A2 THE BULLETIN • FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2022
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room represented by service provid-
ers, government agencies and others
with lived experience, according to
Jim Cook, a Redmond homeless ad-
vocate.
“This simulation dramatically
demonstrates how much time and en-
ergy many families have to give to sur-
vive from day to day,” according to the
event description. “It quickly dispels
the myth that people would do fine if
they would only go out and get a job!”
The event will be held at Mountain-
view Fellowship Church in Redmond
between 8:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. The
event is free and lunch will be pro-
vided. To volunteer or participate, peo-
ple can visit the Poverty Simulation
Eventbrite page or contact Oasis Vil-
lage, a group of people trying to start
a managed tiny-home village in Red-
mond, at info@oasisvillageor.org.
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Two firefighters in La Pine were injured rescuing two cats from a burning home Wednesday. The tenant escaped through the bedroom
window, but several other cats are feared dead.
Redmond motorcyclist dies in
crash with SUV near Tumalo
A Redmond motorcyclist died
Wednesday night after crashing into an
SUV near Tumalo.
Quinn Chastain, 30, died at the
scene.
According to police, Chastain was
riding north on the Old Bend-Red-
mond Highway near 94th Street about
8 p.m. Investigators determined he
was traveling “at a high rate of speed
and passing in designated no passing
zones” when he struck a Lexus SUV
that was pulling onto the highway
from a driveway.
According to crash investigators
from the Deschutes County Sheriff’s
Office and Oregon State Police, the
SUV driver did not see the motorcycle.
The SUV driver remained on scene and
was cooperative, according to police.
The Old Bend-Redmond Highway
was closed for almost five hours while
the crash was being investigated.
2 firefighters injured saving cats
Firefighters in La Pine rescued two
cats after responding to a structure fire,
but several other cats are feared dead.
Two firefighters were injured while
saving the cats from the burning house,
the La Pine Rural Fire Protection Dis-
trict said Thursday in a news release.
On Wednesday about 7 p.m., fire-
fighters responded to a fire at 15163
Ponderosa Loop, the fire district said
in the news release.
When firefighters arrived, they
found the only occupant of the man-
ufactured home had escaped through
the bedroom window, the release said.
The home was badly damaged by the
flames, and up to 14 cats were inside.
“Firefighters were able to reach
through windows and rescue two cats,
however the fate of the others are cur-
rently unknown and due to the signif-
icant damage are believed to have per-
ished in the fire,” the release said.
Poverty Simulation event
coming to Redmond May 20
Redmond residents are invited to
participate in Poverty Simulation on
May 20, an event designed to show
the general community the realities of
poverty.
The event, which is being hosted by
the nonprofit Rogue Retreat, will sim-
ulate how difficult everyday tasks and
responsibilities are when living un-
der the poverty line, according to the
event’s description.
Participants will attempt to accom-
plish tasks by visiting tables around a
The Bulletin is no longer publish-
ing COVID-19 daily case counts by
county.
The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention monitors community lev-
els of COVID-19 to help communities
decide what prevention steps to take
based on the latest data. Levels can be
low, medium or high and are deter-
mined by looking at hospital beds be-
ing used, hospital admissions and the
total number of new COVID-19 cases
in an area.
The CDC listed the following levels
for Central Oregon:
Deschutes County: Medium
Precautions the CDC recommends
for communities with medium levels:
• If you are at high risk for severe ill-
ness, talk to your health care provider
about whether you need to wear a
mask and take other precautions.
• Stay up to date with COVID-19
vaccines.
• Get tested if you have symptoms.
Crook County: Low
Jefferson County: Low
Precautions the CDC recommends
for communities with low levels: Stay
up to date on vaccines and get tested if
you have symptoms.
— Bulletin staff reports
Cartel-funded pot farms
expand to grow indoors
BY ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
Foreign drug cartels that es-
tablished illegal outdoor mar-
ijuana farms in Oregon last
year are expanding to large
indoor grows, a state police of-
ficial said Thursday.
The new challenge emerged
as a task force created by the
Legislature met for the first
time to figure out how to com-
bat cannabis-related problems,
some of which threaten Or-
egon’s legal, regulated recre-
ational marijuana industry.
The Task Force on Canna-
bis-Derived Intoxicants and
Illegal Cannabis Production
is also responsible for recom-
mending funding and com-
mand structure to enable law
enforcement to combat illegal
cannabis production, changes
to state laws to address labor
trafficking and water theft by
the cartel-financed pot farms
and regulations on genetic en-
gineering of cannabis, among
other issues.
“It started with a simple ask
of help and it’s turned into,
‘Oh, my goodness, there’s so
much to deal with.’ And so I
think we just have to kind of
take one at a time,” said state
Rep. Lily Morgan, a Republi-
can from Grants Pass, as the
task force met via video link.
One of the biggest problems
is the recent proliferation of
illegal, industrial-sized mari-
juana farms.
In early 2021, hundreds of
greenhouses began cropping
up in Southern Oregon’s Jose-
phine and Jackson counties —
some within city limits, others
brazenly established along
highways or tucked into re-
mote valleys.
They were not licensed by
the Oregon Liquor and Can-
nabis Commission and are
financed by foreign criminal
cartels, from Latin America,
Europe and Asia, authorities
have said. There were more
pot farms than overwhelmed
law enforcement officials
could take down. Indoor ille-
gal growing operations have
long existed, but now crimi-
nal gangs are pushing more in
that direction, enabling them
to grow year-round, a task
force member said.
“We’re starting to hear
about Josephine County, a
lot of operations moving in-
doors,” said Oregon State Po-
lice Sgt. Tyler Bechtel. The
state police have identified
dozens of ethnic-based drug
trafficking organizations, each
operating between five and 30
marijuana grow sites, Bechtel
said.
Giving an idea of the scope
of the problem, the Oregon
Criminal Justice Commis-
sion says 551,000 marijuana
plants were seized in Jackson
County, Josephine County
and Deschutes County from
July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021.
And that was a tiny fraction
of the illegal crop. Authorities
also seized almost $3.4 million
in cash in the raids.
“Despite legal avenues for
purchases and sales of mar-
ijuana within Oregon, an il-
legal marijuana market con-
tinues to cause public safety
concerns, including diversion
of marijuana to other states,
sales of marijuana to under-
age buyers, illegal cultivation
of marijuana on private, state,
and federal property, and en-
richment of organized crimi-
nal operations,” the commis-
sion said in a report.
The report examined results
after an outlay of millions of
dollars in grants to the three
counties to address increasing
unlawful marijuana cultiva-
tion and distribution opera-
tions in Oregon. The commis-
sion said it could not judge the
effectiveness of the grant pro-
gram “because the illegal mar-
ijuana market is an especially
nebulous sector to evaluate.”
The Task Force must pro-
vide its findings to an interim
committee of the Legislature
by Dec. 31, 2022.
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