“The marijuana patches don’t bother me, but I don’t like the shootouts.”
The cost of pointless marijuana eradication efforts in California went up Wednesday when sheriff’s deputies shot and killed an unidentified man while hiking around in the woods looking for clandestine grow sites.
It is currently unknown whether this man was involved in marijuana cultivation, whether he was armed or fired at deputies, or even if there was any marijuana found nearby. Authorities are being typically tight-lipped about the entire incident.
What is known, beyond any doubt, is that eradication efforts are a complete failure, despite a huge fiscal and human cost. [Read more →]
July 22, 2010 26 Comments
Prohibitionists Hold Anti-Reform Campaign Event on Public Dime
Law enforcement officials from all over the nation have descended upon San Diego, California this week to attend a conference for the National Marijuana Initiative (NMI) and the California Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP). We’ve been pointing out the futility of marijuana “eradication” campaigns like CAMP and NMI for years but don’t expect conference attendees to spend any time rethinking their failed prohibitionist policies while enjoying their stay in sunny San Diego.
The agenda for the publicly funded conference, held at the prestigious U.S. Grant Hotel from May 10 through May 13, is not available to the public. In fact, the conference is under the close guard of about a dozen San Diego Police officers and even some military personnel.
We do know that former U.S. Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey was a featured speaker. According to his press release, McCaffrey laid out talking points against California’s Tax Cannabis 2010 initiative. That’s right, your tax dollars are essentially being used to hold an anti-reform campaign rally behind closed doors.
There’s also no doubt that conference attendees are patting themselves on the back for their work in the largest and most expensive weed abatement project of all time. Since 2003, CAMP’s marijuana plant seizures have grown by 500% but nevertheless have had no effect on marijuana’s availability or cost, which has actually decreased slightly since CAMP’s inception in 1983. Programs like CAMP are actually making matters worse by driving illegal marijuana operations deeper into harder-to-reach and environmentally sensitive areas on our public lands.
May 11, 2010 25 Comments
The Marijuana “Eradication” Fiasco
As summer nears its end, marijuana “eradication” efforts are in high gear – and nowhere more so than in California, whose effort is called the “Campaign Against Marijuana Planting” – CAMP for short.
And as usual, the news is filled with stories of CAMP raids like this one, in which whopping numbers of marijuana plants are seized. These are habitually accompanied by breathless tales of criminal gangs despoiling forests and wilderness areas with their marijuana growing operations.
Missing from these reports is any recognition of the evidence that CAMP actually makes these problems worse. Maybe that’s because stories like this one from CNN and this one from the New York Times quote only government sources. [Read more →]
September 3, 2009 46 Comments
Here we go again…
It’s already that time of the year again: CAMP season — when law enforcement agents, donned in paramilitary gear, set out on the hunt for marijuana in the California wilderness. And prohibitionists are already touting massive plant seizures as a victory for their cause.
Over the past decade, CAMP (Campaign Against Marijuana Planting) seizures have increased by 2,000 percent but marijuana use and availability have remained relatively stable. And besides being futile, this “eradication” program actually drives illegal marijuana farms further into hard-to-find wilderness areas that are the most ecologically sensitive. [Read more →]
July 28, 2009 54 Comments
Try Not to Laugh
I think drug czar John Walters has really lost it this time. Here he is, comically grim faced, chiding Hollywood for playing marijuana for laughs. Apparently, the nation’s top drug policy expert believes adults not only can’t be trusted to use marijuana responsibly, they also can’t be trusted to view material that depicts marijuana users as anything but the deranged hedonists who so clearly haunt his nightmares.
By the way, I’ll be on CNN’s “Showbiz Tonight” at 11 p.m. Eastern this evening talking about how popular culture’s take on marijuana has evolved. Just don’t expect me to be as funny as Mr. Walters.
August 8, 2008 4 Comments
