I saw the TV program about VFT smuggling a few weeks back. If true,
then there are two types of illegal collection. The first, which was
concentrated on by the program, is typically carried out by poor blacks
in trailer parks to eke out their meagre income - their predecessors
have done it for generations and they are morally in the pale grey area
since "when I find a seed pod I sow the seeds and next year I find four
plants where there was one". The type glossed over by the program is
typically by foreign-financed collectors who come in my helicoptor in
the middle of the night and devastate large populations to supply
foreign demand.
Apologies for the Lethal Weapon II stereotypes, but it strikes me that state
enforcement agencies actually stop very little of the smuggling as they are
technologically out of their league. However national enforcement agencies
do occasionally make a lucky capture.
Regards, NigelH