We were somewhere around Brawley on the edge of the Anza-Borrego desert when we hit the GPS coordinates we had been given by our contacts. After a brief greeting, they motioned toward what appeared to be a real life oasis in the distance, a glimmering emerald gem throbbing in the rising heat of the extended summer we enjoyed in Southern California. We followed them down a winding dirt track, our tires digging into the desert sand, happy to be riding in a 4×4 pickup truck. Our escorts wove us through security checkpoints and thousands of acres of varying forms of perfectly partitioned agriculture on route to our ultimate destination. A seemingly endless forest of 10-15ft tall flowering hemp plants awaited our arrival…