Word: sinsemillas
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Dates: during 1980-1980
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...their rude patches in the remote valleys of California stand embattled small farmers defending pot that is known around the world for its high quality: sinsemilla (a Spanish-derived word meaning without seed), an unusually potent hybrid marijuana. Ever since Mexico began widespread spraying of its pot fields with the herbicide paraquat, cutting shipments to the U.S., sinsemilla has become one of California's fastest growing-and most profitable-crops. California's pot patches range from small gardens with a few plants to 2½-acre fields that may yield up to 4,000 sinsemilla plants, some with...
Because the sinsemilla plants need a lot of sunshine, most large plots can be spotted from the air by experienced agents, who summon raiding parties armed with search warrants, flak jackets and chain saws. They cut down and truck the stalks to incinerators. The cultivators who are caught usually get off with probation, though the maximum penalty is a $5,000 fine and ten years in prison...
...potgrowers are fighting back. Some try to hide their sinsemilla stalks among tall sunflowers. One imaginative cultivator hung red Christmas-tree balls on his pot plants, trying to make them look like tomato plants from the air. The ruse did not work, because any cultivated ground in the middle of a forest attracts the suspicions of drug-enforcement officials. A few growers have even taken shots at the agents' low-flying planes, causing one casualty: a sheriff was wounded in the back while circling a marijuana patch in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles...