correne Martin
“It’s just a little weed.”
You may hear that expression all the time.
But, according to Brian Prieve and Brian Hawley, narcotics agents with the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation, marijuana—otherwise known as weed—contains over 400 different potentially harmful chemicals. Its THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) levels have risen from 1 percent in 1974 to up to 24 percent (in the sinsemilla strain) today. Plus, since there’s no Food and Drug Administration regulation of it, you never know what’s in it, Hawley said.
“It could be sold to you as a double dose (in terms of a “high”) but it might be a quadruple. The next thing you know, you could be in the hospital fighting for your life,” he warned.
Aside from the health hindrances marijuana causes, because it’s illegal to possess or grow the substance, it’s commonly bought and sold “underground,” or hidden from plain sight, Prieve said. He noted that, if orders aren’t fulfilled, harsh consequences can be the result.
“There are people dying every day at the border of this country from ‘just a little bit of weed,’” declared Prieve. “People are being ‘coyoted’ over the border through the Mexican drug cartels, they plant 10 acres of marijuana, miles and miles away from civilization, and they’re only here for one thing.”
Prieve pointed out that the largest marijuana grows in the state are often found by deer hunters every fall when they walk through the thick of the woods. The DCI has paired up with the Wisconsin Department of Forestry for these investigations and has seen some additional success in identifying more of the grows.
“Some of them are so big, we have to sling-load them out of the woods by helicopter,” he said, noting that large finds have been located in Crawford County specifically.
The most life-threatening part about simply happening upon a grow in the forest is the fact that many of these grows are booby-trapped.
“It’s not to just ward off me,” Prieve said. “It could be your dad or your grandpa out there stepping on a nail or being blown up by a bomb.”
Furthermore, Hawley said human trafficking is closely associated with marijuana dealing.
Though a number of states now sell marijuana for recreational and others support it for medicinal purposes, Hawley said it’s technically not legal federally. However, because of the 10th Amendment, the individual states have the power to not enforce the federal law.
In addition to marijuana dangers, the narcotics officers also discussed methamphetamine, but ran out of time to touch on cocaine or heroin during one of several annual Seneca Wellness Day presentations at the school on March 14.
Keynote speaker Mike McGowan tied the discussion together in the end. He said tobacco smoking in Crawford County is below 6 percent among teenagers.
“(Decades ago), Seneca used to have a smoking hill and the principal would be out there smoking with the kids,” McGowan said. “But within a generation, we’ve evaporated that. We don’t want you to be susceptible to these dangers of life, and we’ve found that what we pay attention to, you get.”
credit:guttenbergpress.com