Late last month, lawmakers held a public hearing on L.D. 2204, Rep. John Andrews’ attempt to combat the rapid proliferation of illegal marijuana grows throughout rural Maine. 

The bill is an imperfect solution with provisions which are undoubtedly troubling and unconstitutional. However, that doesn’t mean other ideas behind the bill aren’t worth pursuing. 

Last year, we learned from a leaked Department of Homeland Security memo that there’s an estimated 270 illicit marijuana grows throughout rural Maine operated by Asian transnational criminal organizations. 

Until this news came to light via national and Maine media reports early last year, little was being done about this real problem in countless rural Maine communities.

Since then, it appears efforts are finally underway by law enforcement to do something about it. Over the last few months, we’ve seen dozens of raids by law enforcement across the state. These raids often result in the seizure of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of illegal marijuana plants and dozens of pounds of processed marijuana.

But are these raids enough? It seems law enforcement in Maine is simply playing a game of whack-a-mole. 

In his testimony in opposition to L.D. 2204, John Risler of the Attorney General’s Office argued that Maine already has all it needs to put a stop to this illegal activity. He noted that the cultivation of marijuana is still illegal in Maine for those operating outside of the legal and regulated recreational and medicinal programs, as is the possession of large quantities of the drug. 

But not a single person has been successfully prosecuted and convicted of a crime at any of these sites, and these one-off raids do little to address the root of the problem. The problem is that there’s an organized effort underway by transnational criminal organizations to buy up properties in rural Maine, gut them bare and fill them to the brim with marijuana plants to fund other illicit activities. 

The individuals who work at these sites and are present during the busts aren’t the masterminds themselves. They work for somebody else. It’s not a coincidence that hundreds of these properties were acquired over a short period of time and immediately transitioned to grow copious amounts of marijuana. It’s planned. It’s organized crime. 

All the while, amidst the state’s persistent housing crisis, these properties are being taken off the market and summarily destroyed. Since the temperature inside these buildings is well-regulated at high heat and humidity to maximize yield, they are riddled with mold. Oftentimes there’s also shoddy electrical and other work done inside them, which is both dangerous and diminishes each home’s value.

Not only does this illegal activity exacerbate Maine’s housing crisis, it also distorts regulated marijuana markets in Maine and other states where this Maine-grown marijuana is illegally sold.  

Thus, it seems that if Maine truly had all it needed to put a stop to these efforts, this problem wouldn’t exist in the first place.  

Rep. Andrews’ bill, with the exclusion of the troubling Sections 3 and 5, is an attempt to put an end to this illegal activity once and for all. The main thrust is to create a racketeering law tied to violations of scheduled drug laws. 

This provision specifically would enable law enforcement to go after higher-level players in these crime organizations who reside within Maine, and it’s something lawmakers should seriously consider. 

This isn’t the same thing as the failed “War on Drugs” policies that punitively punished low-level offenders. This would punish people who purchase residential properties with the intent of gutting them for the wholesale production of drugs as part of a larger crime syndicate. 

While L.D. 2204 is imperfect as currently written, at least it targets the right problem. While law enforcement continues to play whack-a-mole across rural Maine, more of these sites will inevitably crop up. 

Something must be done to put a stop to this activity, rehabilitate these properties and get them back on the market. Rep. Andrews’ bill moves us closer to a real solution.

Jacob Posik is the director of legislative affairs at Maine Policy Institute, a free-market think tank headquartered in Portland. 

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