Drug czar calls marijuana growers "dangerous terrorists"

[stressfulreality]

-------------------------------------------------------------------

The nation's top anti-drug official said people need to overcome their "reefer blindness" and see that illicit marijuana gardens are a terrorist threat to the public's health and safety, as well as to the environment.

John P. Walters, President Bush's drug czar, said the people who plant and tend the gardens are terrorists who wouldn't hesitate to help other terrorists get into the country with the aim of causing mass casualties. Walters made the comments at a Thursday press conference that provided an update on the "Operation Alesia" marijuana-eradication effort.

"Don't buy drugs. They fund violence and terror," he said.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.redding.com/news/2007/jul/13/drug-czar-gives-warning/

this is pure bull biscuits!
i mean really, do you guys believe this?

[Vincardog]

1. Illegal drugs fund violence and terror. They corrupt police and politicians

That is why they should be legal and taxed.

[tridim]

2. I'm picturing my friend, the most mild mannered, non-violent person I've ever met..

He loves his wife, he works full time in advertising, he pays his taxes, and he grows Cannabis in his basement as a hobby.

John P. Walters thinks he's a freaking TERRORIST!?

Gawd, when will this bullshit end?


Edit: Holy crap, I just read the rest of the article with my jaw on the table. That's MUCH worse than Reefer Madness era propaganda. This man should be impeached for what he said.

[stressfulreality]

13. isn't it scary how our elected officials are lunatics?!

scary i tells ya!

[stressfulreality]

14. IMO - if there were more stoners and less drunks...

there would be less domestic violence.
less drunk driving.
and if there were stoners instead of meth heads\coke heads
there would be less stealing...
less skinny people...

[Whoa_Nelly]

3. Ooga-Booga!

Did I scare you?

Personally, I think this is more the face of an American Terrorist!

[cynatnite]

4. Growing pot is harming the environment?

I've never heard that argument before. I didn't know they cared about the environment.

I do remember the commercials showing that buying drugs supposedly supported the terrorists, but they quit after a very short time. Figured they gave up on that sort of reasoning.

[pinniped]

11. Ya, ever heard about illegal growing operations on public land?

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/27/SPGIMKQ0ED1.DTL&hw=marijuana+forest&sn=005&sc=381

Wildlife the victim of growing Bay Area marijuana business

<<--"At these gardens, we've found dead animals and birds, ammonia sulfate, pesticides and herbicides, ponds and creeks lined with plastics, and garbage all over the place," he said. "The environmental damage is huge."

The public has been warned about the potential danger of wandering into an illegal marijuana garden at parks and national forests. But it is fish, wildlife and habitat that are being butchered, Ferry said.

"They start killing them, birds, deer, whatever comes in," Ferry said. The outlaws kill them, he said, to keep wildlife from eating the crop. -->>

<<--"We find ammo at every grove," Ferry said. "At one camp (at Coe State Park), we found a four-point rack, blacktail deer that they poached. At another camp, we found these two water lines, you know, black plastic pipe, coming out of a plastic-lined pond that ran two miles to the grove, and you know that creek has been damaged."-->>

-----------------------------------------------------------------
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/06/MNG77L01HA1.DTL

Pot farms ravaging park land
Big raid in Marin County hints at the extent of damaging techniques by growers

The discovery of 22,740 marijuana plants growing in and around Point Reyes National Seashore last week wasn't only the biggest pot seizure ever made in Marin County. It was an environmental mess that will take several months and tens of thousands of dollars to clean up.

The crops seized on the steep hillsides overlooking Highway 1 were planted by sophisticated growers who cleared vegetation, terraced land, drew water from streams through miles of irrigation hoses and doused acres of land with hundreds of pounds of fertilizer and pesticides.

<<--Irrigation hoses as long as a mile each drew water from pools dug into the ground and fed by the springs and streams that course through the Tomales Bay watershed. The steep hillsides have been terraced, much like a vineyard, and are dotted with hundreds of deep holes that held as many as four marijuana plants apiece. The land is littered with empty 50-pound bags of fertilizer and gallon jugs of pesticide.-->>
<<--
Over the course of six weeks during the winter of 2005 and 2006, park rangers hauled almost 5 tons of trash and debris out of the park, removed 13 miles of irrigation hose, and repaired deep cuts and terraces made to 35 hillsides, Demetry said. Empty bags and bottles revealed the growers used at least 8,031 pounds of fertilizer, 15 pounds of rodenticide and 7.6 gallons of pesticide. An additional 80 grow sites still must be repaired.-->>
----------------------------------------------------------
Unless these articles are total BS, there can be little doubt growing this stuff in this manner fucks up the environment.

[tridim]

12. None of that would happen if Cannabis were legal

Any bad environmental effects of a stealth outdoor grow are a direct result of the WOD.

[opihimoimoi]

5. Thats talk from an ICEHEAD and/or Crack Cocaine addict......he is prolly a pervie too.

[Jim Warren]

6. Threat to big Pharma more like it nt

[Mnpaul]

7. Send Jesse V.

He will shut up this little turd

http://pot.tv/archive/shows/pottvshowse-2365.html

[WindRavenX]

8. stoners only "terrorize" dorritos and ben and jerry's

and by "terrorize" I mean "eat".

And now I'm hungry.

[piesRsquare]

9. Sorry to break it to you...

...but it's true. A bit exaggerated, but true.

Here in California, patches of forest areas have been burned or cut down and replaced with illicit MJ gardens (fields is more like it) and the places turned into highly dangerous areas. Parts of Los Angeles National Forest are a mess, turned into a war-zone, and hikers are advised to stay away, as people have gone missing from the area.

Near my sister's place in Castro Valley, there was a woodsy area that was once a wonderful place to hike; my sister told me it's now considered an extremely dangerous area because of illicit MJ growers. Lots of trees cut down, too. Friends of hers (possibly friends of friends?) went for a hike in the area and came across guys with big guns (i.e. military-style rifles).

I dated a former soldier (American) who served in a combat role in Guatemala; he told me what goes on down there. Forests cleared, mass murders, you name it. It's horrible.

My sister and this person I dated are Liberals (I met the guy through Smirking Chimp). Heck, my sister used to smoke pot.

Sorry, but the business of MJ growing is not all peace and love. If you grow your own at your house, fine. But the stuff being sold on the street is coming from places described above. And the strongest argument for legalization of marijuana is that this violence--toward people and the environment--will end.

[ninkasi]

10. All of the horror stories about marijuana

seem to stem from the fact that it's illegal. If it were legal, there would be no more killing, or other consequences. The "war zones" created by growers protecting their crops would not exist if people could grow marijuana legally.

Make it legal, tax it, and stop sending hundreds of thousands to prison, sucking up taxpayer dollars, and gain revenue through the taxes. Treat it like alcohol, penalties for driving under the influence, sales to minors, things like that.

It would also save a lot of money for some people suffering from medical conditions which are eased by smoking weed. Privatized prisons for profit, and big drug companies are the ones who have an interest in making what Mother Nature has provided for us be illegal. The liquor industry isn't thrilled by having it legal, either.

Our irrational phobia about marijuana is something that I've never been able to understand. Tobacco and booze are much more harmful, but they're both legal.