How did a game warden in California end up going toe-to-toe with cartel pot growers in your backyard? In John Nores’ new book, Hidden War, he explains how the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Marijuana Enforcement Team (MET) came to fruition out of pure need. Marijuana is a topic that may seem black or white to most people, but Nores delves deep into the repercussions of black market weed and how current regulations aren’t fixing the problem. Throughout the book, Nores recalls specific encounters in the field as a game warden getting into firefights with cartels. You won’t hear true stories like in Hidden War anywhere else, they’re educational and eye-opening.
Tomorrow, Nores will be on the Joe Rogan podcast (The Joe Rogan Experience) to discuss Hidden War, illegal cannabis grows in the U.S., infiltrations, arrests, firefights, extractions, and good dogs. In the past month, Nores has been on two other podcasts, MeatEater with Steve Rinella, and Mike Ritland’s Mike Drop.
We were able to catch up with Nores for a few minutes before he sits down with Rogan. Here’s what he said:
RECOIL: Why was Hidden War important to you to write?
John Nores: The main reason was out of frustration of the impacts to are our wildlife, waterways, and wildland resources not only in California but the entire country, and the threat to public safety by these drug trafficking organizations/cartel criminals that are doing this stuff in America. They’re doing it for a black market within America that they’re profiting from and are utilizing our resources, our public lands, private lands, waterways, all the sensitive species, and everything else to make hundreds of millions if not billions of black market dollars at the expense of destroying our environment and threatening our public.
RECOIL: Which two pieces of information would you like people to know about illegally grown marijuana?
JN: One: There’s a possibility if it’s on the black market that it is tainted with very toxic substances that you can’t see. It’s not going to kill you right away, but it’s so deadly that two tablespoons of this substance can kill up to three to five miles of a whole Creek and everything living in that creek. That’s how dangerous this stuff is. There’s still a lot of this stuff on the black market all over the nation. So just be very, very careful where you’re getting your cannabis for legal recreational or medicinal use.
Two: Realize that there is something going on in the woods not too far from you, potentially, in any state in the union and it’s hurting your wildlife, it’s hurting your waterways it’s hurting the wildlands– Think of it from the standpoint of future generations your kids, your nieces, your nephews, your grandkids– do you want them to grow up in a country that has so little green spaces, so many little tracts of open space, and so little wildlife because of this or other poaching or destructive environmental problems? It’s critical for all of us to know that, whether we’re out there or not.
RECOIL: In your opinion, what needs to be done to win the hidden war on weed?
JN: You know we have to look at this not just individually state-by-state, but we need to look at this as a nation. Obviously, there is a huge black market right now, and that black market is fueling the desire for these cartels to produce all of this low cost, very potent, tainted cannabis. So, we have to address this as a nation. We have to decide as a nation if we’re going to regulate and if we’re going to regulate in such a way that we break the back of the black market or are we going to just regulate individually based on revenue and based on how we want to do our politics on the issue. And I’m not an expert on that but I can say from seeing the states that have regulated so far, my state California being the prime example, Colorado, Washington, and my new state of Montana– No one’s solved the problem and stop the black market by regulating the state as the regulations are written now.
RECOIL: What’s currently your favorite gun to shoot?
JN: These days, I’m running the Axial Precision Convergence system in 300 PRC, right now. I’m sponsored by them, and the gun is amazing, and the caliber is amazing. And as a former sniper, I’m really intrigued by these new calibers like the 300 PRC.
RECOIL: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever gotten?
JN: You know it’s a few things. Don’t be too judgmental. Keep an open mind in every situation. And always be adaptable.
RECOIL: Anything else you’d like the RECOIL audience to know?
JN: I can’t speak highly enough of the shooting sports in general. Let’s try to keep our future generations shooting, just like we do with conservation, and trying to get more kids into hunter safety and understanding the outdoors– I just want to keep more people shooting for all the right reasons. Done the right way, I want to see more shooting sports in our country for the benefit of us all.
To tune into Joe Rogan’s podcast at http://podcasts.joerogan.net/podcasts/john-nores
To learn more about Hidden War or to order the book online or for digital download, click HERE.
