Authorities: Huge jump in Calif. pot plants seized

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

Authorities reported a staggering jump in the number of marijuana plants seized in California's eradication effort, claiming a more than 50 percent jump over the previous year.

The Campaign Against Marijuana Planting seized 4.4 million plants in 2009, up from 2.9 million plants in 2008, according to state Department of Justice figures released Wednesday.

"Mexican drug trafficking organizations are exploiting our pristine public lands with these massive marijuana gardens," said U.S. Attorney Lawrence G. Brown. "It wreaks environmental havoc on public lands and poses a serious danger to hikers and law enforcement personnel alike."

... Some marijuana advocates and policy analysts have long accused the state campaign of inflating estimates of plants seized and their value on the street.

Mark Kleiman, director of the drug policy program at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the quantity of marijuana claimed by CAMP is far more than Californians could ever consume.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/11/04/national/a150100S43.DTL

[harry_pothead]

1. We must eradicate all marijauna or we will all be zombies!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

.

[Hawkeye-X]

2. Obama needs to fire Lawrence G. Brown for failing to obey the policies of Justice

on MMJ.

Now.

Hawkeye-X

[WhiteTara]

3. there is a BIG difference between

the forest grows and medical marijuana. In forest grows, what gets packed in, doesn't get packed out. Rat poison is common and the chemicals used are fouling the water and ruining the land.

[tridim]

4. Legalization would make forrest grows pointless.

But that's too easy.

[David Zephyr]

7. Exactly. It's a waste of taxpayer money. Ending the forest grows would reduce the forest fires, too.

Legalize it already.

[boppers]

10. "Legalization would make alchohol stills pointless..."

And yet, bootleg alcohol purveyors still persist?

Legalization doesn't mean that folks would have the raw land space for grows.
Legalization doesn't mean that folks would have free water for grows.
Legalization doesn't mean that folks would have the richer soil for grows.

Short and simple, there will always be folks who try to exploit public resources, or avoid taxes, for personal gain.

[Threedifferentones]

13. Ummmm

Where is the story about the rash of illegal grain fields for black market distilleries? What a joke, bootleg alcohol is TINY compared to weed growing, and the reason is that one is legal while the other is not.

[Robb]

16. The point remains.

Whether it's cattle, lumber, firewoood, poaching wildlife, or making meth, free public land is always cheaper than private land you have to pay for.

[tridim]

18. All I'm saying is that there is currently no opportunity to set up a legal..

organic, renewable, responsible large scale grows. Legalization would solve that.

Hell, I could run the farm. I'd be so kind to the land it would probably make you puke.

[boppers]

20. Crop theft might be a problem in that case....

Most of the legal growers I know who do small concealed grows aren't concealing it because of the feds... but because a huge field of a highly profitable crop is harder to protect.

Of course, if there were *enough* huge grows, it'd be like stealing weeds from the side of the road, but the profit motivation would then collapse... not that that's really a universally bad thing (unless you're a grower).

Oh, and "good on ya" for your farming skills. It's rare to find land enhancers, rather than land exploiters, these days.

[WhiteTara]

21. I totally agree.

Agriculture needs to be on agricultural lands, or backyards; but, not national forests. In CA it seems possible to legalize and tax. That would be a great step for humankind.

[Therellas]

5. Mexicans and Rat Poison Huh?

meanwhile General Electric and Coal Companies remain unscathed.lol
fail

[David Zephyr]

6. This is why pot needs to be legalized. Take the criminal element out of it.

These clandestine pot gardens have caused a lot of grief, loss of life and and massacred wildlife due to fires set by those camping and tending the plants.

Legalize pot. End the "war on drugs". Take the criminal profit out of it and allow citizens to grow pot at their homes.

Problem solved.

[here_is_to_hope]

8. Its funny, I am 150 miles from

a bit of this activity and we never see any of that forest grown type stuff here.
Everything here is local.
Its them city folk...:evilgrin:

[lawrencefox]

9. foolish failed war on drugs

I wonder if you took all that pot and just buried it on top of Nancy Regan......... that overzealous bitch did more to demonize simple cannabis then the entire Nixon administration combined.

bury all that dank trim right on top of the old bitch as retribution for the millions of wasted prison hours she pilfered from our citizens.

care for a little weed Nancy.............dump

[Vidar]

12. But the US is all about stupid useless wars.

[eppur_se_muova]

11. Huge jump in CA law enforcement sick days.

:smoke:


Dude -- you want us to bust *another* grower? We still haven't use- uh, processed all the evidence from the last one!


(C.A.M.P.?? For real?)

[AngryAmish]

14. If it is legalized then you would not have the problems with foresst grows

You want good, plentiful and cheap pot? Wait until midwest farmers start growing it. And the land grant universities studying how-to.

[OnionPatch]

15. How long will the insanity continue?

How long will we keep sinking our money and resources into this ridiculous, archaic prohibition?!! Everyone smokes pot! Or at least everyone's brother smokes pot. Get over it and make it legal.

People talk about the income gained from taxing pot and talk about the law enforcement resources that are wasted every year on pot arrests. But I don't hear them touch on another aspect of pot prohibition--That is the loss of support for local law enforcement that occurs when pot smokers are treated like criminals. Most pot smokers are otherwise law-abiding, decent people who would normally provide support for law enforcement. But it's a little hard to feel supportive toward the local police when you know they'd lock you up in a second for a ridiculous prohibition.

[sofa king]

17. In this case, the insanity will continue as long as it's illegal.

What this campaign specifically targets is marijuana growing on public land. Growing on public land is definitely not cool, because it deliberately disturbs the environment and almost certainly takes away space and critical nutrients required by that ecosystem. Without regulations, growers have the easy choice of bumping up their use of fertilizer and pesticides, and landscaping and water diversion.

If, on the other hand, California takes the lead in legal marijuana production, those growing for purposes of illegal distribution will have to deal with higher risk, higher growing and distribution costs, increased focus of law enforcement on public land, and lower quality compared to the legal stuff.

[slackmaster]

19. Well they dug and they burned 'n they burned and they dug, and they killed all our cute little weeds

Then they drove away.

And we just smiled and waved, settin' on that sack o' seeds.

[Flaneur]

22. It's a jobs program for cops. Otherwise, no impact on anything.

Anybody notice any pot price increases this fall? I didn't think so.