Michael Puttre News Today

Relaxed criminal penalties and expanding markets had set off a massive boom in illegal cultivation. Even on licensed farms, California regulators failed to protect workers in the labor-intensive industry.

PÁTZCUARO, Michoacán — In a small square crypt behind frosted glass in subtropical Michoacán is incontrovertible proof of the cost of California cannabis. The tomb just within the high cemetery

A quest for U.S. dollars, at the height of a runaway cannabis market, brought a father and son to a crude shed on a Mendocino County farm, beside other Mexican laborers in the underground economy. Traveling the other direction were coffins as the California green rush was exploiting and killing workers.

The murdered pair were among 44 cannabis farm-related deaths identified by a Times investigation. All but five of the deceased were immigrants.