The green rush: Behind the marijuana industry

Mendocino County is resisting demands by federal prosecutors for records on medical marijuana growers who registered for permits to cultivate up to 99 plants.

Mexican cartels’ role seems smaller than once believed, but the crops and the dangers they pose have proliferated in the last decade.

Burgeoning marijuana growing operations are sucking millions of gallons of water from coho salmon lifelines and taking other environmental tolls, scientists say.

Pioneering marijuana cultivators in the hills of Mendocino and Humboldt counties are being pushed to the margins by the legalization they long espoused.

Under increased legal pressure, ‘Ricky’ closed his dispensaries and resumed selling marijuana — but only to those with a doctor’s recommendation.