Is it illegal to burn up someone's marijuana garden?

Mary Ja-aaaaane!

She is indeed illegal in this country, but is it illegal to burn her the ef up too?

This is something I’m contemplating on a warm September afternoon, as I drive my route.

What if you’re taking a hike in some state or national forest and as you sit your freshly worked-out and sweaty buns on a rock to take a sip of cocoanut water…you notice a bunch of mysterious emerald-colored batch of elegant-looking plants. You walk closer only to notice that it is some stoner’s POT GARDEN. Can you burn it up without getting in trouble? You may be a concerned citizen and you want to contribute to ending the laziness and obesity epidemic in this country. Or, you may just want to burn up a stash just for kicks or out of spite.

Just curious.

For that matter, is theft legal when it comes to illegal drugs? Sure, nobody will call the cops and say their bag of pot was stolen, and the thief is now guilty of illegal possession, but is the act of stealing itself illegal?

I would think so, but since nobody will report it, it isn’t enforced. But I’m not a lawyer, cop or legislator, so I don’t know.

I recommend against starting any fires in wooded areas. It’s probably illegal, but even if it wasn’t, please don’t start fires in the forest.

Even if destruction of the garden is legal (it probably isn’t, but even if), you’d still almost certainly be up on some mighty big negligence-type charges for starting a fire that big. A fire big enough to burn a garden is going to be awfully darned close to a fire big enough to burn Montana.

Ooh that is true! The forest fire risk didn’t occur to me.
What about in someone’s backyard then? Some people grow their stash there too.

Just burn it a little bit at a time. :smiley:

You are missing the point: “Dont burn shit down.” Dont start large fires. If you want to administer justice, apply at the Sheriff’s office.

The marijuana smokers I know are neither obese nor lazy. They tend to be very sucessful and as fit as the general population. My extra weight is due to alcohol, I’m sure. Not the occasional marijuana dose. Your assumption is a bit offensive to the millions of Americans who enjoy recreational marijuana. And, I would think even more offensive to the many thousands of Americans who rely on medical marijuana. I know we’re not in Great Debates, but I thought a factual correction might be in order in GQ.

This. You don’t live in Gotham City, and you ain’t Batman. Vigilante justice is pretty much taboo in the western democracies.

You do get to act in vital emergencies. If there’s a kid baking to death in the back seat of a car in a parking lot…you can break the window to rescue the kid. But you better be able to defend your action when the cops come by.

Otherwise, pretty much no. If you happen to know that your neighbor’s car is a stolen vehicle…you don’t get to steal it. If you happen to know that he has a cache of cocaine in the flour jar in his kitchen…you don’t get to steal it.

One very, very serious problem with that kind of reasoning is the high risk of false positives. “Oh, I was so sure that was cocaine!”

Nope. Most backyards are next to houses and other people’s backyards. So starting a fire in one may well lead to fire in the others.

Please don’t start fires (except for BBQs, in a fireplace, in a safe bonfire, etc).

Honest, officer, this isn’t my cocaine, I just stole from that guy!

I wouldn’t mess with people who are willing to do something illegal. Biker gangs where I’m from are known to grow outdoors in the middle of nowhere. Don’t be a hero Billy, just call the cops.

Is this a serious question? It’s absolutely not legal to just burn stuff down that is on public land or on land/property owned by someone else. Even burning stuff on your own property is heavily regulated, with it being totally prohibited in some jurisdictions.

As has been covered before, like here, stealing illegal things is still illegal. Burning illegal things is of course arson or destruction of property, and in the OP’s scenario would very likely be a felony.

And anyway, it could just be a patch of wild hemp which no one is in danger of getting high from.

And Diamonds02 continues her streak of posting crap that is both laughably clueless and full of casual disregard for other human beings.

The arson aspect aside (let’s pretend you cut it down and throw it away instead) , destroying someone else’s property is a crime. If it’s in a public forest, they probably can’t prove it’s their property, nor do they have a legal claim to it, even if the plants were legal. So, you would just be in trouble with the forest service for cutting down plants in a protected forest.

On private property, we’re talking trespassing and vandalism type crimes.

Of course, it’s unlikely that the grower will call the police, that doesn’t mean you didn’t commit a crime. Of course, again, you just destroyed many thousands of dollars of illegal drugs, and they’re NOT calling the police about it… sleep tight.

So you want to go onto somebody else’s private property without permission with the express intention of destroying something there with fire because you think it might be an illegal substance? Yeah, you should be fine. I can’t see any problems with that at all. Go for it.

PLEASE. Go for it.

And, in case it’s not obvious, pot plants that are still in the ground and growing are about as flammable as dripping wet paper towels. You’re not going to just hold a match to one and have it catch on fire; you’d need some other fuel to actually build a fire with.
(Which admittedly is a sidetrack; since the real legal question applies whether you burn the plants or just chop them down and bury them or something).

Yes, exactly - this is the kind of crap you see on Judge Judy all the time. “she took my iPod, so I took her TV.”

Two wrongs don’t make a right, and just because someone else is committing an illegal act does not give you the right to do so or to compound it.

If you were not allowed to burn something that’s legal, like their rose garden, why would you be allowed to set a fire or destroy property or risk a forest fire or house fire just because it is illegal material? The crime is not “destroying illegal material”, the crime is setting a fire, arson, which is illegal because of the various risks; not to mention destroying their property, possibly damaging adjacent, non-illegal areas. The crime is not based on what is or is not destroyed, it’s based on the act of setting a fire. Whatever the status of what you destroy - you commit arson.

If you are not allowed to steal something they legitimately own, why would stealling it because it is illegal to possess be “legal”? All you are doing is adding your crimes - theft and possession - to their one - possession.

If you are using the logic “technically, it’s free for the taking because it’s illegal to possess” - well, several points… first, how do you know? It may material owned by th government, as part of a sting operation. It may be their medical marijuana stash. The crime of “possession” implies that someone does own it. Plus, it will be evidence if they are caught, and all you have done is muddy the waters, get yourself charged, and possibly get them off; after all, they don’t have it any more, and you do, and if the only evidence against them is the word of you, a convicted drug-possession criminal trying to shift the blame… maybe they’ll thank you for getting them off on the charges after they beat the crap outta you for stealing their stash.

Whether you would get away with it because they would not report you is a separate question. People get away with stealing legitimate items all the time. That does not mean it was legal. (Whether someone is hiding across the clearing with a gun, that’s a different question. Hikers in BC used to complain that they would get shot at if they approached a woods grow-op by accident. There’s always the risk that the “owner” would settle the issue themselves).
Vigilante retribution is always a risk.