• In 2018, California law enforcement confiscated 1.4M plants and broke up 889 outdoor grows.

• Even so “illegal grows are still rampant across wide swaths of the national forests in California, leaving behind a trail of garbage, human waste, dead animals and caustic chemicals. Nearly all of these farms are the work of Mexican drug trafficking organizations, posing dangers not just for the environment, but to hikers and others who might encounter them.

Quick Hits

• New to weed or the weed world? Vox answers nine questions about legalization you were afraid to ask.